Today’s word prompt is “angry”. This is the first in a series on creating a vocabulary of expressive lines.
Gather Materials:
- a piece of paper
- a drawing tool of your choice
Today’s Exercise
Adopt the automatic-drawing approach…”Without thinking, planning, worrying, or analyzing, generate a linear movement of movements that feel angry—let ‘er rip. When you’re done, write the word “angry” underneath, using the same angry line.”
This exercise comes from the book Expressive Drawing: A Practical Guide to Freeing the Artist Within by Steven Aimone.
Automatic drawing is a concept that came from the surrealists.
- Begin by putting yourself in a receptive frame of mind.
- Think about the word angry. How does your body feels when you are angry? What does angry look like?
- Now, draw angry without exercising conscious control over the image.
- When you’re done, write the word “angry” on the page using the same angry line.
- After the exercise, you may want to repeat the exercise using a calming word so that you aren’t living the rest of your day feeling angry.

Reflections on the Exercise
- Physically… angry is holding the pencil straight in a closed fist, my teeth were clenched, there was tension in my neck.
- Visually … angry is dark, quick, hard, gestural
- I chose a thick charcoal pencil. I liked the thick line for angry. It is a chunky pencil that felt substantial to hold in my fisted hand.