Personal art. Drawing silly things. Doodle the first thing in your mind. Drink some herbal tea and clear your head. Look at the paper and put a pencil on it and tell it to draw itself and wait 5 minutes and be like "FINE I'll do it!"

Personal art tends to eat the time I should be working. However the tea thing is intriguing. If I can find an alternative (I don't drink tea or coffee) it might help at least with the headaches.

Thanks for your help!

Money is usually my motivation to try and get something out, but there are other things that also can be a good motivator:

Humor is often a good one. Drawing something that can make one person or many people laugh is always a mood uplifter. Hell, it doesn't have to be a good picture. Can be a quick sketch which can give you a good giggle. It gets you drawing and you have a lot of fun with it.

Going for a small or a huge project, like designing cards for a deck of cards or characters for a game is also good for inspiration. It gets you in the mood of "This could be BIG" and can often lead to new ideas and paths that you can take.

And finally... sending a message. This is a good emotional push as you want to put your heart into it and say "I wanna say something" in the form of a picture. What that thing you wanna say depends on your mood.

Unfortunately drawing what I want is rarely an option. I'm restricted in my subject matter so the actual action of drawing needs to be what I crave.

That said that's great advice for when I do tackle my own projects.

Understandable.

But, if you can... just try scribbling out something silly. See if that helps.

More spud fox it is!

Yay! Spud fox! :D

This is the summary of how to stay motivated that I give pretty much anyone who asks:



--Start by committing to the easiest possible steps. Like, RIDICULOUSLY easy. For example, if you want to floss everyday, just commit to flossing one tooth each day, and move up from there.

--Once you get to a steady pace with it, make sure that each step towards progress is neither too huge and vague nor too small and tedious. Steps that are too big make your goal seem insurmountable and impossible. Steps that are too small make your goal seem like it'll be forever before you finally get there.

--Make working at it a daily habit by putting it into your routine. Keep a calendar that tracks each day you successfully work at it. Mark off an X on each day, and just keep that chain going--your brain won't want you to stop after you get a good flow going.

--Schedule it. Seriously, write it down in your daily schedule and say, "I will show up at X time to work on this." Turn off distractions for that time. There are free programs like Cold Turkey that will block websites and programs for you to help you remove distractions. Turn off your phone. Unplug your TV. Set a timer. Do whatever you need to stay on task.

--Remove the option of NOT doing it by having a stiff consequence for not doing it or not achieving a weekly/biweekly/monthly deadline. Bet that you'll lose money if you mess up (this works especially well when you have the money held by a third party that will donate it to a charity/cause you hate if you fail).

--In addition to punishing failure, rewarding success can also keep you motivated. Just make sure the reward doesn't set you back (like gorging on a bunch of junk food as a "Cheat Day" for sticking to your diet for a week).

--Make your commitment public to keep you accountable. Write a weekly blog on Facebook or wherever tracking your progress. Hire on a friend or two to help really keep you accountable by punishing you if you mess up.

--Surround yourself with people who are like-minded in achieving the same or similar goals. The support system really helps keep you both motivated and accountable.

--Make your deadlines, goals, and overall progress something measurable. Track it. Learn from from your mistakes, correct course if need be, and realize that stumbling isn't the same as failure. Only stopping is failure.

--And never forget that YOU are not a failure just because you might fail at a given task. You are more than the sum of your actions.

Following this methodology has helped me stick to my goals since January. I've made gradual changes to my lifestyle and kept myself accountable with deadlines and punishments for some of my goals. The result is that I've lost 46 pounds over the past five months, recorded more covers of me singing in the last four months than I've done in the last three years, started building my own business, and will be leading a couple events at AC for the first time ever...all while learning a great deal about what works for me and what doesn't.

<3 Thank you for motivating me too! Wonderful words of advice!

I've heard this all numerous times but each time I'm reminded of how practical it all seems. Thanks for leaving this here. Hopefully this time I take it in stride and truly make that effort.

Solid advice!

Taking time off has been my downfall.

But thanks for trying to help :)

Not with the 15kg I've gotta lose. No sir.

Hrm, my main source of motivation comes from listening to music, podcasts, and the radio, usually about writing, art, science, etc. I find if I listen to the success of other people or new ideas gets me inspired...and that motivates me to work.

