Artist’s Block, Break Out of that Horrible Slump

What do you do to break out of a slump? Artists block…or whatever you want to call it……it’s got you, what do you do?

We all get it and rather than just tell what I do, I am going to list a bunch of ideas and comments from other artists. So lets hear what they suggest and then you can decide what’s best for you.

I just rant and rave. And RAGE!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

COMMENTS FROM A DOODLERS LINKED IN GROUP.

 Keith Kern • Get out and do something you love doing. Have an adventure, watch a cool movie or whatever it is you like to do.

 

JB [Jack] Hertz • Kind of depends on what the situation is. It is different if it is for a deadline. Nothing can kill creativity better than pressure to perform. Getting away and doing diversionary things doesn’t work as well for me as I find I tend to obsess on the fact that I can’t come up with anything. And there I am sitting in a movie thinking about not being able to come up with some idea rather than enjoying the movie!!

If I just feel like I have had the last idea i’ll ever have, I will just scribble on a piece of paper. Big swirls, and little tight ones. Then I stare at it for a while. It is amazing what you can see in that sort of thing. It can really get the juices flowing. Another technique I use is to just draw. Free your mind. draw eyes, or other body parts..or faces then I imagine what the faces are saying or doing. Also I try not to throw much of what I have done away whether it is good or not as I can look through this “morgue” and get stimulated as well.

 

Chuck P• That is very good advice Jack, doing simple little scribbles and doodles would at least get me doing something on paper. It might inspire something…..you never know. I obsess on my block also and that is probably why it is stumping me. I should also work on some faces and hands as well as those are the things I am not happy with in my own critique. I might just have to start a :sketch graveyard” as well…lol…maybe I can pull a doodle back from the dead into something significant!

 

JB [Jack] Hertz • Glad you found something useful. I am always happy to help. This is a tad off target, but I find ideas don’t always come at the moment you are trying to conjure them up. Some of my best have come just as I am waking up. I guess that’s when my mind is the least cluttered. They may come, however, any time and anywhere. At any rate, I always

try to have a note pad and pencil close by so I can write down any pearls I surely will forget ten minutes later. [ (Shhh it’s a secret). That’s really why there are napkins on tables in restaurants and bars] ©¿©

 

Our brains are really funny machines. It is impossible to understand why there are somethings we cannot get out of them, while others are gone in a flash..at least that is what happens between my ears.

Keith Kern • “Great ideas Jack”

Wayne Andreason • (that’s me) I say, work on something easy. It seams like you don’t want to draw or paint when you fear that it won’t turn out. A lot of accomplished artists have the same problem. They too fear that it won’t work. They will work on an easy area on something that is easy, not a face. Then as their Left Brain shuts off and the Right Brain engages, they get back into their groove.

 

 

Keith Kern • “Get out and do something you love doing. Have an adventure, watch a cool movie or whatever it is you like to do.”

JB [Jack] Hertz • Kind of depends on what the situation is. It is different if it is for a deadline. Nothing can kill creativity better than pressure to perform. Getting away and doing diversionary things doesn’t work as well for me as I find I tend to obsess on the fact that I can’t come up with anything. And there I am sitting in a movie thinking about not being able to come up with some idea rather than enjoying the movie!!

If I just feel like I have had the last idea i’ll ever have, I will just scribble on a piece of paper. Big swirls, and little tight ones. Then I stare at it for a while. It is amazing what you can see in that sort of thing. It can really get the juices flowing. Another technique I use is to just draw. Free your mind. draw eyes, or other body parts..or faces then I imagine what the faces are saying or doing. Also I try not to throw much of what I have done away whether it is good or not as I can look through this “morgue” and get stimulated as well.

 

Chuck Perry • That is very good advice Jack, doing simple little scribbles and doodles would at least get me doing something on paper. It might inspire something…..you never know. I obsess on my block also and that is probably why it is stumping me. I should also work on some faces and hands as well as those are the things I am not happy with in my own critique. I might just have to start a :sketch graveyard” as well…lol…maybe I can pull a doodle back from the dead into something significant!

 

JB [Jack] Hertz • Glad you found something useful. I am always happy to help. This is a tad off target, but I find ideas don’t always come at the moment you are trying to conjure them up. Some of my best have come just as I am waking up. I guess that’s when my mind is the least cluttered. They may come, however, any time and anywhere. At any rate, I always

try to have a note pad and pencil close by so I can write down any pearls I surely will forget ten minutes later. (Shhh it’s a secret). That’s really why there are napkins on tables in restaurants and bars] ©¿©

Our brains are really funny machines. It is impossible to understand why there are somethings we cannot get out of them, while others are gone in a flash..at least that is what happens between my ears.

 

Keith Kern • “Great ideas Jack”

wayne andreason • (me again) I say, work on something fun or easy. It seams like you don’t want to draw or paint when you fear that it won’t turn out. A lot of accomplished artists have the same problem. They too fear that it won’t work. They will work on an easy area on something that is easy, not a face. Then as their Left Brain shuts off and the Right Brain engages, they get back into their groove.

