"at least do some personal artwork you dumbwit'

"WATCHING FUTURAMA IS ART"

"... -.- "

- conversation in Aki's head with himself

^ this.
But seriously, if you want to do personal art, go ahead.
Something that might help, is don't look at everything as a whole.
Look at and complete one thing at a time.
Looking at everything at once while trying to complete one piece could make you feel overwhelmed and unsure of where to start because your mind is on everything else.
Don't rush it. Good art takes time. If it takes a week to complete something, then it takes a week.
Don't push yourself; pace yourself.
If you push yourself then your fighting yourself and in the end.. you'll win! Yippie! Haha no seriously, you'll end up doing what you don't want to do. Which is nothing. No progress made or anything completed. Which could bring on the depressing vibes and the boo hoos and the "oh poor me I'm useless. I can't do anything right"
(I know because I have that same crap. I'm hard on myself too. Really, I hate it.)
But, anyway, yeah. Breaks are cool, but don't fear what you love.

To be fair, if you don't come out of the art block you won't be able to make any art that you like, so stressing out when you are stuck in artblock is counter productive. I suggest you take the evening off and sleep or watch a movie or something that relaxes you, but then slowly start working on the commissions, like every day make a little progress, and the queue will shrink!

Everyone needs breaks from time to time, either by exercising, watching TV, drawing or anything else which takes your mind off the work you're doing and is stressing you. I heard that for every hour of work, someone should take a 5 min. break to help stay productive and fully focused.

It's fine that you want to take a break from commissions and work on something for yourself. It can help you relax and get your creative juices flowing again.

^ I second this notion! My schedule is usually commission, personal art, commission, personal art so I don't get burned out. ^^

take a breaaaak, stop beating your self up over things that are neccessities for any human being to keep functioning normally in their jobs!
In Dutch one would say. ''Don't stare yourself blind on a problem, focus on solutions only!'' And go with your own flow. If that means taking more breaks equals more productivity, then so be it yes?

Take care!

well..i know art is not a job like an other ect ect...

but in my mind, a contract is a contract, a job is a job. In your free time , you do what you want, in your hours of work you work.If you take a breack you work longer after.

That just how i see this..
So yeah, personnal art, but on your free time, or as breack..you understand what i mean? stay organised

DO personal art! I'm no artist, but in my opinon it kindof s what it means to be an artist...
I know your queue is long, but it is not getting any better if you feel burned out!!!
it is supposed to be fun after all ;)

When I have a block, it's like I've ticked off my brain-monkey, it's sulking, and trying to force it to do more of what it doesn't want to do isn't going to work.

Doing something relaxing sounds like a good idea. Something that cheers up brain monkeys tends to involve going out and meeting real people, but your mileage may vary.

I try to squeeze in personal art when i'm really doing bad in the motivation department. sometimes it helps, sometimes it just makes me want to do more personal art xD but burning yourself out so bad on commissions that you completely kill your motivation is not a good idea.

so take some time to yourself, breath a little, and then come back to your commissions.

i am right there with you on the too big of a Queue to stop working but i'm probably gonna do my own art later on tonight after i get some of my work out of the way too x'D

It's time for you to refresh and relax. Get yourself inspired, do something to feel good, make yourself happy, and find a way to make the commissions exciting for you so it isn't work/pressure! Take the time to get yourself into this mind frame, even if it takes a week to get there. The great art should flow strongly if you can do that! :D

It's fine to do personal artworks in my opinion. Drawing my own ideas usually helped me through these :) If it doesn't help, maybe you should try doing something for entertainment; play a game, watch a movie (or Futurama if that's what you fancy c: ), invite somebody over, go for a walk... I hope you'll be able to get over it <3

This is common practice among even art professionals that work in studios. When something just isn't coming together and working on different parts isn't panning out then work on a different piece and come back to it. You just don't wanna end up dumping out several personal pics while keeping your client on the backburner.

A happy artist is a good artist - if you want to do something for yourself, it's well worth it. You can reinvigorate yourself, relax, make sure you enjoy art and it doesn't just become another job, and ultimately come back and create a commission that much better for it.
I never have, nor see, any problem with an artist that wants to do some personal projects, I actually think it's important. I hope you enjoy it xD