Well I don't have much in terms of how I can help you.

If you are trying to get your passion back may I suggest try drawing what you see outside with a art tablet, or something, and just handdraw, and take in the air to get some inspiration back. I know it may not help much, but I'm just thinking of something.

Sorry if I'm not much help, and I hope if my advice helps, or if you find your passion returns that you will be able to continue what you do, and get better, and go beyond.

Yea. I probably need to change my perspective on artwork and do other creative things.

It's merely a matter of will. Like losing weight, if you want to compare it to something. It may make you incredibly unhappy, but unless you go there and do it... there's no magic trick for will, or inspiration, or the right moment for things to come. One must force oneself to do them, and that will start a loop of doing it for the reward. If this doesn't happen, or it doesn't really interest you anymore, you're just probably not really up for it anymore, and that's fine, too.

Getting to draw is fine. It's when I actually sit down to draw, nothing really happens. I simply "don't feel it". Perhaps taking a break from the "norm" is what I need.

As a fellow artist diagnosed with major depressive disorder (and possibly attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), I can really relate to your lack of drive. I want to create art, I have the capacity to do them, but the drive is just not there. Even forcing oneself to draw something will not restart the drive. If anything, trying to "combat" it can push one further out from the goal.

I really am on your boat here. I have been trying to discover and communicate with fellow artists and members—to convince myself that I am not the only person that is suffering from what you have mentioned. I feel grateful that I found someone that's also suffering what I am suffering.

I'm open to discuss about this, if you must. :)

It seems that I am slowly figuring out what needs to be done. As stated above, breaking the norm may help.

I can agree with "breaking the norms". This afternoon, I was working on an abstract landscape piece with other friends, on the liking of Bob Ross—and that did help in clearing out my block quite a bit! I might consider focusing more on those themes in the future—and eventually to ease back into art once more.

Proko and Michael Vandruff put together a podcast that listening to might help with something, I know there have been recommendations in a few of the episodes of things I would have not considered before:
https://www.youtube.com/c/Draftsmen/featured

Another Artist Youtuber who have struggled with burn out and lack of creative motivation have been Jazza, you'd need to search his videos, but he has and does talk about it, and a lot of what helped him was finding a different structuring method or just trying new things, something that is so different from what he normally does, it gave him something new and different to work on.

If your job requires you to be creative, it could draining your creativity for doing stuff later even if you want to do it, you might not have the creative will power to do all the technical problem solving that your work requires of you.

COVID-19 has sapped a lot out of people because it has effectively disrupted our lives to the point we don;t have the same routines, I found a LinkedIn article that kind of discussed this a bit:
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/news/.....-more-4901532/

Most of what I have seen being recommended is finding other ways of being social, whether it is through video chats or finding people to talk to online. But also finding other ways of unwinding from work if you are still working and maybe exercising more, like even if you are just going for 30 minutes walks as a way of just getting your mind off everything. There is unfortunately no one way fix, a lot of it ends up being trial and error.

It may also be worth looking into doing telehealth counseling, counselors are way more equipped to kind of help you work on this than any of us are, cause we will likely just give you stuff that worked for us.

For me personally it was learning mindfulness and sometimes rather than forcing it, just doing simple mental visualization exercises. I know some people do warm up gestures just to get ideas flowing, starting with a simple premise and iterating on that, Doing fan art, trying new tools, trying style challenges might help.

Like here is something that I just thing is a really cool thing to do:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNMmq1QGqmc

And the other thing to keep in mind is that all artists will plateau, the more you learn and the better you get, the harder it is to push to the next level, it is the ever present thing of diminishing returns, but it can be done, and it just takes time and perseverance.

I know I have only spoken to you minimally, but I hope I have offered enough to maybe at least get some gears turning and something to think about.

Be well and good luck.

I second so much of this.

If there is one thing I have learned from doing my own art, is that doing art is hard to keep up with.

Which part specifically would you point out?

I definitely been feeling the problem of plateauing more and more within the past 2 years. I think this also comes to that I do not draw as much as I used to. The only benefit of have a shit job with less hours is it gives me more time to think about what to draw and get more time to do them.

Thank you for providing links. IDK if I can get through them all, but I will definitely try to get through at least a few of them.