JB [Jack] Hertz: Author, cartoonist at “Real City Stuff”: What you say Wayne, about right and left brain functioning is very true..as long as we keep in mind that a groove is a shallow rut. [the true enemy of creativity]. Of course I know what you mean, but for me, anyway, I am always trying to get out of my comfort zone. Try new things, work with different media, shake it up. Never fear the finished product. If it is horrible then my garbage can gets to eat. An art teacher told me long ago, “There are no wrong answers in art”

Christopher Hart: Author and Cartoonist at Random House and Soho Publishing Company: “Just tell your brain that if you can’t get out of this slump, you’ll have to become a periodontist to make a living. Your brain will snap back immediately.”

Wendell Phillips (Phil) Berwick: Arborist | Instructor | Consultation on tree safety | tree health | tree trimming: (Author’s note: “this is starting to remind me of Reader’s Digest articles where they list the quote with the person’s name, profession and hobbies. Back to yiour Wendell…) I like the suggestions below, I have gone for days or weeks, but I make sure that I always have paper and pencil or pen in tow and travel, for I try to draw for literally almost everyone I have a contact with in the course of the day… for instance, if I am waiting at the bank teller, in the time she processes my transaction I pull off a fast sketch of my character and a “thank you”. The other night after eating at five guys burger and fries I handed a paper bag to the manager with a personalized character of mine “merferd”, she went ballistic (happy) and ordered her crew to get me a free large fry. This makes peoples’ day, you are giving it away, and everyone comes out of a slump!.

 

Sarah B. Stone: Arts Professional: I went through a big slump. I broke it by sitting in front of the TV, for several nights, with a sketchbook, doing automatic drawing. In other words, without thinking about drawing “something” I just let my hand draw. The TV was helpful because it took my focus away from thinking about the drawing. I was not invested in what I was watching (I think I was watching the Mentalist, fluffy entertainment), nor was I invested in what I was drawing. The process was like floating on a mental inner tube down a slow moving river. I started to doodle ropey line art, over and over, page after page, which turned into a series of abstract drawings, which I later colored in. This process got my brain working creatively again. When I am stuck for a solution to a creative problem, I go to sleep. Just before I wake up, I often have an answer, which comes from wherever my unedited thoughts come from. Have a notebook and pen at hand so you can draw or write your solution down before consciousness arrives fully, bringing your internal kill-switch with it.

 

JB [Jack] Hertz: Author, cartoonist at “Real City Stuff”:

Good comments Sarah. I too am never far from paper and pencil. As for the automatic drawing thing. It is amazing what can come out of such exercises. I love to sit and try to draw something without ever looking at the paper, just draw what ever happens to be rolling about in my noggin at the time, again with out ever peaking at my paper. Some interesting things have come out of fun activities like that. Main thing is not to buy into the artist block syndrome as it can become a self fulfilling prophecy. BTW I love your floating down the river in a mental inner tube analogy…

 

wayne andreason: Artist, Instructor, Co-Founder and Manager and CEO at Folio Academy. Father, jokester, your best friend, lover of life, real estate investor, movie watcher, time waster, artist’s block victim: “The best Sketch book is the one you have with you.”

jason hanson of StudioJason:

I tend to just mentally take a break…step back, not TRY to create something and just doodle whatever. Could be scribbles… lines…perhaps drawing something I tend to do a lot which is just an eye(s) via a comic book style…scribble figurative gesture poses, or faces just really practicing but not trying to really render some great pieces.

 

Reading. Often times, stepping back into some good books or poetry can help, letting an another fill the mind’s eye with their words…and my interpretations/imagination breeds wonderful ideas. As with Comic Book Art, the key many fail to get…focusing on renderings of cool images of heroes and such…it is the story that is the structure and guide. Take a line or piece from Poetry, or a book and just try and render a scene.

 

Music. As with above, music is undeniably the easiest thing to get absorbed into…all it takes is listening. We listen to music that fits our moods, and can even program our moods with music. Get lost in some music and start doodling…perhaps as above render images per a lyric, or overall mood of track…or even album.

 

Cruise other Artists works. Sometimes just looking at say a site like DeviantArt, Flickr, etc works due to ease…like going to a Museum, just at home. Don’t want to necessarily copy someone’s work…but can be fruitful in getting some ideas or things you might like to attempt.

 

As Sarah suggested above, it is getting into the non-thinking mode…the right side of the brain. Sometimes doing much of what she suggested…which can also even be just simply sitting there and looking at an object(s) in the room, and just drawing it…being out and about and just drawing a park bench….doesn’t have to be a masterpiece or even a ‘keepsake’ type of piece, just something to get the juices flowing.

Thank you everyone for your comments and ideas. I hope this gives a bunch of ideas and hopefully something that works. I used to like a simple quote back in the early 80’s by the late Mormon Prophet Spencer W. Kimball, “Do It.” Then I liked the Nike quote shortly after that: “Just Do It.” And now I’d like to coin a quote, “Just Do It Now!” ~Wayne Andreason

“Work first play later, that’s what I always say”. And my kids hate it. I also say stay hydrated, lick your platter clean, shut the door, and I love you. My kids probably hate that too. Well, not the I love you part.

Now stop wasting your time and go draw something.