Christina Hawker S11760026 RVJ
Keri Smith Keri Smith was my initial inspiration for wanting to do a workbook with activities or tasks. Many artists, designers, and even non-creative types have recommended her books to me, simply because they are fun, encourage readers to use their imagination, to make mistakes to experiment and try out things creatively that they may not have otherwise. Many of her “explorations” in her book “How to be an explorer of the world” are more to do with becoming more aware of yourself, your own thoughts and ideas and the spaces you inhabit and experience. In her books she often uses hand-written typography and collage which I really loved the aesthetic of, and gives her books a very personal almost hand-made feel which I would really like to incorporate into my book.
Lynda Barry I’ve had a lot of love and respect for Lynda Barry’s work for a number of years now, her style characterised by very noisy but very interesting and dense collage to accompany her comics and illustration. The pages of her books feel very hand-crafted and uninhibited, not trying to be anything that it isn’t. While her style may not appeal to everyone I would love to have a similar sort of atmosphere to my book. In her bigger books she often includes her own eclectic versions of How-to’s, her book “What It Is” focused more on writing, while “Picture This” is themed more around drawing and visual creativity. I love in these guides, that it feels that she is advising you to do tasks that obviously work for her, as she often includes her own demonstrations.
Art Therapy is a form of psychotherapy that uses art media as its primary mode of communication. Following my graduation at Birmingham City University, I plan to study towards a Masters Degree in Art Therapy, in order to become a practicing Art Therapist. My first step was to put time into researching Art Therapy, the practices used and the methods and disciplines behind it, and it felt most appropriate that for my Final Major Project I produce something that not only reflects my interest in the subject, but perhaps makes certain easy-to-grasp methods within Art Therapy accessible to people who perhaps might not be inclined otherwise to see a therapist. The three main books I used for inspiration in the kinds of activities I wanted to use in my book were “Little Windows into Art Therapy” by Deborah Schroder, “Draw on your Emotions” by Margot Sunderland & Philip Engleheart and “Explore Yourself through Art” by Vicky Barber. These are all very different books, however all involve or discuss exercises used in Art Therapy and provided me with a lot of ideas and insight into what might be appropriate and work for my project. I decided that in order to understand what sort of tasks would be best that I should try out a selection from these books and then incorporate them into my project.
TASK 1 - HELP Reflect on a time when someone else helped you, and create an image from or about that experience. Inspired by “Little Windows into Art Therapy” By Deborah Schroder Page 14
My response to TASK 1 using Ink, and Paint
I found this task interesting to do, as it forced me to think specifically about times I have trusted and relied on other people. I believe it would be an effective exercise during an Art Therapy session however I didn’t feel it was particularly fun or opened many avenues for interactivity or trying new ways of being creative, so I decided not to pursue it as a task and try out new ones instead.
TASK 2 - CRYSTAL BALL Create a crystal ball showing how you would like your life to be, if you could magically fix all your problems. Inspired by “Little Windows into Art Therapy” By Deborah Schroder Page 26 - 27
My response to TASK 2 using Ink, Collage and Paint
I found this one a lot of fun to do and felt very enthusiastic to have it in the final book, as it would be very easy to have Crystal Ball shapes to cut out or fill in, and as a task was interesting in that it forces you to think about what you really want in life and what’s actually important to you. Despite this the task never actually made the final book as other tasks I did took precedent and seemed to me to be more accessible.
TASK 3 - MANDALA Draw a mandala or large circle on a piece of white paper then draw whatever is going on inside your head this week in the circle, and whatever was going on around you at work or school or home, outside the circle. Inspired by “Little Windows into Art Therapy” By Deborah Schroder Page 31 and “Explore Yourself through Art” by Vicky Barber Page 52 - 29
My first response to TASK 2 using Indian Ink,and coloured acrylic ink
I found this task interesting to do, but very difficult, as often the line between what’s going on around you and what’s going on in your head can be blurred. I found a whole page to be a lot of space to fill and that trying to illustrate complicated feelings or emotions impossible without using text. Once I’d done some more research on this task I worried that my interpretation of the idea was incorrect and felt that it would be better to use tasks I personally felt more in tune with and would be more accessible to readers.
