It is, but something weird happens when aphantasia meets art. I can't visualize at all, and it's always a neat journey to figure out what the thing that I'm drawing is going to look like, most of the time I don't even know until I'm done. I just know that various elements will be placed in various spots, I have no idea what they'll look like.
I watched a ptetty long video today about body stuff. A single surgery can cause all kinds of things, they may show up later. Like having your tonsils out as a child or some other thing you dont even remember. Anything where you didnt feel safe and nurtured. I felt like a bad mom after watching. Every parent is doing on the job. training.
I can totally relate to your delayed-onset anxiety - I think that happened to me last week from something that happened to my husband that stressed him out. I'll be looking out for it now I'm aware of it! 👀 ps Love the paintings 💚
give yourself credit for getting thru foot surgery and recovery and all the changes in routine as a result. plus construction. i always can count on a delayed reaction. im just now processing the pandemic from march 2020. thanks for the window into your life. it helps me sort out my own personal business. i used to do watercolor. now mixed media. nice work. the hummingbird has particularly good values.
As a child, I tried telling my parents that I couldn't see anything in my brain. They never understood what I meant (told me I was making things up for attention) and honestly, I didn't either at the time. I just came across this video and realized I'm not crazy or alone. I love art but also need to use MANY reference photos to produce something of my own. My art teachers when I was growing up would get so mad at me for "stealing art" I couldn't see anything in my mind so I had to.
From one Autistic Amanda to another, I too cannot see anything in my mind. My art is created by a combination of techniques: I need a reference drawing, and since I see patterns and shapes in my "random" squiggles, I use the shapes to connect with whatever I have sketched from a picture reference. I'm also ADHD with alexithymia!
Mine is helping people..anytime, anything to help. I've almost gotten myself in big trouble 3 or 4 times before I realized I can't help any situation. I need boundaries and to stay safe. I now ask my Hubby first if it's safe. I won't go into why I wouldn't know myself. I also need to help some people without them knowing it - Like prayer or secret acts of service. Love your paintings ❤
Wow! Your artwork is wonderful! You should make sure that your watercolor supplies are always easily accessible in case the mood strikes, because the results are absolutely beautiful, and it seems to be a very effective outlet for your focus. You have every reason to be proud of this work. 💜 It feels good to see you feeling so much more in control. Go you!
Thank you! One thing that was freeing was not feeling like I HAD to finish my last hyperfocus before starting this new one. I'm in the middle of an embroidery project. In the past (before diagnosis) I wouldn't start a new art until I completed a previous project. But that would have left me just feeling more frustrated and unfulfilled.
My goodness those paintings are amazing. Most artists do use reference materials. There are other artists who have aphantasia, who are color blind (Doodle Date). I have all kinds of colorful images going on in my brain, I got watercolors in 2019 but I've barely done anything.
I'm not sure I understand the question. At the end of the video I showed how I took elements of three different images to build my frog image. I can't picture anything in my mind so I use reference photos and go off that. Hope that helps explain it! 😊❤️
Beautiful paintings! I've been very busy, struggling with time management and not able to get to my water paints, so I visualize what I will paint whenever I have the time... and mental capacity...
I get stuck in routines , such as spending days to research purchases that do not require high level of investment. Then realize I'm spending too much time deciding and purchase just to get out of the cycle, just to return them days later, and do more research. Once I'm in research mode... its nearly impossible to get out, until I have made the perfect decision. Its kinda helpful... but really annoying when I literally cant escape the process in my mind.
Yes! I do this exact thing. I'm about to return some Earbuds I bought because I was going in circles researching, finally just picked one but ended up not liking them at all.
Our neighborhood is also the same way for a week leading up to and a week after July 4th. It's rough on us because my husband is a veteran. I love your paintings!
Yes the irony of celebrating our country with loud noises that sound like a war zone is just absurd. My heart goes out to the veterans who are suffering on July 4th. I wish fireworks were illegal. Animals hate them, a lot of veterans hate them, they aren't good for the planet or wildlife. They disrupt the bees and mating cycles of many birds. I will admit they are pretty to look at, but so are other things I wouldn't miss fireworks if they were gone.