I certainly feel the lack of time with working in a pharmacy, and at the end of the day it is so hard to get the will power because my job requires so much problem solving it is not even funny these days. Insurance is hard to figure out some days, and all the things corporate asks is just like a huge balancing act. I would say work on simple things that don't take a lot of "creative" effort some thing like portraits of pose studies, more just to keep in practice, and maybe it less about fast growth and more about slow growth, finding the little details that never got worked out.

I would say read through the article and watch the last link as a sort of idea/inspiration type thing.

The first link just provides the user page for the Draftsmen podcast, so it is something that is more long form to put on in the background and listen to.

Very much this. My job is mostly problem solving and another part is talking to people. The talking to people really drains me the most and I feel like I am more meetings now than before. xD Oof! So emotionally exhausting!

Sometimes finding something simpler to do will at least help you still engage with the media without having to make you work for it. Not everything needs to be a master piece or be something forwarding your art style, some just enjoying where you are at is enough.

Also maybe trying to collaborate with artists might be something, so that they can do some of the heavy lifting and you can to do something that is a bit easier for you to process. :>

I've had little drive myself but it's more because I feel like no matter how much effort I put into art no one cares ... my watchers don't comment, I had Patreon and Ko-Fi for a year and had at most 2 patrons at a time... So honestly if you find anything to help you , lemme know. But seriously wish you luck.

In your case, I'd just keep drawing and have fun. Followers come later. :3 Good luck to you too!

I think looking for your artistic drive in discomfort/suffering is not the road you wanna find.
There are many ways to get motivated, and finding a way that's comfortable and works might not be easy if you focus too much on believing your drive comes from discomfort!

Maybe try a different medium or subject to draw. Maybe set yourself fun challenges (endless possibilities here). Maybe pick something you want to improve on and focus purely on that for a while. Maybe try a completely different, funky style that's just fun!

The bottom line is probably, it's a matter of trial and error. But the goal should be to enjoy what you're doing to its fullest! You don't need to suffer to produce art, I promise!

I wouldn't say that I am necessarily looking for artistic drive in discomfort/suffering. More like because of those things in the past, it keep me driving towards a goal. Since I do not really have any goals anymore or they are extremely far fetched at my current skill level (and time), I do not have the drive to carry on.

Different mediums sound like a great idea. I keep telling myself I want to mess with real paints but never do. Or get back into sculpting. I do feel like I was most active in recent years when I worked on a resin cast head (which flopped), but I think it did help the more I think about it.

"Suffering"? Not sure. Perhaps I just wish it was "fun" again. Some people meditate; I do art. Regardless of content, it relaxed me.

Get rid of distractions.

Probably easier outside COVID times I would be totally for this.

I find left to my own devices..if there is a computer near me it always takes priority over anything creative. If I was wiser I would toss it out the window!

One of the ways that has helped me continue on when I don't have any drive going is I will take a class. It doesn't have to be in person, or even really anything beyond a udemy 10 dollar course or something and I will treat it like one of my home responsibilities that I have to finish before chilling out.

It's my "homework". Once I get going that drive comes back pretty rapidly just simply by having something to give me that little kick to the pants. First step is always the hardest, but once you get going again it gets far easier.

This has definitly helped me in the past when I found myself in a rut, especially so when the lesson is something I'm excited about.

Absolutely! I figured it was always good to push forward at least a little at a time. and maintain that momentum even in the duldrums.

I planned on this at one point, but it fell through (read previous reply). I tried to get into a course similar to what Zephra took a while back for environments.

I have considered it many times. I actually almost signed up, but then they switched teachers and I could never get into a course (always full), so I kind of just "gave up" on that option, lol.
Perhaps, I can give it another shot. Do you have a link for recommendations?

imo instead of painstakenly trying to improve try having fun.

watch a few speedpaintings, try out new stuff. dont worry about anything, just enjoy yourself.

Stay home more just gives you more time to think. I've done most of what you're saying except for trying the new stuff. Perhaps, that is the key for me RN.

new music, new games, scribbling a random thought,
don't be over committed: if it's something you like, save it for later as you're 'tired' and will just get frustrated.