Hugs

And zebbas... they're pretty inspiring too

Love you!

You too darling!

I'm just going to leave this here. My buddy Matt can explain it so much better than I can.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyniFQW5g8k

Warm up doodles-doesn't need to be specific, circles, squiggles,shapes, really loose forms or toon bodies, just something to get you from not drawing at all to drawing something

Music that suits your mood or the project you're drawing helps

write out a goal for the money you'll be earning and keep looking at and remembering that goal
(Write it big in sharpie or some thick marker, or use dry erase board)
This commission plus 2 more will pay my phone bill, and leave a little money for gasoline/petrol
This commission will buy me bread, a few frozen dinners and a couple music downloads

Sometimes a walk/run/jog to get things going helps

Set up your work area so its conducive to you working in it(everything you need in arms reach)
Get rid of things that distract you(I can't work with tv or internet vids on, I get interested in them more than the project)

No twitter or facebook kind of things if it will draw you away from working

Set goals for time ( i want to be this far in an hour. )
Don't get angry if you don't make it, goals need to be realistic and your just starting with this. Strive for the goal if you don't make it, try again. If way off then adjust the goal, if you think you should be able to get to said goal but you aren't getting there in the time you want, you have found an area to work on.

Drawing is like a muscle it gets stronger and faster the more you use it, also you work too hard or too much you get pain and cramps, heh also like a muscle.

Also set in work goals/rewards/breaks- ok I'm going towork non stop for the next 45, 60, 70 minutes, whatever works for you, and then I'm going to get a cookie, grab a smoke, call a friend, run to the store, and then back to it and set another of these kind of goals

Hope something in there helps ya

In my opinion, nothing works at optimum without structure. Structure structure structure. And I don't just mean "Do this today and have some breaks", it's more of a matter of comfort levels.

An example of this is my recent studies (I just finished my exams so wooo xD)

My original study plan was to wake up at 8, start 2 hours of study for a subject from 9 - 11, break for half hour, study for another subject from 11:30 - 1:30, lunch for an hour, and finally two more hours of another subject until 4:30. (Mouthful)

(Perhaps in your case it could be just a matter of Sketch phase, colour phase and shading phase. Considering that artwork can take hours and hours to finish, I recommend you Sketch one piece and sketch another, or shade one piece and colour another. Mix and match to your liking! [Apologies if I sound like an absolute dumbass here, I’m inexperienced with digital art xD but I hope it’s at least an example!])

My problem with this though was that I was being way too ambitious for something that...quite truthfully I had never done before. And this has happens to everybody, it's like starting a marathon thinking you can sprint throughout as long as you have breaks. That's a recipe for disaster, your body wants and needs control, and it wants to work at the level that it can -cope- with, it tells you when you go over that limit when you feel significant pain.
Considering that you want to be motivated, you may have come across a situation where you've sat yourself down and just forced yourself at it to no avail, leading to perhaps anger or frustration, as most people have. I recommend that you start with testing yourself, seeing just how far and how fast you can run before you feel like you need to rest. Regardless of whether you last 10 minutes or 10 hours, stop as soon as you know you need it, if you don't, you'll only be cheating yourself for the next step.
Then, introduce a "Sweet and Sour" sort of routine (this'll sound weird but I'll explain...I'm actually just making this routine name up on the spot so I really hope this helps xD), I personally found out that I could go about 1 hour and 30 minutes on a single subject on average however this varied greatly.

The sour part, for me, is Science. I absolutely can't stand science and know that I become fed up significantly quicker than 1 hour and 30.
The sweet part was Theatre, I LOVE LOVE LOVE Theatre, and often I would lose track of time and even reach 4 hours without even realising!

(In your case you may find one piece more difficult than the other, or one piece more enjoyable than the other. In that case, I suggest you spend time on the difficult/less enjoyable piece, because you’ll get the hang of it and then become motivated/determined to get it done, and to a level that you think is your best!)

From this, I know that when you do something you enjoy, it really doesn't matter how long you take, as long as you're taking it in and being productive.

