Tag: drawing therapy

Julie

This is turning into a very stressful week, mainly due to my father being unwell and in hospital. At times like these drawing and painting are the best therapy. These are the times when it is, of course, hardest to find the time to just stop, sit and draw. It can seem the least important thing to do when there are one hundred and one other demands on your time. But I know that, for me, it’s the most important thing to do.

I have chronic and persistent migraine, which means that I have migraines on between 15 and 25 days in any month. Of course I woke up with one today and have been nauseous and vomiting on and off all day. I know this is stress-related and the best couple of hours I’ve had all day have been those I spent drawing this portrait. I know that taking some time out to draw increases the chances that I will have a migraine-free day tomorrow.

Thank you to Julie from the Museum by Sktchy app for being the muse for my portrait today which was made with watercolour and coloured pencils in a Fabriano Venezia sketchbook.

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Cuervo

I got to spend a couple of hours with my watercolours and coloured pencils drawing and painting Cuervo from the Museum by Sktchy app. I’ve got a migraine today but I find drawing for an hour or two helps me to focus and forget the pain, at least for a little while, so long as I have enough natural light to work by (I can’t cope with artificial light or too bright natural light).

Siobhan

I’m on three different hospital pathways for fairly serious treatments at the moment and it’s all getting a bit overwhelming. I needed to get “good” blood pressure readings today to send to one of the hospitals and my anxiety was so high the ones I was getting this morning really weren’t good, so I did some drawing – and after a couple of hours my BP had reduced from high to normal and I was feeling so much better. Thanks to Siobhan and the Museum by Sktchy app for the free therapy.

Éryka

Last year when I was struggling with the first Covid lockdown in the UK I had some behavioural activation therapy (a form of cognitive behavioural therapy or CBT). The most important lesson I learned from that therapy was not to wait to feel motivated to do the things that help me to relax or lift my mood, but to schedule these things in every day and do them no matter how unmotivated I’m feeling. Right now I really don’t feel motivated to draw but I’m doing my best to do it every day regardless. I don’t always manage it, but I’m trying my best and when I do pull off a good hour or two of drawing I feel so much better for it.

Today I drew a full portrait of Éryka from Sktchy with Copic markers and Prismacolor coloured pencils. It’s a good likeness and completing it lifted my mood and makes me want to draw another one tomorrow.