(Left) My second response to TASK 1 using Ink, Photo Montage and Paint (Below) Various Mandalas produced during Art Therapy sessions
TASK 4 - SCRIBBLE Closing your eyes, scribble freely on a piece of paper for 3 seconds making spontaneous marks on the page. Look at the scribble and find something recognisable in it, then using a different material complete the image. One of my responses to TASK 4 using Ink.
Inspired by “Explore Yourself through Art� By Vicky Barber Page 30 - 31
I found this task interesting, quick and very easily accessible. It instantly struck me as a good task for this book as I want my book to feel accessible to people of various levels of artistic skill. The lack of control in the initial scribble lowers the self consciousness of the mark your making, and feels very fun and playful to do. After persuading various friends and family to try this task out, I received some really great feedback for it, one friend (who is a fellow illustrator) reported that she has taken to doing a few of these before she starts work, as she found it a quick and easy way to get herself into a creative mindset. I decided to make this the very first task in the book, to ease readers in.
(Above) response to TASK 4 by Laurel Plain-Jones using markers and pencil
(Below) Another one of my response to TASK 4 using Indian Ink and coloured ink
TASK 5 - SELF PORTRAIT Draw yourself. Now draw yourself again. Draw yourself using materials that limit your control. Use ink, pastels, collage; torn and cut. Create and recreate yourself as many times and in as many different ways as you can. One of my responses to TASK 5 using Ink and a dry brush
Inspired by “Little Windows into Art Therapy� By Deborah Schroder Page 63
I loved doing this task! Most people at some point in their life have been asked to draw themselves, however I wanted to push this a bit and make the reader try to depict themselves in many different ways using a variety of materials. It was very interesting to me how different my various self portraits came out using different materials on different days.
One of my responses to TASK 5 using only dots of coloured ink
One of my responses to TASK 5 using pencil
This was an immediate winner as a task, as I felt it definitely helped me to consider more how I view my appearance.
Being forced to depict something so familiar to me, in mediums that are perhaps unfamiliar to me or outside of my immediate comfort zone really made me focus on my appearance in a way that was very uninhibited and lacking in self consciousness, which I felt was perfect for this book.
One of my responses to TASK 5 using torn collage
One of my responses to TASK 5 using cut collage
TASK 6 - MASKS Make a mask of yourself. It can be a mask you find yourself using day-to-day, or one of a specific emotion. Your mask can be a monster, or a representation of who you feel you really are or would like to be. “GRUMPY GRU” One of my responses to TASK 6
Inspired by “Little Windows into Art Therapy” By Deborah Schroder Page 14 and “Explore Yourself though Art” By Vicky Barber Page 86 - 97
The creation of these masks were a turning point in this project and really made ART-FEELS take shape. The act of making masks in itself felt very nostalgic, however proved to be a highly enjoyable activity for both adults and children that tried out this task with me. A few of the characters at first seemed like just silly faces or monsters, however became almost as caricatures of different emotions or states of mind. In a few of the cases the emotions they dealt with could have been very sensitive or painful, however the playful and uninhibited nature of the task seemed to make them very acceptable, as if ridiculing these excessive feelings normalized them and stopped them seeming something to be frightened of. All the masks were made using paint, ink and felt pens, some of them with collage. “CAT� One of my responses to TASK 6
“SLEEPY” A responses to TASK 6 by Ryan Peters, aged 26
“CONFUSED PANIC” One of my responses to TASK 6
“LOVESICK” A responses to TASK 6 by Ella Hawker, aged 10
“STARRY-EYED” One of my responses to TASK 6
“SNARKY” One of my responses to TASK 6
“DEPRESSED” One of my responses to TASK 6
TASK 7 - QUILT Using squares all of the same size create a “quilt” using different colours, textures and imagery to represent some people in your life who are very important to you. Inspired by “Little Windows into Art Therapy” By Deborah Schroder Page 46
I really loved this task and had a lot of fun trying to depict people I love in just a small square - the biggest problem being trying to make the number of people I see as most important a square number! I did find I had two problems with this task however that influenced me to omit it from the final selection for the book, the first being that I had to decide between my friends and large family and create some form of hierarchy of who was “important enough” to be on a quilt of people who are important to me or jump up to the next square number which is 16! The other problem I had was that the task can only really be performed once and felt quite narrow to me, in where you could go with it.
