Let’s talk about ⒸⓇⒺⒶⓉⒾⓋⒺ ⒷⓁⓄⒸⓀⓈ.
If you are an artist, you are probably pretty familiar with this old ‘friend’ that likes to visit us occasionally - unexpected, unwelcome. If you aren’t... how does it feel to be gods favourite? 😧
Let me give a quick overview on WHAT a creative block is, for those who are gods favourites.
Creative blocks, or barriers to inspiration, can be described as the inability to access one's internal creativity. Those in creative professions—writers, musicians, performers, artists—are often more likely to be affected by creative blocks, which can last for days, weeks, months, or even years.
She likes to visit extremely unannounced, and at the most inconvenient times. 🙄 For example, one day I had 7+ hours of no distraction to do art. But guess who decided to stop by? Creative Block. 😒 If you couldn’t already tell, she is the pit of many jokes and memes in the creative community - the only thing she is really useful for. 😂 But the real question here is... how do we overcome creative block? How to we tell her that she isn’t welcome in our space, and if she could kindly exit through the back door as quickly as possible - and never return. 🤔
Well, you’ve come to the right place! I am going to give you some tips that I have received from followers, heard on podcasts, other artist’s blog posts, or things I do to overcome this block that I want to share. Let’s dive in...
So, the one tip that I hear from SO MANY artist’s is to Give yourself a break. When you find yourself in a creative block, do you ever stop and think ‘why?’ Why am I in this block in the first place? An extremely common answer is that you have overworked yourself. Maybe you took on this huge project, or you have been creating non-stop for the past week or so. Just like the human muscles need to rest and slow down every night, your creative muscles require that rest too! So my tip is to first, analyse. Why are you in this block! Have you been doing a lot of work lately? Is that the reason why you feel so drained of inspiration and can’t seem to do any art? If that’s the reason, then STOP! Take a break. Read a book, go for a walk, bake something yummy, watch a movie, binge a series, do whatever you need to do - for however long you need to - to just give yourself a break.
But, that might not always be the case. It might not always be because you have been painting a lot for the past couple days/weeks and your creative muscles are tired. Sometimes, this block likes to come randomly and for no reason whatsoever.
What I do when this happens is I try something new. A new form of art, something I haven’t done in a while. One thing that gets me out of this block is to put some music on, and just GO CRAZY! Splash paint around, splat watercolour everywhere, get messy, use my hands, swirl ink, create something abstract. I’ve heard that many artists also do this! Trust me - it works. But if that still doesn’t work? Well, when you find yourself in this situation, don’t be hard on yourself. That‘s what most people tend to do, and it actually does more harm than good. Don’t keep pushing yourself to do art, do art, do art. If it’s just not working out, you need to acknowledge that and move on. Do something else! Take a break. A pause.
In the list below is several other tips I want to share that my Instagram followers have given me!
- put on some tunes and pour the paint on your hands an make a mess. Result will inspire! - Rest.
- Take a break and come back fresh. Forcing yourself to make art is just what feeds the block. - Put something down on the page so you won’t be scared to start. - Sketch daily, even if it’s just simple. (This is a great thing to do to prevent the block from even beggining!)
- Find a new space! Sitting at a desk doesn’t always get the creative juices flowing!
I hope these tips have helped you, and that you find them useful! ❤
thank you to my Instagram followers for sharing their tips on how to get over the creative block, they were really useful to add to this blog post. See you in another post, or over on my Instagram @alishadinapop !
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