Argh guys, do you also sometimes just get totally stuck when it comes to painting and creating? I DO and it’s super frustrating and annoying! Luckily, I have a few ways to get out of my funk and I thought I’d share them with you today! :) Hope they help and if YOU have any ideas and tips about how you get through creative block DO leave your ideas below in the comment section. Let’s help each other out mkay? :-) Your presence is appreciated and loved around here lovebug! :D
Here are some thoughts on the subject and some ways to get unstuck.
1. If you are one to compare your work to others’ works (such a bad idea!), you might find this paralyses you at times causing major creative block. Your inner critic and inner perfectionist will have A BALL if you keep comparing your work to other people’s work. And they will be quick to tell you: “dude, give up, your work sucks, it’s nothing compared to xyz’s work’. You will feel miserable, in a rut, stuck and totally locked down by creative block. So: don’t. Don’t compare. And try not to judge your own work. Instead, remember to create for the joy of creating. You LOVE how the colours look together, how the brush strokes leave awesome marks, how gesso fixes everything, how layered collage and paint-over delight you, the whimsy and the doodles and the stripey stripes that appear from under your pencils and markers. That’s why you create, you are not in the ‘creation business’ to ‘make a better painting than hooplalala or whoever’. So stop comparing beautiful one and just make art. When you create with that freedom and joy, you will actually end up making good art, in the end, but don’t make that the point, it will stifle, paralyse and inhibit your progress and process. Make art for the joy of it and all will fall into place.
2. Maybe, for you, it’s not about feeling paralysed or stied, but perhaps you just feel really intimidated by that blank canvas or page. You stare at it and you stare some more an a bit of you is like: “I have no inspiration or imagination, what do I create? I just don’t know”. And I get it moonbeam, I do. That white page can be mighty intimidating and it can be super hard to simply start. So, here is a super easy way to simply start: STAT. Ha. ;) Take some stencils, take some inks, spray them haphazardly all over your white page: tadaaa, the white is gone! Make more mess, layer, brayer, collage, add some crayons, at some markers, make a big big mess! Play, do this freely, just get it all out without too much thinking. Use your fingers, use your heart. Avoid thoughts, thinking things, thinky thoughts, they get in the way. Just express for a while. Then stop and start looking and seeing, maybe bring in a little bit of your thinky thoughts and start finding shapes and ideas and inspiration in your mess of a background. There you go, the white blank page-itis has been cured. ;)
3. About those thinkie thoughts: sometimes too much noise is going on in your head. You’re not scared per se of the white page, you’re also not stopped by your pesky inner critic, there is simply so much going on in that head of yours, it’s stopping you from doing anything creative. Solution: take a break. Meditate, listen to a beautiful song that you love (I recommend: Dream by Priscilla Ahn), go out for a walk in nature, unwind, slow down, empty yourself o yourself, quiet your thoughts, come back to yourself, your heart, your soul and then come back to the page and begin again.
4. Ok, so for you, it’s not about comparison, blank page fear or too much noise in your head. You just feel like you can’t think of anything interesting to paint or create. You literally need inspiration or a prompt or both. No trouble mah babies, here are some ideas. Start a prompt jar. Write up a whole load of words or sentences that you like the sound of (could even be from poetry or music lyrics), fold them all up, stuff in a jar and when in need, pick a prompt!
5. Ok, if for you, you’re trying to paint but you’re just sitting there and nothing makes a difference, no starting with random background, no prompts or walks through nature (I’ve been there done that, for serious), one thing that I like doing when I get to that point; I go looking through my own work and search for paintings that I really like. I look for the ones that just made my heart sing when I created them and I simply try and replicate the same painting or the same technique, just to try and recapture that same feeling and inspiration I had when I created a painting that I really really liked and loved.
(Incidentally, this painting was creating during my Collage, Paint & Soul Class which is available as a self study here).
Other quick ideas: pinterest, music, prose, poetry and quotes can also really help me get back into my groove and feel inspired again.
The main thing you have to remember is to keep your mind open & empty (create with your intuition and heart more), don’t cloud your mind and heart with comparison & not good enough thoughts, they are killers of creative juices! Your unique creative voice needs to be heard sweetness. Your creativity is a gift to the world: don’t give up on it. :)
Let me know how you get through creative block in the comments below if you feel so inclined! Thank you for being here. I rather heart you. <3 Mwah!
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