The self-portrait is a simple art therapy idea that can reveal a lot about a person. The basic idea with this type of art therapy is that the person communicates, through art, how he or she sees him or herself.
This can be as wide open or limited as you choose. Whether you want to set limitations around this idea is totally up to you. One idea for limiting this type of art is by providing a boundary around how the person relates themselves to the rest of the world. What would you like to be remembered for? How do you think others see you? What are your best qualities? Specific questions are good ways of narrowing the focus of a self-portrait.You can create a variety of self-portraits that paint an overall picture.
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I feel honored to put your site on Modus Vivendi bloroll.
Please look at our self-portraits.
Where can we find the self-portraits?
I tend to never quite look like me in any of my self-portraits. Alot of people find this interesting. It’s almost like a different version of myself everytime.
Love your site.
I enlarge photos of faces and trace them onto watercolor paper to get a more accurate representation of a person’s face (my own, too). Then I use watercolors to paint the faces (often purples and blues and yellows on the face itself, and other contrasting colors for hair, etc.) Each portrait says more about the person than I can express in words as a therapist, so I am able to engage my subconscious in this process and SEE how I experience the person on deeper levels.
I’m new to this site and am inspired by what I see. As an art therapist, I used mandalas several years ago with a grp. of women survivors of sexual violence. It was very powerful and I haven’t used it since, but now I am inspired to go big and create a garden mandala with youth in a mental health program. thanks.