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Artist's Block
17 years ago
Someone mentioned having trouble drawing what they wanted to work on and asked for advice. I found I had so much to say about it that I thought it was worth posting here.
I have developed several drawer's-block cures throught my career...
For "I'm not good enough" anxeity: Draw on a bus, or in a car when someone else is driving. All the mistakes become the roads fault. If you can finish a drawing this way, then you can feel accomplished about turning out a piece of crap. Then when you go back to your normal environment, everything looks so much better :)
For idea constipation: Do doodles about whatever comes into your mind. Don't try to finish any of them; when a new thought enters immediately start drawing that one. It's kindof like mediataion when you let each thought come to the surface of your mind and then let it go until your mind is empty.
For medium boredom, or being "burned out": Create with something else for a bit. Play with your mashed potatoes, or better yet some sculpey. Dance, humm a random tune. Get away from 2D imagery, go to 3D, motion, music, or some other format that is completely different from drawing. The purpose of this is to keep your joy in creating while letting the drawing part of your brain rest and recuperate.
For "this idea just plain sucks" commissions: Talk to the person commissioning you and see if they have other ideas, or can be more expressive about what in that particular commission is important to them. Finding out a particular emotion or concept that gives the drawing more meaning makes it much more satisfying to draw.
Note that none of these get you to draw what you want to work on immediately. Something about it is blocking you, and you need to address that issue to continue :)
I have developed several drawer's-block cures throught my career...
For "I'm not good enough" anxeity: Draw on a bus, or in a car when someone else is driving. All the mistakes become the roads fault. If you can finish a drawing this way, then you can feel accomplished about turning out a piece of crap. Then when you go back to your normal environment, everything looks so much better :)
For idea constipation: Do doodles about whatever comes into your mind. Don't try to finish any of them; when a new thought enters immediately start drawing that one. It's kindof like mediataion when you let each thought come to the surface of your mind and then let it go until your mind is empty.
For medium boredom, or being "burned out": Create with something else for a bit. Play with your mashed potatoes, or better yet some sculpey. Dance, humm a random tune. Get away from 2D imagery, go to 3D, motion, music, or some other format that is completely different from drawing. The purpose of this is to keep your joy in creating while letting the drawing part of your brain rest and recuperate.
For "this idea just plain sucks" commissions: Talk to the person commissioning you and see if they have other ideas, or can be more expressive about what in that particular commission is important to them. Finding out a particular emotion or concept that gives the drawing more meaning makes it much more satisfying to draw.
Note that none of these get you to draw what you want to work on immediately. Something about it is blocking you, and you need to address that issue to continue :)