I can't make a decent hangman so drawing is not happening for me. I have even tried with lessons too. Anyway, your art work is beautiful. Keep up the great work! ❤
I saw a thing about how to hang art on your wall when you're making a bunch of images in a grouping. They said the human eye naturally moves from left to right and top down, sort if. So it starts out that way with your gaze looking at top or middie left inage, then to the right then DOWN and sort of spiral clockwise inwards to the center. Final resting place is the image in the center of your grouping. This is hard to describe in words to a person who can't picture it. Maybe have someone read comment to you while facing the art grouping. If it doesn't make sense forget it because my instructions were probably bad. I really like your channel. I love the details you give because it always reminds me of something from my own life. I really need to start an autism composition book to write down all the stuff I'm learning. I write so much in comments and i cant ever find them again. I've probably written a very scatterbrained book by now if you gathered up all the comments. Yesterday i didn't get much done either. I need to do a little bit at different tasks. Like paperwork bills phone calls for a half hour. Then maybe kitchen time cooking and or cleaning. Then organize some papers. I remember my son was like that. Couldn't sit still at video games more than a half hour or so. Then he needed to go outside to play basketball, ride his bike, climb trees, (in a very complicated way with straps and ropes and metal clips snd climbing harnesses..scary). Or he would play eith friends. Then he'd get tired or bored and come back inside to play more video games
Wow! Amazing! Although I liked the frames on your wall before as well, these paintings add a "personal touch" and are sooo beautiful! Had the same impulse to watercoulor after years on Sunday but i ate the watermelon I wanted to paint so I painted the woodflooring on my balcony instead.😅 Kept me from having a meltdown. Thank you so much for your videos!
aw, you ate your inspiration piece. Watermelon is sooo good, I wouldn't have been able to resist either. Glad you got to do a home reno project, those can be great for getting our minds off anxiety.
Hi Eira, Foot is doing better, slowly and surely. I feel like a robot, trying to mechanically learn to walk again. My foot does NOT want to do what my brain is telling it to and having low proprioception isn't helping. Yep, I've always identified as being creative/artist, but always so frustrated when I couldn't come up with my own ideas to draw.
I like looking at fireworks and one year when I was a teen I got to experience fireworks from inside a high rise apartment in a downtown area. That was awesome. But just random ones that people fire through out the day and the sheer humber at night get to me. It'll be about constant from about 8:30pm 12:30am here. I'm outside the city limits and people literally buy the HUGE fireworks spending hundreds of dollars on them if not thousands.
People buy gigantic fireworks outside of the city and bring them into the city. They are illegal here in the city but no one seems to worry about that.
To clarify your language there is no "mild" autism. Current medical diagnoses list level 1, 2 & 3 and that is based on support needs. A lot of Autistic people drive, many do not. I'm also what is referred to as "High Masking" Autistic. Basically it's how I went 42 years without a diagnosis, because my brain masked my autistic behaviors and tried to make me appear Nuerotypical. Of course this leaves a LOT of mental stress and damage and is not good for an Autistic person in the long run.
Okay, for a “mere” amateur, you are really talented, Amanda. Don’t sell yourself short!!
Thanks! I think I feel amateurish because I seem only capable of producing art like this when a hyperfixation hits.
It is, but something weird happens when aphantasia meets art. I can't visualize at all, and it's always a neat journey to figure out what the thing that I'm drawing is going to look like, most of the time I don't even know until I'm done. I just know that various elements will be placed in various spots, I have no idea what they'll look like.
I watched a ptetty long video today about body stuff. A single surgery can cause all kinds of things, they may show up later. Like having your tonsils out as a child or some other thing you dont even remember. Anything where you didnt feel safe and nurtured. I felt like a bad mom after watching. Every parent is doing on the job. training.
I can totally relate to your delayed-onset anxiety - I think that happened to me last week from something that happened to my husband that stressed him out. I'll be looking out for it now I'm aware of it! 👀
ps Love the paintings 💚
give yourself credit for getting thru foot surgery and recovery and all the changes in routine as a result. plus construction. i always can count on a delayed reaction. im just now processing the pandemic from march 2020. thanks for the window into your life. it helps me sort out my own personal business. i used to do watercolor. now mixed media. nice work. the hummingbird has particularly good values.
