Exploring Anger Through the Inside-Out Method

At Art Lab Amsterdam, children learn that creativity is not only about techniques and materials—it's also a way to understand themselves. This week, our older students explored one of the most powerful and misunderstood emotions: anger.

Many children have recently shared (or shown) that they are struggling a bit at their elementary schools. Big feelings can be hard to manage at that age, and art can be a deeply helpful place to process them. So I designed a special class using my signature learning approach: creating art from the inside out.

Part One: Feeling Anger From the Inside

We began by settling into the room—feet grounded, breath soft, shoulders relaxed. When the children feel safe and calm, the inside-out process can unfold naturally.

To inspire them, I showed drawings from Eiichiro Oda, the celebrated Japanese manga artist behind One Piece. His dynamic scenes, expressive faces, and bold lines gave us a vivid starting point for talking about anger.

I then invited the children to gently tune inside:

• Sit comfortably

• Place hands in front of their eyes

• Look inward and remember a moment when they felt truly angry

• Notice how that feeling moves… its energy, its shape, its color

I demonstrated first—showing how abstract shapes, layered pastels, color choices, and marks can express an inner storm. This helps the children understand that there is no correct picture of anger. It’s about translating inner sensation into line, color, and movement.

What emerged on their papers was beautiful: energetic strokes, explosive shapes, tangled colors, and surprising subtlety. Each child’s drawing became a private emotional landscape—full of truth, but safely expressed through art. Some of the children felt comfortable to share short stories about what triggered their sense of anger. It was truly fascinating to appreciate together how differently anger is felt and depicted.

Part Two: How Anger Looks on the Outside

After the inside-out exploration, we shifted into outside-in drawing: noticing what anger looks like on faces we see.

We studied and made with graphite:

• Simple emojis

• Manga-style eyes full of shadow and intensity

• What happens to eyebrows when someone is upset

• How the mouth changes shape when anger shows itself

The children were captivated—they love manga, and they loved having permission to draw “angry faces” with dramatic, exaggerated features. The room was full of giggles, focus, curiosity, and that wonderful hush that happens when children are deeply immersed in learning.

One of the many impressive results in class

Together, these two approaches—inside-out and outside-in—help children understand that feelings have both an internal world and an external expression. And that through art, both can be explored safely, creatively, and with a sense of discovery.

It was a fun and very moving class!