TASK 8 - EMOTIONS Think of different emotions that you commonly experience, both positive and negative write each one at the top of a piece of A4 paper and create images for each one. Inspired by “Explore yourself though Art� By Vicky Barber Page 50 - 51
(Left) One of my responses to TASK 8 using collage and coloured ink
One of my responses to TASK 8 using black ink
One of my responses to TASK 8 using collage and ink
One of my responses to TASK 8 using black and coloured inks
I did actually find this task quite difficult especially on the ones where I’ve only used ink. Repeating the task using collage made things feel much easier and more fun to me, and I liked the output much better. I felt this task was quite an important one to include as it does several things. Firstly it makes you focus on the emotions you feel you experience most often, which can be fairly surprising and perhaps a little harrowing. Secondly you then have to depict how that particular emotion feels to you as an individual, which I think is actually very important, especially to people who make have difficulty controlling certain emotions. Being able to depict your experience of something so personal feels quite empowering and allows you to view this experience from a more neutral standpoint.
One of my responses to TASK 8 using ink, pencil and collage
One of my responses to TASK 8 using black and coloured inks
TASK 9 - JOY Create some art about what brings you joy in life. The kind of things that get you through the week or day. Inspired by “Little Windows into Art Therapy� By Deborah Schroder Page 50
One of my responses to TASK 8 using collage and coloured ink
I found this task very easy to do, and felt it offered a good deal of flexibility in however you wanted to express the things in your life that make you happy or bring you joy. The decision to include it was a very obvious one, as unlike some of the other tasks if focuses purely on positive things, which I feel in this book is very important.
TASK 10 - LANDSCAPE Create a landscape that will show what life feels like right now. Inspired by “Little Windows into Art Therapy” By Deborah Schroder Page 49
While I found this task fairly easy to do, I didn’t feel particularly enthusiastic to do it, and it all felt a bit symbolic for me. I tried to let go and just enjoy myself in my response but didn’t feel very happy with the output, and the whole thing felt a little contrived to me, so I decided to not include it as a task in my book.
My response to TASK 10 using ink, paint and collage
TASK 11 - THOUGHTS Make a picture about what you think about. Choose a colour for each kind of thoughts you have, happy thoughts, angry thoughts etc and make marks for each kind. Have these colours interact and develop as appropriate. Inspired by “Little Windows into Art Therapy� By Deborah Schroder Page 75
One of my responses to TASK 11 using coloured ink and pencils
One of my responses to TASK 11 using coloured ink and collage
One of my responses to TASK 11 using coloured ink
I enjoyed doing this task a lot. It felt very easy to do and though images came out quite abstract looking and very different from my usual sort of illustration, doing them felt comfortable and natural. Using colours and patterns symbolically made them feel very personal and they felt satisfying to do, regardless of what sort of mood I was in. Including this task in my book was not a difficult decision at all as I feel I would happily advise everyone and anyone to try this task out. I really loved the images afterwards too, and often felt afterwards that they reminded me of visuals found in nature, such as leaves, flowers, constellations or running water.
TASK 12 - FEELINGS Draw an outline of your body. You can do this full scale, on a very very large piece of paper if you like, though I’ve found it easier to do a smaller representational outlines, which are easy to photocopy and replicate. Now think of different emotions that you commonly experience, both positive and negative. Try to use colours and patterns in the outline to illustrate how various emotions feel to you, physically and emotionally. Inspired by “Little Windows into Art Therapy” by Deborah Schroder Page 76 and “Explore Yourself through Art” by Vicky Barber Page 46 - 47
From very very rough to final attempt at drawing silhouette.
Some of my responses to TASK 12 using collage, ink and markers.
Once I had devised an outline, this task was very straightforward, and I really loved how the images came out. Having suffered from depression and anxiety in the past I’m very aware of just how physically painful emotional pain can feel, and I think it’s an important thing to understand how your body reacts to your emotions. I also thought it would be a very exciting task to use in my book, as I could provide various outlines for the reader to fill in and cut out, this sort of interaction being quite important to me.
TASK 13 - COMIC Make a photo comic of something that has happened this week. It can be about something funny, weird, awkward, emotional or none of these things. Just as long as it feels significant to you. Gather up any old toys, figurines, old Christmas decorations and picture books you may still have and assign different objects to represent yourself and any other characters. Make sets or backdrops if you like. Photograph your characters from different angles then arrange your images into panels, adding speech or narrative.
