If you’ve faced an art block before, I have gathered this set of practical tips to help you overcome the block you’re facing. This was written with love just for you.
As someone who regularly falls into art blocks, I have developed some good coping mechanisms that might come in handy to you as well. This blog post isn’t much about the science behind art blocks but more about some straight-to-the-point practical tips that you can try right here, right now.
Art block is one of the trickiest moments in the life of an artist. It stands for that lack of inspiration and motivation. Artists often feel hopeless and lose their ability to produce any work. And that could happen for many reasons.
If I was a beginner, I would give myself time and take it lightly. And if you feel stressed or unable to draw because of your mental health, I recommend you check this article: Art Therapy Exercises to help you instantly Improve your Mood. But for a professional artist or someone with an exhibition around the corner, an art block could destroy your business. So let’s get started.
1- Pencil shaving
This is a tip I learned by pure coincidence… Once upon an art block, I was staring at a blank page from my sketchbook. And as I was trying to convince myself to draw anything, I casually sharpened my pencil. I rarely do cuz I use mechanical pencils mostly, but well I always call these things: signs from the universe.
My sketchbook looked something like this:
The moment I was going to throw the shavings away, I recognized a shape that gave me the inspiration to draw this:
I started going on and on, using the shapes I got from the shavings and finishing the little drawings with my pencil. After a very quick moment, I was no longer blocked, and I was actually having a lot of fun. Not judging what I was drawing nor taking it seriously was the best part about it. Long story short, I highly recommend you try this if you are going through an art block, it’ll help distract you from the white page and get some of the creative juices flowing.
Similar to this, I’ve seen someone on Pinterest poke holes with a pencil in their pages and just follow the pattern to draw eyes.
For similar ideas, you may want to read this article I have about Creative Journaling.
2- Are you blocked from painting? You may not be blocked from clay…
Well, it doesn’t necessarily have to be clay but you get the point. If your mind won’t let you draw, trick it by doing another creative artistic activity!
In my case, I realized that when my mind wouldn’t let me paint, I could still trick it into sketching daily as part of my routine and into doing clay, which is a newer art form I recently opened up to. Whatever I do, what matters most at the moment of the art block is to do something that will push the creativity to flow.
The tip here is to stop focusing on what you can’t do and try what you can. Do some clay, experiment with origami, sing, write, I don’t know… you decide. But don’t limit yourself to one task, nobody said that because you’re a painter you can’t write. Explore like a toddler would and never give in to the block because your mind loves to be lazy (it’s human nature, not an insult I promise lol). It will never make things better for you unless you make them better for yourself. Remember, it’s always you against your mind in the block 😉
3- Share what you create
Doesn’t sound like a practical tip to overcome an art block, does it? But try it out though, what’s the worst that could happen?
Art blocks mostly come from negative self-talk, comparing with others, imposter syndrome, self-doubt, or simply anxiety because we’re broke or stressed with another aspect of life. The last thing you usually want to do in this case is to be sharing posts on social media and showing the world the work you already hate. But yeah! That’s exactly why we’ll do it.
Answer this question: Who’s gonna judge you? Your friends from primary school? your parents? Your grandma? Do you really care about that? If you think your work sucks and you’re a bad artist, put your work out there and let people harshly critique it. Or worse, let them ignore it.
Create so much ugly art and put it out there. The big value you’re now putting on how people perceive you and your art will eventually fade and you’ll learn to create for the pleasure of creating only.
4- Try some new art exercises
This is one of my favorite tips, It always helps me overcome my art block.
Exercises never fail to teach me something about myself. Not only as an artist but also as a human being.
At a certain point in my career as an artist, I believed that art exercises are useless and are for kids and total beginners. However, I recently found myself crazy about challenges and exercises (not only in art, but I also joined a couple of yoga challenges, writing challenges, and even some journaling ones), and let me tell you, I have never been as creative in my entire life as I am now. That feeling of pushing your own limits, and respecting the guidelines someone else set for you gives an incredible power to get creative on the required task and nothing but that.
I have previously posted some exercises that I tried and found very helpful if you’d like to give them a look:
5 Art Exercises to Boost Your Creativity (even if you consider yourself non-artistic)
10 Useful Art Therapy Exercises to Help Improve your Mood
5- Look for inspiration
Yes, you read that right! We often “find” inspiration in moments we least expect it to be found. But if you run an art business or make a living out of it, you’re not gonna sit and wait. If inspiration didn’t find you today, look for it. Check other artists, scroll on Pinterest, read a story from another artist’s experience, watch a ted talk about creativity… you name it.
Let’s stop thinking that creativity and inspiration are some sorts of magic, superpowers, or a blessing.
- The more food for thought you get,
- the more visual nutrition you have,
- the more you practice,
=> your mind will naturally make new associations, and form new ideas that will give you that burst to draw and paint again creatively.
Out of Creative inspiration? Check these Top Websites for Artists
Conclusion
Art blocks might be frustrating or make you feel like a failure. But I want you to know that they’re completely normal. It’s up to you to decide if you want to take a break until your ability to create art is back, or do what you can to face it and overcome it. I hope the previous tips will help you overcome your art block.
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