Help de-stressing!

You can try with some abstract or psycodelic painting using loads of colours. Or make some collage with different materials as newspapers, pictures, buttons, beads, etc. Doing this you can be very creative and the final product can be very interesting and unexpected.

I tend to get somewhat depressed at times too, and have found art in general pretty relaxing. I started by painting but found I had difficulty starting as I couldn't draw the initial features correctly (I tend to paint people so you will probably understand the difficulty). As I found drawing difficult I enrolled in evening classes to improve. It was difficult at first and I got very frustrated but just persevered and did not worry about the mess I made (I found I was not alone in class with drawing, stress or confidence issues). I was never happy with the finished product but this has now changed. It is always possible to think of improvements (even some of the old masters modified their paintings as they went along) so don't let that worry you. Now I find that I am far more confident and enjoy drawing in itself. I know that much of my work won't be brilliant but am confident enough to show it and take criticism.

I started by thinking I was not artistically talented, but more correctly was not able to express my visions. Do you think the same?

Another thing with getting stressed is to realise when that is happening. If you learn to do that then you will be able to stop and relax before getting overstressed. I know from experience that this is not easy as it is a slippery slope. Don't get stressed about getting stressed! - just shut off - think of seaside scenes, cute pets or cuddly toys or something to divert your anxiety.

Hope this helps somewhat - It has helped me.

Someone in my neighborhood gives paint workshops. I see these kind of paintings everywhere. They take a big canvas and start with a circle in the middle, then they paint some kind of arms out of the circle. It kind of looks like this star-thing-universe but less universe-like. They use bright colours; red, pink, blue, green, purple etc. No blacks and greys. Unfortunately I cannot find a picture of a painting that looks fimiliar, it's kind of hard to explain how it really looks like. I hope this helped though. Good luck.

Thanks guys, you're all really helpful. I'm glad people can empathise too, as it's quite hard to explain it all. A class would be really helpful I think. To get out of the house and meet people as well as learn a skill

Here, I just drew this up real quick as an example so it's kinda shaky, but what I do is draw one squiggly line (Like at the right) and then another line somewhere else. Then I draw lines parallel to those lines. I left one part undone so you could see the first line. You can either have the lines touch each other like at the left, or not touch each other like at the top. I used to do these all the time. I've suffered from depression for a long time, and this is one of the things I would do. I'm thinking I should do one really nice and really take the time to make it look good and frame it, because once the whole page is covered it looks really cool...

Thank that's awesome Sorry it took a while to reply and give my thanks, but I couldn't see the post due to the reply box covering your comment, but all seems good now

Something I do when I'm bummed or worse and trying to art my way out and it doesn't work: I figure that I've just moved the bummedness or part of the bad vibe into the work -- and it's actually GREAT it didn't work as I planned.

Then i make a point of looking at whatever it is and finding what DID work and try it again, However, I won't restart anything > 3 times. As 3 is a magic number.

I guess i turn the art/failure and successes (although inadequate) into a type of "spell" or ritual to help me turn it around.

Oh yeah, I only do the 3 times in one day and that's it. I won't start something else.I go read a book or ?. For an hour or four, depending on how long I was working on the project. And I work on something else. Paper or beads if I was working on fabric, go out in the garden, cook something, whatever -- don't keep doing the same thing over and over.

That's an interesting approach. I think that could work

I've recently rediscovered "zentangling" very meditative and calms my nerves. Google and pinterest have some good examples/tutorials

Zentangle helped me so much, so thank you!!!!!

Your drawing is awesome. Zentangle is really cool. I hope you are feeling better then half a year ago!

Your drawing is awesome. Zentangle is really cool. I hope you are feeling better then half a year ago!

Thank you and yes things are getting better thankfully haha.