Because of what I had realised, I had decided that I would put the sour subjects first and the sweeter subjects last, by forcing myself a good amount of study time for the beginning of the day, I would be rewarded for the end of the day - this meant that not only could I have gotten the boring stuff out of the way, but I could also finish studying later than usual, because losing myself to the sweet stuff usually ended up with me overlapping the end of study time and happily going at it by even 7pm.

My final tip to you is DO NOT take free time for granted, some people could recommend that you take frequent breaks, DON'T. DON'T FALL TO TEMPTATION (I’m not saying don’t take breaks, OF COURSE take them, let me explain c;). Work and Play are opposites and always will be, no matter what, and giving yourself enough time to be tempted for procrastination is NOT Work! The only way you're going to work well is if you want to and feel obliged to. Not only that, you should feel like it is the only thing you –can- do, make your job between your pen, and the paper, nothing else. If there is a way that you would rather spend your time doing then get rid of it; whether it be social media, games, anything, get rid of it, because if you don't, the only person you're punishing is yourself with more work to do in less time.

Taking a break is not free time, you should still be in the mindset to work but still allowing yourself to breathe. You don't want a break, you need it. You will know this when you start to feel frustrated, annoyed, or if you feel that you're not producing your best. If you're feeling like you want to procrastinate during work and think a break would help condition yourself to get away from those temptations then do it. You are your own boss, so feel free to shape anything I have said to your own comfort. The key is comfort! c:

But yeah, that’s all I can really say about this, I hope it made sense and that it wasn’t too much of a mouthful, sometimes things only make sense in my head xDD. Just don’t overwork yourself! Everything will go swell and judging by all these responses, you’re lucky to have such a supporting, caring and understanding fan base :3 We’re right behind you so don’t feel alone.

Plain and simple: My greatest motivation is that my art can inspire others and vice versa.

well, doing something else is usually what makes me motivated again. or get yourself something new that is connected to what you want to do. like buy a new tablet or something or a new pen i dunno. maybe even just take a sketch book out, go on one of those safaris or something and draw something from that? sit down under a tree and draw the landscape.

also other times for me it is to just force myself through it until its not that bad anymore (sounds terrible, yeah i know)

i hope you manage to find a way to motivate yourself *hugs the spud*

Everyone else has you covered with actual advice, I wanted to give you an idea of the alternative. You could have a job where you get up everyday at 7am, commute to work in traffic, sit at a desk for 8 hours, then commute back home. Or you have a job where you drive all over the place. Or work retail dealing with hundreds of people each day. Everything has its perks and drawbacks. My advice is to pursue what makes you happy, and if you can draw for a living at your own pace on your own hours without having to commute in traffic, that's a pretty good deal. Everyone loses interest at their job at times.

At school we were always told to make "S.M.A.R.T." targets
S - specific (pick which piece you need to do)
M - measurable (I'd make this about line art, colouring, etc.)
A - achievable (don't push yourself to do too many in one day)
R - relevant (target it to your commissions rather than all art)
T - time specific (set a time schedule that fits your average work speed)

So for example, (though idk how fast you work)
You need to do commission A, today you'll line art and flat colour, in X amount of time.
By chopping it into piece by piece targets, hopefully it won't seem so daunting :)

I am going to drop this here, which is a playlist from another Australian based artist that you may or may not have heard of. The playlist is specifically called "Motivation, Inspiration, and Advice"

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?li.....C3XhKGSkkT5yKI

I Listen to music to get motivated :3

After work hang out or just talk to friends :3

What the F+*!k why don't you ever do anything aroud here! That pan has been sitting there for 56 hours and it would probably only take you 37 minutes to clean up this entire kitchen.
It's a metaphor.

*lights a fire under your butt* That work? :D

Now I have a good excuse to not work, for I am injured.

Everyone needs a vacation at some point. Helps to refocus when you do~

I don't do art in the form most are familiar with but I self motivate usually with the will in wanting to learn something new. Google + Youtube are amazing when you just start clicking things. Wikipedia too.

I know that I allocate some time every day to work on my projects. I try my best to keep to a schedule so that i make regular progress. I don't push myself too hard, but I do try to operate multiple projects at once so that if I'm not feeling one I can switch gears and still get work done.