Communicating feelings through visual language. My visual art diary: how I am feeling today

This project, conducted at the Potocnica Early Years Education Centre in Zagreb, Croatia, investigated drawing as a means of projecting children’s emotional condition. It was grounded in psychological and psychiatric theory and practice. The assumption underpinning the project was that children ‘draw what they feel and not what they think or know’ (Nazor, 1998, p. 259); that is why drawings can be viewed as expressions of children’s wishes, fears and frustrations. It is assumed that children and grown-ups alike adapt lines and colours in their drawings according to their actual feelings, moods and conditions. However, it is not possible to establish beyond doubt that there is a unique language of lines, shapes and colours relating to feelings. Consequently, one should be cautious about drawing conclusions about the real messages a child is sending through colours or arrangement of objects.