Curse you artist's block!!!

[bahn]

Gak!!! I hate them. I think I may have to take a week off before some inspiration strikes me. I am sure many of us have been through those mental blocks. I've even tried playing music, but I can't think of nothing.

...maybe I need to eat. >_<

[AaronChance]

I don't know if it would work for you, but what I've been doing is when I get stuck I change the purpose of my drawing. That is if I've just been drawing random stuff, I try and draw in some sort of project like a comic, and if I was blocked while working on a comic or some other project I just draw completely at random, like for a while I was doing new drawings based on very old half-completed sketches. I don't know if the change in motivation tricks my brain out of taking a break when I don't want it to, but it's been working well for me for a while now.

[bahn]

That's cool Amm, but I am not into comic stuff anymore. Besides, if I am having artist's block in general - aspiring to draw a extended project like a comic would just make me more upset.

...so what do I do? try, try again (like right now). Oh and I never just draw random stuff, I generally have a character or two in mind, then I go from there.

[Drewbacca]

Draw an ant going about the events of his day. Now strap a rocket pack to his back and have him land in the day of another bug and draw what he'd do then. (blend in, get eaten, do something bizarre [well, more bizarre then having a rocket pack strapped to your back]).

[AaronChance]

That's cool Amm, but I am not into comic stuff anymore. Besides, if I am having artist's block in general - aspiring to draw a extended project like a comic would just make me more upset.

...so what do I do? try, try again (like right now). Oh and I never just draw random stuff, I generally have a character or two in mind, then I go from there.

Comic was just an example. I was talking about any sort of extended project, something more than just drawing a character or two. Like instead of just drawing a few characters seperately, try to do a larger work of various characters together in some sort of scene, like Furyfox's entry for the July swimsuit contest. Or draw small quick sketches of the same character in lots of different poses. Or something else that's different than the way you normally approaching drawing.

[loki]

usually when I get artist block I go on AIM. aka I forgot your screen name bahn. instant message me again sometime so I can lock that down.

but seriously the best thing to do when you get artist block is to keep drawing until it reaallly hurts and then take a nice relaxing BREAK so that its out of your system and your not still dwelling on the BLOCK.

[bahn]

Comic was just an example. I was talking about any sort of extended project, something more than just drawing a character or two. Like instead of just drawing a few characters seperately, try to do a larger work of various characters together in some sort of scene, like Furyfox's entry for the July swimsuit contest. Or draw small quick sketches of the same character in lots of different poses. Or something else that's different than the way you normally approaching drawing.

I'll consider that AFTER I've got the dust off an my work is polished. mmm.

[JM]

Don't give it much thought. Dwelling on how little inspiration you have will only make it worse. Just make sure you sit down & draw a little every day. You may find that once you sit down and start screwing around, you will forget all about any block you may have.

90% of the time I have absolutely no idea what I'm gonna paint, but I still set my canvass up & just start attacking it untill something comes to me. I just make sure that I do something, even if I don't keep it. If I don't like an image after 30 minutes, I deem it not worthy & scrub it out & start over the next day.

JM

[Dolemite]

Best advice I ever got was from reading an interview with Stewart Copeland, former drummer for The Police. He said that you can't wait around until you're in the mood to create. That, no matter how you feel, just sit down and do something. Creativity is like a muscle, he said, and the more you force yourself to use it, the stronger it gets, and the easier it gets to just turn it on and off until it gets to the point that you can just sit down at any time and be in any mood and just draw (or, in his place, compose). Works for me.

[bahn]

thanks. no sooner than I wrote this thread did I actually go back to drawing.