(Above) One of my responses to TASK 13.
The aim of this task especially is to draw the readers attention to their everyday interactions, so that they can view them self and their relationship with others in a way that perhaps steps outside the situation. Once again, this task is quite nostalgic, and in some ways very similar to how children play with toys, assigning roles, personalities and situations to inanimate objects and acting them out, however in this case, the situation should be one from the readers life. Using photographs to make a comic is much easier, quicker and requires far less drawing skill to achieve something that looks good, and as my target demographic for this book is not necessarily a proficient artist, I felt this was a good option. I devised this task myself, inspired by my love of indie comics, in this case especially Aranzi Aronzo who, in her book “Aranzi Machine Gun”, will often photograph home-made cuddly toys in her comics, putting them in different positions and poses.
From “Aranzi Machine Gun Vol. 2; Scary Cute!” by Aranzi Aronza
(Above) My full-comic response to TASK 13.
TASK 14 - SUPPORT This is your emotional First Aid kit. In the spaces draw or write the things and people you find yourself turning to in an emergency. Inspired by “Draw on your Emotions” by Margot Sunderland & Philip Engleheart
Here is my first attempt at designing an “Emotional First Aid kit” and I felt very eager that it should look like I’d imagine the inside of an emergency first aid kit should look like, leaving blank shapes to be filled with things that make the reader feel comforted. While I had envisioned the red allowing this medical association very clear, it looked very harsh, with the black case, so I revised my use of colour for this illustration.
I decided to make this part a double-page spread, and to use a more muted colour palette this time and I think this was successful. I kept a medical cross on one of the sides, but allowed much more room for the reader to fill in.
(Below) My final template for TASK 14.
Blog After a few weeks of doing tasks, I decided to start a blog for the projects, as a way of getting feedback and getting people involved in trying out the tasks too. It originally started as art-feels.tumblr.com, however I soon purchased art-feels.com just to simplify everything. Here I was able to archive each task I did and make the project more open to other people opinions, advice and thoughts. I was pleasantly surprised by the couple of responses I received, people submitting work and sending supportive and interested messages about the project.
Book Design Filler Pages While I planned to use many of these responses in my book, there is much more to a workbook than responses and I wanted my final product to look very good in addition to being full of fun, inspiring tasks for readers to do. I wanted my book to accommodate the readers creative process and while initially I had planned on simply providing blank pages, I decided it might be much more interesting to have a range of different textures and colours of pager to work onto.
With the majority of the pages I kept the texture subtle, just lined paper, graph paper and brown paper, however some of the pages I really wanted to include bits of collage that stood out a bit more. I also did some very basic potato printing to get some pages of repeated print using coloured inks. I also added some instructional dotted lines to the inner bound edges of the pages, so that it would be very clear what these sections are for.
I also added “Notes” pages, for where white paper might be more appropriate. I inserted these right after the instructions for a task, so that a reader could make notes or do rough little doodles before attempting the task fully, and just before the “Questions” pages, so that the reader would have somewhere to scribble their answers. For these notes pages I used hand-rendered typography with a variation of four different little illustrations, which I tried to keep both gender-neutral and also neutral in that I didn’t want them to be emoting particularly positive or negative messages. Trying to keep my book fairly neutral was very important to me because while I wanted it to be visually exciting and interesting, I also felt very aware that in order to be successful, the reader would have to project their own style, personality, thoughts and feelings onto the pages, so I had to keep things clean.
Book Design Mini Tasks I anticipated being able to include more of these in the book, however time and expense meant that in the end I only manages to get two doublepage spreads in, however I felt happy with how they came out. They both look very different in layout to the tasks, and were intended to move and interact with the reader outside of the tasks, and to give them ideas that perhaps weren’t strictly about making art. I felt anxious that my book didn’t promote the any sort of narrow, 1-dimensional idea of creativity, and wanted to encourage readers to find joy by expressing themselves in a range of different mediums and ways.
Book Design Typography
(Above) Some of my experimentations with ink and typewriters.
