2023/05/08 The 1st Intervention happened!

Site Interoduction

After a day of rain on coronation day, I changed my workshop location to my friend’s home. Fortunately, occupations allow me to host the event there. Therefore, my art therapy workshop started at a private residence on 7th May at 2 PM. Due to the particularity of the site, the audience from fifteen reduces to nine people, including my reviewers from my early research, my colleagues from CSM, and my friends who live or study in the UK.

A large table with seating for 8 people in the lounge.
The site has a cosy and delight atmosphere.
I have prepared the painting materials.
Different styles precedents
Event posters and colour wheel

Activity Photos

At the start, I invited the audience to play a small game. I drew different colour bubbles on a piece of paper and asked them to use their understanding to define the emotion of colours. This game can help participants explore and express their emotions and can also help them understand the changes and reasons behind their emotions.

Most of them are not skilful painters, so I want to lead them to draw “emotion”, also called “drawing imagery”, Individuals begin to draw imagery, using elements such as colour, line, and shape to express their emotions and feelings. During the drawing process, individuals should aim to express themselves as freely and relaxed as possible without being overly concerned with artistic technique or appearance.

Different emotional bubbles
After the game, they start to draw the self-portrait.
I ask them, thinking about what the image looks like about 5 minutes before the start.
During drawing, the whole process takes 30 minutes. The drawing factors include themself, the last dishes they took, and emotional colours.
A little presentation for everyone after finished.
Share the food story, meanwhile, they also share the current situation, and life experiences,
After the first round, everyone sat in pairs, had 10 minutes chat based on their stories and understanding, and started to draw each other.
We can see a vast difference between the two paintings. In their partner’s eyes, the person looks more colourful, more soft with respect and love.
Everyone was surprise and loved the results.
They want to keep both painting.
And looking forward to the next session.
They feel relief and happier after the workshop.

Gallery

Arielle/CSM MA/ the left is “After”, and the right is “Before”. Pair with Abi.
Abi/Designer/ the left is “After”, and the right is “Before”. Pair with Arielle.
Ruth/Teaching Assistant/ the left is “After”, and the right is “Before”. Pair with Cleo.
Cleo/RCA MA/ the left is “After”, and the right is “Before”. Pair with Ruth.
Zoey/UAL MA/ the left is “Before”, and the right is “After”. Pair with Ye.
Ye/Blog Creative/ the left is “Before”, and the right is “After”. Pair with Zoey.
Ciara/UCL MA/ the left is “After”, and the right is “Before”. Pair with Amber.
Amber/Designer/ the left is “Before”, and the right is “After”. Pair with Ciara.
Leona/UAL MA/The painting is “Before” Leona left early because of a school assignment.

Me during the Workshop

Feedback

Abi: I really enjoyed the workshop and it would have been nice to have a theme for the second portrait session. Airelle and I discussed our favourite plants – hydrangeas – and our comfort food, and then put these elements into the painting.

Amber: This workshop was so much fun, I would like to take part in the next one. Maybe next time you could change the order a bit and have someone else draw a companion first and then yourself. The result could be very different!

Ruth: I enjoyed the event, and it would make it a bit smoother if next time you taught some basic drawing techniques first.

Cloe: I love these examples you have posted on the wall, they help us a lot, but you could look for more styles of portraits that would be better.

Ciara: I love art! This event helped me to free my brain from intensive exams and give it a rest. I’ll invite my friends back for this workshop next time!

In summary, everyone enjoyed the event and gave me positive comments, which I felt appreciated.

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