Paintings about psychological disorders
 

Over the summer I started creating a series of paintings, each one representing a psychological disorder. I just thought I would share them with others. I was also teaching myself how to paint with watercolor (I've only used acrylic up until now) and I know my technique could use improvement. In case anyone was wondering, the code at the bottom of each is the diagnostic code and the writing in the backgrounds is the medical description (taken from the DSM). Critiques would be great, I am always looking to improve! :-)

The first one is Major Depressive Disorder (Recurrent with Melancholic Features) and the second is Panic Disorder.

Oh I like these very much!! Clever idea.

I love them!
Clever indeed, and even the way you've written the diagnostic numbers, great work :)

Wow these are quite amazing

I hink these are fantastic. very graphic-y and yet very technichally brilliant when it coems to the painting.

Very talented! This is good work. In some sort it reminds me on Dali's style. I don't know why...

Thank you all so much for the encouragement! Pascal, it probably reminds you of Dali because of the drip technique. I love drip and art nouveau techniques and I combined them for this project. I would to have a showing once I complete the series but I've never done one before and have no idea how to go about having one (plus I am scared, the art community can be harsh at times). I am currently working on Bipolar II Disorder, but I am running into a block in regards to what other disorders I would want to feature. Are there any psychological disorders that anyone feels particularly passionate about? I would love to do one about SH but currently, the DSM does not recognize it as it's own thing. It is currently a sub-feature of OCD and Borderline (I wish they would change that because it is grossly inaccurate).

They are great.

These are brilliant x

I love this concept, these are really good.

I also love art nouveau.

Was thinking of dissociation as a suggestion too

ohhh i really like these. are you going to do more?

Yes, I want to do more when I go on break from grad school. I have five total so far and would like to have roughly ten pieces. Dissociation would be a great disorder to feature! Any ideas on how a portrait of a woman with that would look? It's so difficult to capture something so complex into one still painting. Again thank you all for the kind words! It is so encouraging! :-)

Could you try something with mania in it? Id imagine that would be a good one to try and portray

I love these! Especially love the first one

You should put all of your works when you finish them. Critique is always welcome for the artist even from people that are not too much in art :)

Yes, maybe I will do that! Scaredy-cat, the bipolar piece that I am in the middle of has a mania component, but maybe focusing on mania specifically would be an interesting idea! I will definitely look into it!

omg. they're so amazing.

i bow down to your talent. seriously.

whenever i try to use watercolors, they just end up running into each other and soaking the page and i can't make them look as lovely and blended as you have. :)

seriously, you should consider putting them on t-shirts or sth. i'd buy it.

LOVE THESE. How BEAUTIFUL! x

I've got to be honest, I'd quite like to see one of these for the whole DSM. :p They're amazing. I hope you keep it up. :)

Thank you all so much! Rubik, I know what you mean, watercolors are so tricky! I would try using less of the paint and less water. A little goes a long way on the paper and if you need more of an area colored you can just use water to fill in the area and the paint that is already on there will spread out more. It really is an unforgivable media! I would love to see some of your artwork some time :-)

Wow beautiful, you're very talented !

These are amazing!

Can't wait to see more.

Those are really cool! I like the scaly-ish pattern on the second one a lot :)

Thank you thank you! Yeah I dug around online and found that white gel pens show up nicely on watercolors so I used a pen for the scale patterns. I wish I could upload two more onto this thread but I don't know how!

My other two paintings about psych disorders
 

Here are my other two pieces that I have done for this collection. The first is Narcissistic Personality Disorder and the second is Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Generalized.

Ooh yay more, I keep checking this thread!

These are all superb but the OCD one is especially fantastic, you've done such a wonderful job capturing really complex emotions and disorders :)

Thank you all so much! The OCD one took FOREVER! I actually began to feel unstable while painting it lol! I added numbers in the edges because there can be compulsions to count. It really gave me insight as to how it must feel to have that disorder.

The colour choices you use are fantastic. I especially love the colours in your OCD piece - the green hue makes her look so detached and absorbed by her disorder and I think that captures it perfectly.

Also, if we're talking skill wise, your painting skills are great, very expressive without losing any detail or form and that incredibly difficult to achieve with watercolour as they're so fickle. Well done, this is a wonderful set of works :)