Author and therapeutic play practitioner Amanda Seyderhelm shares her 4 tips for using colour to express emotions and create a personal visual language for yourself.
I work as a therapeutic play practitioner for children with emotional difficulties. Most of my clients are referred to me with the same problem: they want to improve their self-esteem so they can express themselves clearly. For this to happen, it is essential we learn to recognise and understand our feelings.
You have probably heard such common phrases as, 'feeling blue', 'red with rage', 'green with envy', 'white as a sheet'. The meanings we give colours are collected through cultural influences. However, I find that colour coding feelings is a personal and unique experience, and one which I encourage my clients and their parents to find for themselves through expressive painting.
Expressive painting bypasses our left-brain and inner critic, and allows us to tap directly into our natural creative state, so we can discover a rich source of images, colours and ideas, and release our emotions.
In this article, I'm going to give you my 4 top tips for using colour to express your emotions, and create a personal visual language for yourself, which will help you to understand how colour reflects your emotional self.
Tip no. 1: know the common colour associations
Red - birth, blood, fire, emotions, warmth, love, passion, wounds, anger, heat, life.
Orange - fire, harvest, warmth, energy, misfortune, alienation, assertiveness, power.
Yellow - sun, light, warmth, wisdom, intuition, hope, expectation, energy, riches, masculinity.
Green - earth, fertility, vegetation, nature, growth, cycles of renewal, envy, overprotectiveness, creativity.
Blue - sky, water, sea, heaven, spirituality, relaxation, cleansing, nourishing, calm, loyalty.
Violet/purple - royalty, spirituality, wealth, authority, death, resurrection, imagination, attention, excitement, paranoia, persecution.
Black - darkness, emptiness, mystery, beginning, womb, unconsciousness, death, depression, loss.
Brown - fertility, soil, sorrow, roots, excrement, dirty, worthlessness, new beginnings.
White - light, virginity, purity, moon, spirituality, creation, timelessness, dreamlike, generativity, resurrection, clarity, loss, synthesis, enlightenment.
You will see from these associations that colours can have contradictory and ambiguous meanings. It is for you to decide what the colour means to you, and not to be limited to any of these common colour associations.
Tip no. 2: Ask yourself the question
Do certain colours have specific meanings for you?
Look at paintings, clothes, mementoes - what colours are you drawn to? How do you feel when you look at the colours? Start writing your feelings down in a small notebook.
Tip no. 3: Experiment with new colour combinations
As you experiment with new colour combinations, so your feelings, meanings and preferences for colour will evolve, and you will create your own personal colour palette. This experimentation will set up a two-way dialogue between you and the palette which will lead you to all sorts of exciting discoveries! Be daring! Be brave! Choose a colour you have always been afraid of, and see what emotions surface. Keep writing your feelings down in your notebook.
Tip no. 4: Your Creative Notebook
This is where the fun starts! The idea of a creative notebook is for you to literally play with colour in paint. Because paint is one of the more fluid materials with which to work, it is especially good to convey emotion. To get started, buy yourself a set of watercolours (buy an inexpensive set from an art supply store), and an A4, unlined journal. You are going to set aside 1 hour each week to paint in your creative notebook, anything you like. There are no rules to what or how you paint. Just paint. Begin to move with the brush in different ways. Watch what comes. Relax and find your own way of making images with paint. The idea is for you to express how you feel, and to start recognising your feelings through your colour choices. Here are some suggestions to get you started:
Try using colours that represent how you feel about trees, water, earth, and sky. Touch the things you see around you and paint the way their textures make you feel.
At the end of each painting, write a few notes on the opposite side of the page about how you felt. At the end of the week, read over your notes, and look at your paintings. You will be amazed! Ask yourself what you have discovered about yourself, and keep painting and writing!
My 4 top tips for using colour to express your emotions will help you to get to know yourself better. The more you practice these, the clearer you will become about your emotions and feelings. Eventually you will become so attuned with yourself that you will feel less and less that your emotions and feelings are driving your actions and reactions!
Closing thoughts
I hope this article has helped you to get more excited about colour. I’d really like to know what you’ve most gained from the information I’ve shared, so PLEASE share your feedback (or questions) in the comments box below.
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AND LASTLY, if you’re looking for personal help in your creative journey, have a look at our Hire me page to read about our services. Then, if you’re interested in speaking about working together, drop me a line via the contact link on this site and we can set up a 30-minute consultation to discuss your needs.
Amanda Seyderhelm
11 July 2013
Amanda Seyderhelm is an award-winning publisher, creative arts facilitator, therapeutic play practitioner, and author of Isaac and the Red Jumper, for bereaved children, now recommended by The American Cancer Society. Her eclectic approach to writing and creativity incorporates her vast professional experience in the publishing industry and the educational sector along with more than ten years of study and practice of eastern spirituality. Through her Agency, HARK, her writing intiatives have produced a list of self-help and mind-body-spirit authors published by major publishers. Amanda donates 10% of all her publishing income to the charity Treetops Hospice because they nursed her mother at home with dignity and respect.
Twitter:
@amandaseyder
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