From “Picture This” by Lynda Barry
Front cover of “Wreck This Journal” by Keri Smith
I knew from the get-go that like both Linda Barry and Keri Smith I wanted to use hand rendered typography and to do as many things in my book by hand as I could. I started simply planning to simply write my titles in drawing ink. Lynda Barry also uses a typewriter for bits of text in her work, which I’ve really wanted to try for a while. I bought a typewriter and tried typing on some scrap paper I had lying about and really liked the how the text looked on squared paper. I tried mocking up some instructions to the task “Scribble”. While I liked the effect, I worried the marked paper might make the instructions hard to read or understand. Also I realised that the title “SCRIBBLE” would need a bit more punch.
I felt the most successful part of the mock up was the instruction numbers, which were immediately striking. I cleaned everything up and tried using the same method of making the instruction numbers, for “SCRIBBLE”, cutting each letter out of a different kind of patterned or coloured piece of scrap paper or photograph. I typed up my instructions on to clean white squared paper, which I felt was much easier to read while retaining the aesthetic I had originally wanted for the page. I also decided to include a QR code to link to the blog page appropriate to that task. I felt this way I could allow the reader to see my approach, without it being right in their face before they’ve even started the task.
A QR Code is a matrix barcode (or two-dimensional code), readable by QR scanners, mobile phones with a camera, and smartphones. They have recently been used a lot in advertising as they allow whoever wants more information to access it immediately and easily.
I used a lot of handwritten typography for the “TASKS� page, which works as a contents page for all the tasks. I removed the task numbers for the book, as it wasn’t particularly important to me (as stated in the introduction of my book) in contrast to people feeling free to use my book however they like.
It was however important to me that there was some form of structure to the book and so I added page numbers, so the book could be easily navigated.
(Above) A sample of the handwritten (or cut) typography used in the final book.
(Right) A sample of the digital fonts I used in the book. The most commonly used would be ‘Benchnine’ and ‘Chalkduster’.
Book Design Binding and finishing.
It was very important to me that there was a strong “sketchbook� feel to my book, and it was important to me that readers would feel they could happily tear out pages, cut them up and do as they please, so I made my book to be spiral bound. I really loved the overall effect of this, however would have loved to find a way to bind it with a very heavy card cover, however this was something I had to negotiate on, and in the end had to settle on a 250gsm cover with an extra layer of protective acetate over it.
Book Design Fold-out pages In some of the tasks, such as “FEELINGS� I wanted to give the reader to work in more detail, and so made some A3 fold out pages.
How Pages 39- 42 worked in the final book
Here was how I initially planned out my demonstration of the “COMICS� task, however it felt quite cramped.
How Page 56 worked in the final book.
Book Design Cover I experimented a little with spray paint and eventually chose this design. The worry with using spray paint is that people might mistake the medium for the message, and assume it’s a book more to do with spraypaint and street art than Art Therapy, however I feel that this design did work.
Final Product
Overall I feel the product of this project was very successful. I set out to produce a workbook with a variety of tasks that is accessible to creative and non-creative types, that is easy to understand and tasks that can produce a variety of results and can be done multiple times without becoming stale. I have designed this to be used in a classroom or Group Therapy situation and as such, have approached organizations in the industry with advanced copies, two of which, St Martins (a Birmingham counseling service) and Art Space (an art workshop for adult learners) have invited me to use my tasks to host Art Therapy workshops with their service users. One of my main aims when starting this project was that I would produce a visually exciting book, which I think I managed to accomplish while keeping most of the book looking bright, clean and easy to understand. I feel like the project has really pushed my view on my own creative process and helped me to understand a bit more about how I approach tasks. I also feel that it has challenged my application of design where I have had to constantly balance how I wanted this book to look and how I wanted the book to work.
The only major change I’d make if time, distance and money were not an option, the book would have a hard cover. While the paper was heavy and uncoated, in retrospect, I would have liked to try printing it on recycled paper, perhaps with more of a grain if possible. I had also considered printing the “MASK” photographs in glossy paper, however time and cost were once more an issue, though it is not something I wouldn’t consider doing in the future. Because printing 116 pages, double sided in colour proved to be fairly expensive (Around £60 per book) I felt a little disappointed, as I can imagine this seriously impairing someones desire to really use the book properly, feeling free to tear out page, draw on them, cut them up and in other ways making it their own. I am considering for the future creating a revised, more cost effective version of ART-FEELS, with only task pages and mini task pages in. Hand binding is also an option I’ve considered, in order to make the book more affordable.