I think the hummingbird is my favorite one too! I'm so glad my videos help you process. It makes such a difference for me to hear that.
As a child, I tried telling my parents that I couldn't see anything in my brain. They never understood what I meant (told me I was making things up for attention) and honestly, I didn't either at the time. I just came across this video and realized I'm not crazy or alone. I love art but also need to use MANY reference photos to produce something of my own. My art teachers when I was growing up would get so mad at me for "stealing art" I couldn't see anything in my mind so I had to.
I don't like crowds but I like fireworks. Pretty fireworks. 🎆
From one Autistic Amanda to another, I too cannot see anything in my mind. My art is created by a combination of techniques: I need a reference drawing, and since I see patterns and shapes in my "random" squiggles, I use the shapes to connect with whatever I have sketched from a picture reference.
I'm also ADHD with alexithymia!
Your art is very, very good. I like the cheerful colors and your daughter’s idea for the central photo is brilliant. Also, you work crazy fast!
The fast work was completely to do with the hyperfixation. My brain was laser focused. And thanks! I love how the big one came out! ❤️
Mine is helping people..anytime, anything to help. I've almost gotten myself in big trouble 3 or 4 times before I realized I can't help any situation. I need boundaries and to stay safe. I now ask my Hubby first if it's safe. I won't go into why I wouldn't know myself. I also need to help some people without them knowing it - Like prayer or secret acts of service.
Love your paintings ❤
❤️❤️ Safety Boundaries are important. Thank you on the painting compliment
Wow! Your artwork is wonderful! You should make sure that your watercolor supplies are always easily accessible in case the mood strikes, because the results are absolutely beautiful, and it seems to be a very effective outlet for your focus. You have every reason to be proud of this work. 💜 It feels good to see you feeling so much more in control. Go you!
Thank you! One thing that was freeing was not feeling like I HAD to finish my last hyperfocus before starting this new one. I'm in the middle of an embroidery project. In the past (before diagnosis) I wouldn't start a new art until I completed a previous project. But that would have left me just feeling more frustrated and unfulfilled.
I love your hummingbird painting, I think it’s so beautiful!
My goodness those paintings are amazing. Most artists do use reference materials. There are other artists who have aphantasia, who are color blind (Doodle Date). I have all kinds of colorful images going on in my brain, I got watercolors in 2019 but I've barely done anything.
The paintings are awesome, and the last one, especially so. I felt happiness staring at them and wondering how you brought them into existence.
I'm not sure I understand the question. At the end of the video I showed how I took elements of three different images to build my frog image. I can't picture anything in my mind so I use reference photos and go off that. Hope that helps explain it! 😊❤️
I love the paintings!!!!
Hello from Western Australia 🖐 your art is amazing, I love the colours 🙂
Thank you! I think I really needed the bright happy colors! 😊
I think your paintings are amazing. I especially love the hummingbird.
Thank you very much!
Beautiful paintings! I've been very busy, struggling with time management and not able to get to my water paints, so I visualize what I will paint whenever I have the time... and mental capacity...
I wish I could visualize!
I get stuck in routines , such as spending days to research purchases that do not require high level of investment. Then realize I'm spending too much time deciding and purchase just to get out of the cycle, just to return them days later, and do more research. Once I'm in research mode... its nearly impossible to get out, until I have made the perfect decision. Its kinda helpful... but really annoying when I literally cant escape the process in my mind.
Yes! I do this exact thing. I'm about to return some Earbuds I bought because I was going in circles researching, finally just picked one but ended up not liking them at all.
Beautiful, fun art! Thanks for sharing. 😍🥰💖👍
Thank you❤ We need a channel like yours for people that are trying to understand!😊
❤️❤️❤️
Our neighborhood is also the same way for a week leading up to and a week after July 4th. It's rough on us because my husband is a veteran. I love your paintings!
Yes the irony of celebrating our country with loud noises that sound like a war zone is just absurd. My heart goes out to the veterans who are suffering on July 4th. I wish fireworks were illegal. Animals hate them, a lot of veterans hate them, they aren't good for the planet or wildlife. They disrupt the bees and mating cycles of many birds. I will admit they are pretty to look at, but so are other things I wouldn't miss fireworks if they were gone.
