Art as a Relaxation Technique

We all come to moments when exhaustion and the feeling of being completely overwhelmed are bigger than anything. We want to be able to relax and regain our senses, but if a way to do that hasn’t been presented to us, it can be hard to think one up. For some people, a way to relax is through meditation, petting an animal, for some through watching TV, or it can be listening to music, even cleaning, or physical exercise, a walk in nature, intentional photography, or through being creative. Let’s talk about how art can help you relax!

WHY ART

If you consider yourself an artist, you already know how soothing it can be to sit down to your artwork and get to it. If you are not an artist, but are considering art, let me explain what creating art does to a person.

1. It stops your thoughts – that’s right. Somehow, when your mind is overwhelmed with bunches of thoughts, drawing stops the thinking process. Your brain focuses on the hand-eye coordination and not on solving other problems, which is very freeing and very relaxing.

2. You can intake information better – because of how creating art stops thought production, it helps you to listen and take new information in without mixing it up with other thoughts. Drawing can be a good tool during study time! (Any time I had a hard time in class, I would doodle and voila – I understood what the teacher was saying much better!) You can also listen to your favorite motivational speaker or to your pastor’s sermon. (that is if you are at home or in your studio and listening to a podcast.) If you’re actually sitting in church, I suggest only loose doodling during which you still take notes, or illustrating what the sermon is about. If all you do is draw an unrelated art piece but have nothing to show that you were listening, it will be hard to persuade anyone that you were actually paying attention!

3. You actually get a final product – oh yes! Relaxing through art has this one cool benefit, and that is a physical product in the end. Not only did you rest, but you created something you can look at and feel good about (or even sell if you sell your art).

So in summary: Art is good for your mind, for your growth, and for your portfolio!

I love that this can be such a productive way to relax. Don’t you?

HOW TO RELAX DOING ART

Now, it’s important to understand that in order to ensure relaxation during art creation, you have to select the right theme and medium for yourself. It is very possible to pick wrongly and you won’t rest at all. All artists know that there are times when art is very frustrating and it’s automatically relaxing just because it’s art.

When you want to use art for relaxation, you have to think about the What and How, and not necessarily about the final product. If you think about what you want your art piece to look like in the end too much, you might fail at the result and at the relaxing both. But if you think about what you like to draw, regardless of anything else, and how you like to draw it, you’ve got it. So even if you feel like it would be awesome to give oil paints a try and paint a magnificent portrait, if you haven’t used oils and painted people before, it just might not be the right choice. But if you like to use markers and like to draw flowers, then that’s what you should be doing. Now if you really want a product as well, maybe you can draw on cardstock cards instead of a sheet of lined paper, and you can turn them into greetings cards for your friends. Does that make sense?  

RELAXING DURING SICKNESS

I’ll share why I decided to even write about this. Our week has been quite tough due to sicknesses again. This time everyone seemed to have something a little different, only now at the end of the week, I am treating me and my husband for the same thing. We went through the coughs, through the exhaustion, through the insomnia, and through losing our voices. (Yesterday was perhaps the most frustrating because I had a lot of work and I was trying to explain to my 5 year old why today he can’t be asking me questions because I can’t answer them because I can’t talk. Did my son take that into consideration? Nope! I grew so upset that I wanted to cry but when you lose your voice, you can’t even properly cry, so there went that, hah! Anyway, we made it through yesterday as well, and relaxing was still possible!)

Every day I felt like I had so much to do around the house and in preparation for things, but the medicine I am taking for asthma (which is making my sickness even more difficult right now) can make me shaky. And feeling shaky and dizzy and weak isn’t a good combination when you need to stand by the dishes or vacuum the floors.

So I finally decided that I should sit down and just relax for a bit. This relaxation then became a major highlight of every day this week. I turned on my favorite Jazz radio and drew and painted away! (And of course, I took some videos of that too!).

I had some success selling some of the portrait-themed ACEOs, and I decided to stick with it and paint more cards to sell on Ebay. I love portraits so this art just kind of happens for me and I love that. It’s definitely the most relaxing way of using art for my biggest benefit. I felt so relaxed and my portfolio grew. After painting each morning, I felt a little more ready to take on whatever else was in front of me! Painting videos are available for viewing here on my youtube channel.

ACEO watercolor portrait collection that keeps on growing!

Here is my Ebay shop if you want to check it out.

The three eyes that sold on ebay last week and kind of
kick-started my interested in selling ACEOs again.
A sold artwork makes one happy artist, right? ;)

Yesterday I felt I could take on something bigger than the little format, and so I pulled out a canvas board from my art closet (which is full of canvases that I generally don’t find time for) and got painting!. I used craft acrylics as that’s what I have at home, and it’s convenient that all the colors and shades are already mixed for me! (oh I still mixed a little bit!)

Work in progress.

Finished art piece. From not thinking about what I was going to paint,
she turned into a lovely Greek woman. 

Detail of her face. Still pretty rough strokes at times, but it was
a good exercise working with acrylics when I mostly use watercolors. 

I will tell you something… I do art two ways… I either do art with pre-sketching (when I’m more serious about it) and then I do art without pre-sketching (when I just don’t feel like it or want to challenge myself, which was the case here).

All of these watercolor cards and this acrylic painting are done without any prior sketching, or looking at photos.

So there is it. This is how I relax, and how many artists I know relax.

What about you? Do you use art for personal relaxation? Do you have anything to add?

Have a great weekend everyone and don’t forget to check out Paint Party Friday, where artists gather to cheer each other on!


with warm April greetings,


Kate Holloman