One of my strengths as a writer is the ability to deeply convey emotion through my words. I have been told by my readers that they are surprised by the depth of feeling they get when they read my stories. When I asked them why they were surprised, they either tip-toe around it, or get a bit…vague. When I told my fiancé about this, he was kind enough to explain.

I don’t talk to people very much. I stay quiet, and try not to talk about myself or my life. Because of this, people tend to think I’m cold and distant. That I run on rules and logic. So when they actually read my stories, they experience a rich world full of feelings that…I never show. Heck, a coworker of mine, who I had worked with for well over a year at that point, was surprised to learn that I am half Japanese!

I have also been told that my art style is both distinctive, and stark. People who have seen my process to draw know that I have the skill to draw in more detail. And yet, my style looks simplistic. My characters have detailed, expressive eyes, but no mouth. I am fully capable of drawing hands with fingers. And yet, my characters have spade-like hands. My humanoid characters are actually based on artist models, those wooden poseable ones you see on desks sometimes. Their faces are based on basic, plain white bisque masks.

It…doesn’t feel right for me to put mouths or real hands on my characters. But why?

This is where some basic psychoanalysis can help. Seeking to understand how an author or artist thinks or feels can bring a greater appreciation of the work they create. And, in your own work, it can help you to understand why you do things the way you do. When you understand that, you can figure out how to adjust things in a way that better conveys exactly what you want.

Let’s use me for an example. I don’t like putting mouths on my characters, even though it doesn’t look bad, it feels wrong to me. Why? If we go back to the beginning of this blog article, we see that I don’t like talking about myself or my life. What a lot of people don’t know about me is that I have a lot of pain and trauma in my past. Growing up, I felt like no one listened to anything I had to say. Nothing that I said, no actions that I took, made any difference to the abuse I went through. Even now, I have trouble talking to people I don’t know. It takes me a very long time to open up to anyone. The rare times my words did have an effect, the effect was devastating. This is why the character I use to represent myself has a hidden mouth. A mouth that opens in a horrific, grotesque way.

To escape the pain and trauma, I developed a very vivid imagination. I lived in books, in video games, out in nature as much as possible. I deeply valued every new world I explored. This love shows through in every story I write. I live them as I write them. That’s why they are so full of feeling, of life.

I only started really working on drawing in the last few years. My style is stark, simple. I can draw more realistically, but…that’s not what I want to convey. I am not relaying a record of something as it actually is. I am relaying something as it feels to me. I’m not drawing a horse as it is. What I draw is too sharp. Hooves aren’t lance-tips. Horses have mouths, big nostrils to get the oxygen they need to power the huge muscles that allow them to run the way they do. Yet, what I draw is pointy. No mouth or nose. Sleek. A hint of movement in the way the mane and tail sit. A suggestion of attitude in the posture, the stare. I’m not drawing a horse. I’m drawing confidence and flow in the form of a horse.

And this is where the symbolism comes in. Once you understand yourself, why and how it is that you are expressing yourself, you can better understand how to express what it is you want to express. If there is an idea you want to convey that is simple, a single layer of complexity, maybe you don’t need symbolism. But, if you want someone to interpret something in their own way, to color the idea you are expressing with the colors of their own life? That is where symbolism shines.

Before I explained why not having a mouth or hands made sense to me, what did you think about it? How did it make you feel? Does knowing what they are based on change how you feel or what you think?

There are infinite possibilities to use both basic psychoanalysis and symbolism in your own creative endeavors. When you better understand yourself and your audience, you can find better ways to bridge the gap between you and them.