Thank you, Amanda! You are so inspirational!
I can't make a decent hangman so drawing is not happening for me. I have even tried with lessons too. Anyway, your art work is beautiful. Keep up the great work!
❤
Thank you, I appreciate it! 😊
I saw a thing about how to hang art on your wall when you're making a bunch of images in a grouping. They said the human eye naturally moves from left to right and top down, sort if. So it starts out that way with your gaze looking at top or middie left inage, then to the right then DOWN and sort of spiral clockwise inwards to the center. Final resting place is the image in the center of your grouping. This is hard to describe in words to a person who can't picture it.
Maybe have someone read comment to you while facing the art grouping. If it doesn't make sense forget it because my instructions were probably bad.
I really like your channel. I love the details you give because it always reminds me of something from my own life. I really need to start an autism composition book to write down all the stuff I'm learning. I write so much in comments and i cant ever find them again. I've probably written a very scatterbrained book by now if you gathered up all the comments.
Yesterday i didn't get much done either. I need to do a little bit at different tasks. Like paperwork bills phone calls for a half hour. Then maybe kitchen time cooking and or cleaning. Then organize some papers. I remember my son was like that. Couldn't sit still at video games more than a half hour or so. Then he needed to go outside to play basketball, ride his bike, climb trees, (in a very complicated way with straps and ropes and metal clips snd climbing harnesses..scary). Or he would play eith friends. Then he'd get tired or bored and come back inside to play more video games
Love the art!❤
Thank you! 😊
The frog is my fav ❤
❤️ I'm so happy how it turned out! Thank you. 😊
Wow! Amazing! Although I liked the frames on your wall before as well, these paintings add a "personal touch" and are sooo beautiful!
Had the same impulse to watercoulor after years on Sunday but i ate the watermelon I wanted to paint so I painted the woodflooring on my balcony instead.😅
Kept me from having a meltdown.
Thank you so much for your videos!
aw, you ate your inspiration piece. Watermelon is sooo good, I wouldn't have been able to resist either. Glad you got to do a home reno project, those can be great for getting our minds off anxiety.
You watercolor art is great.
Thank you! 😁❤️
Gorgeous paintings Amanda 🎨🖌️🖼️ Would you be willing to sell any of them online?
I hadn't thought about that at all. These I don't want to sell, but maybe I'll think about that in the future.... 🤔❤️
I used to do some drawings, but ever since i found out i can't imagine absolutely anything i "gave up" and lost interest on it
I understand, but now I just embrace needing reference photos because I absolutely love to create in my own way.
Best I can art is a stick figure with scoliosis.
I was a little shocked to find artists talking about their Aphantasia.
How's the foot?
Hi Eira, Foot is doing better, slowly and surely. I feel like a robot, trying to mechanically learn to walk again. My foot does NOT want to do what my brain is telling it to and having low proprioception isn't helping. Yep, I've always identified as being creative/artist, but always so frustrated when I couldn't come up with my own ideas to draw.
I enjoyed some fireworks last night, but there were some flash-bangs that I had to look away from.
I like looking at fireworks and one year when I was a teen I got to experience fireworks from inside a high rise apartment in a downtown area. That was awesome. But just random ones that people fire through out the day and the sheer humber at night get to me. It'll be about constant from about 8:30pm 12:30am here. I'm outside the city limits and people literally buy the HUGE fireworks spending hundreds of dollars on them if not thousands.
People buy gigantic fireworks outside of the city and bring them into the city. They are illegal here in the city but no one seems to worry about that.
I also paint 🎨
Nice! What medium do you prefer? I love oil paint but clean up isn't fun so I haven't done any oil painting in years!
Can people with mild autism drive ? Your painting are awesome, love ❤ them
To clarify your language there is no "mild" autism. Current medical diagnoses list level 1, 2 & 3 and that is based on support needs. A lot of Autistic people drive, many do not. I'm also what is referred to as "High Masking" Autistic. Basically it's how I went 42 years without a diagnosis, because my brain masked my autistic behaviors and tried to make me appear Nuerotypical. Of course this leaves a LOT of mental stress and damage and is not good for an Autistic person in the long run.