Sometimes people ask, can you analyze art? The answer is yes, and so today we'll
dive into how you can analyze your own artwork by using an art therapy approach
that will change how you look and approach your artwork.
First, what does analyzing mean? So these are some of the definitions that I found
from the dictionary and basically analyzing means to understand and learn
about yourself more and make sense of things. So if you want to understand
yourself more and learn about yourself, please keep on watching. Before we get
into the analyzing part I just want to say that what we're going to do today is
different from a formal psychological assessment that is done by
professionally trained art therapists. That kind of assessment requires much
more thorough training and background and skills and tools, and knowledge and
it's a very methodical approach so that is very different from what we are
covering today and it's not the scope of one video. But what we ARE doing today is
using strategic questions to approach your artwork in a way that will reveal
and allow you to find more meaning in your own artwork instead of just saying
"that's colors, shapes, and lines." So remember, one thing is, don't analyze other
people's artworks - so use this to analyze your own artwork and find more meaning
and also understand that the meaning that you derive from your own artwork by
analyzing it can be different, can change in the future depending on the situation
and the timing that you look at your artwork. Things can change because the
meaning that you find in your own artwork derives from you, yourself, the
creator and whatever you think and whatever you feel is the meaning that
you get out of it so it will differ and it's not a way to label and judge
ourselves so use this as a starting point to explore more about your artwork
and more about yourself instead of pigeon-holing yourself, categorizing
yourself, labeling, or judging yourself. So let's get started with the analyzing
part. Here are the ways that you can analyze your own artwork whether it is
abstract or realistic. You can use these questions to ask yourself and ask about
your artwork in order to find more meaning in it. So the first question to
ask is - what are the feeling words that come to your mind when you look at your
own artwork? That might be emotional words like sadness or happiness or
frustration or confusion. It can be one or more feeling words. The second
question is - what are the sensation words, the physical sensation words, that you
think of when you look at your artwork? So this could be feeling hot, may be
feeling cold, feeling claustrophobic, so what are the physical sensation words
that come to your mind? And the third question is - does the artwork make you
think of something in particular? So that could be an event
that happened in your life, a situation, a person, another artwork like a poem or a
painting, or a flower... what person, object, place, anything. So what are some of the
things that come to your mind when you look at your artwork? And when you have
the answers to these three questions you can ask yourself what does this all mean
to you? All these answers mean to you? How do these answers relate to your own life
and what meaning do you make out of this? And you can ask this question after you
answer all the following prompts that I'm gonna share with you in a moment. So some
of the other prompts that you can do to help you analyze your own artwork is to
ask the question, "what is odd in the picture?" When you identify what is odd in your
picture this is going to help you get an idea of what is a problem or an issue
that has not been solved or has not even been noticed yet or addressed yet and so
that is something that you want to explore further. The next prompt is to
notice the sizes of objects or people or things inside the artwork that you've
made. So the sizes most likely indicate the importance of that object or person.
If something is too large for the scale in the picture then it could mean that it is
especially important for that person, it has a lot of meaning for that person. And
if the object is particularly small in comparison to the other objects in the
drawing it could mean that it is de-emphasized and it is devalued most likely. So
another point is to notice what is central in your picture. What is in the
main part of the picture, the center of the picture? And this usually indicates
what is at the crux of who you are or the issue that you're exploring or what
is in your mind. What is at the core of it all? So by doing this prompt and
noticing what's at the center or in the central part of the picture and you can
explore the issue or problem or the core right away without going in circles. And
the next prompt is to notice what is the perspective of this drawing. And this is
especially applicable for landscape drawings or drawings or paintings or
images that show a space. So you might notice at what level the picture
is at - is it a bird's level point of view or is it worm's-eye or is it just a
regular point of view from the side? If there is any inconsistency between
some of the objects in terms of their perspective - so let's say the lake is
from a side point of view but maybe some other people or the artists around that
lake are from a bird's eye point of view. Then if you notice any inconsistencies
in the perspectives it means that there might be some inconsistencies in life in
general so that is something that you might want to explore further when you
look at your artwork and reflect on what's going on in your life. And the
final part is to notice what it would feel like if you became an object inside
that picture. So let's say the picture is a bird in a landscape. If you became that
bird what would you feel, hear, or see around you and notice around you if you
were that bird? And by doing this prompt you can learn a lot about what the
picture is giving off of in terms of energy, in terms of feeling, and what
subconscious thoughts and emotions are behind some of the different aspects
inside the picture (and in your subconscious) so this is another way to really dive deeper into your out
work instead of just looking at the superficial level. And so remember when
you have answered all these questions and done these prompts in order for you
to approach to our work in an analytical way, remember to ask yourself, what do
all these answers mean to me in a personal way? How does it relate to your
life in some way? And this is an answer that only you can answer for yourself
when you look at your own artwork because we all we are doing today here
is really learning more about what's going on in your life
what's going on in yourself subconsciously and some of the things like
emotions and feelings and thoughts that are coming up that are not being
addressed or explored in your conscious life so this is really a way to
understand yourself more rather than kind of judging ourselves and putting
labels on ourselves. We cannot really know what's really going on in someone's
life or in someone's brain by looking at their one artwork and art therapists
don't just interpret artwork by using cookie cutter recipes since each person
is unique. In art therapy it's really more about the relationship between the
artwork, the artist/the client, and the art therapist. What are some of the things
that you have found or learned about yourself from your own artwork? I would
like to know so please make a comment below and if you have any questions
about analyzing your artwork or what art therapists do please leave a comment
below as well. Thank you so much for watching, I hope you enjoyed this. I'll
talk to you next time, bye.