I would like to find more music options. I feel as if music has gotten stale for me.
When I first found CellD, I thought I found a gold mine.
Same thing happened later with Unkle.

while it's sort of bad to always look for something "new", it can be refreshing to find neat things :3

Do simple trades, maybe? Maybe during those trades, you can find a moment your drive comes back and then do more during that drive for one or more trades, or even things other than

I do not think trades are necessarily what I need right now. At least, it doesn't help me focus on what actually is the problem. In the past, I was able to pin point the problems and work around them or fix them, but this... I have no idea.

I like what Nitro said. Just do...whatever. Doodle, scribble, make something silly, make something serious, make some stick figure dragon/wyvern drawings. Don't take it seriously.
Sometimes its the simple things that all we need. What I'm saying is; make something that doesn't have to be finished or even polished.

After I made my comment, a few other ideas came to mind. How about picking a character that you like and illustrating them like you did with Iridiu? You can even contact the person you want to illustrate and see if they have any neat SFW ideas (lets be honest NSFW can get old and kind of routine. There is only so many poses but at the same time some people can have some unique NSFW ideas)

Or you can make another journal and let people give you their image ideas, characters, and you pick the ones (or multiple) images that sound fun and interesting to you. Would be like a commission but minus the money part. This way you can make it as detailed as you want. Just do simple sketches? Sure! Make clean lines? Sure! Flats if you really like it? Sure! Won't be any time frame and will be purely at your discretion.

Perhaps. Maybe I do 10 line doodles of people as a challenge, lol. As far as NSFW, I feel I end up doing a lot of SFW drawings for practice then do NSFW with what I have learned. It's kind of silly, but that usually makes it fun.

Try a new medium. Instead of digital, try learning 3d modeling or animation. Try making music or something else that uses creativity. Generally doing things that form a parallel thought process can help you realize/renew that spark of ignorance where you are learning new things with everything you create. Can sometimes come back when you try to do your regular art style.

Yes for trying something new. Thanks for the input.

I'd say... try to find something you know you need to bring to life through art.

The first thing that comes to mind after reading your journal and all the comments so far is that being comfortable in a physical sense doesn't mean we are in the same place psychologically and emotionally: not being among friends where you can be yourself can take a heavy toll over time that impacts your artistic drive. That gets even more important when you work in an environment where people don't care about you as person but only about work related things.

No financial pressure does help a lot, of course, but emotional pressure of wearing a mask constantly can result in similar blockage. Inspiration as well as trying out new things (That can also fail sometimes) need an environment of an emotional safezone where you can experiment and receive positive feedback where it is deserved as well as negative feedback when it's meant in a constructive sense and that will, in turn, give you new pushes forward.

Hope that helps. =)

Many artists are feeling this as well. it comes and goes. it's not easy to maintain that initial surge.
But .... getting one's fire back.
it has to do with revisiting the WHY. revisiting what your initial passion behind it. helping people, inspiring people.
Just some observations:
- your style and skill is already very polished. you have potential for... "breaking a wall", perhaps exploring something you haven't done before. some odd style, or species that wows you.
- don't feel bad about plateauing. Classics never get old.. and nothing wrong with drawing lots of what you like.

I'm no psychologist, but I think it has to do with the fact that you've found kind of a routine for your day to day activities. Art is tricky in the sense that it forces you to be creative and think outside of your boundaries. So in a way, I think it clashes with your currently set up mentality.

I'm going through something similar, though with art being my main source of income and feeling burnout at the same time. If you figure anything out or just want to talk to a kindred soul, drop me a line yeah~? :> I'll try and remember to hit you up if I figure anything out.

What's worked a little bit for me so far is keeping a list of ideas and artwork I'd like to be able to emulate and places I wanna go.

Collaborations? Trades with artists that are subjectively "better" than you?

While trades may not be a solution, a collaboration might show you new ways to move on from where you would normally go with a piece.

Now honestly I am kinda throwing out ideas. I am not a good artist. I can’t really draw much except eyes, claws, scales, and abstract backgrounds. But something I found in writing and storytelling is to get Drive from others. Find someone who is passionate about what they’re working on and help them achieve it. In a way let they’re passion become your passion.