All artists inevitably face artist block. We become unmotivated, uninspired, and bored. We want to draw, yet we simply can’t pick up the pencil. We, artists, have to combat this, so I have compiled a list of ideas to help us overcome artist block.
1) Play Around With Paint on Your Fingers
As a kid, you may remember painting and getting your hands dirty in paint.
Now, get your sketchbook and some paint to get your hands dirty. Make a painting with your fingers or sketch a drawing with some ink. Make handprints or fingerprints. Just play with the paint.
2) Draw Your Favorite Cartoons
Cartoons are made up of shapes. Simple shapes that make up your favorite show. Look at Phineas and Ferb, Phineas is literally shaped like a triangle. Simple shapes are what make drawing cartoons easy and relaxing. This idea also gives you an excuse to watch your cartoons.
Now go and draw Spongebob or Lincoln from The Loud House.
3) Draw Your Favorite Brand Logos
Logos are just like cartoons. They are made up of simple shapes and writing with different fonts. Adidas has three stripes, Nike has a check mark, and Panda Express has a cute panda.
Other brands just have their brand name written in a unique style, like Oreo, Ben and Jerry’s, and Pop-Tarts. These logos are simple to copy and draw, which can help you get rid of artist’s block.
4) Make a Collage
The great thing about making collages is that you don’t have to draw, paint, or whatever. You just get the magazine and cut out the things you like. Whether that is food pictures, celebrities, or clothes.
You can also make an online collage if you’d prefer that.
5) Give Your Sketchbook to Someone Else and Let Them Draw in It
If you don’t feel like drawing in your sketchbook. Let someone else draw. They don’t have to be a great artist, just someone in general, a sibling, friend, anyone. The point of this idea is to get motivated by other people’s art and help you get back into the habit of making art.
6) Go to an Art Museum
Get inspired by going to an art museum. Find the most detailed and beautiful paintings, and make your version. Copy some abstract paintings into your sketchbook to prove your point that anyone can do abstract art.
And even if you don’t feel like drawing, at least you get to spend a day at the art museum.
7) Draw the Simple Things Around You
Don’t worry about being heavily detailed all the time. Sometimes simplicity makes drawings stand out more. Look around your surroundings and draw what you see. Forget the details, and use simple lines to draw your environment.
8) Forget About Fear
We artists often fear our art being imperfect or up to our standards. But the key to growing as an artist is not perfection but rather the act of being consistent. Drawing without fear grows you as an artist and broadens your scope.
“When you look at people who are successful, you will find that they aren’t the people who are motivated, but have consistency in their motivation”
– Arsène Wenger
9) Go to the Library or Local Cafè
What type of people are at the library or local cafè? Hardworking, focused people, working on their two thousand dollar computers with their three hundred dollar headphones. If you go to these places to motivate yourself to draw, the presence of these hardworking people will force you to make progress on your sketchbook.
Plus, if you go to a cafè you can buy food there.🥛☕️🍵🥖🥯🥐🧇
10) Draw Like a Kid Again
As a kid, you never worry about how your drawing will turn out. Take back this mindset of a kid, and apply it to your sketchbook. Draw stick figures again, with those “m” shaped birds and those square houses with triangle roofs. Forget about the worries of perfect drawings.
I hope you get over your artist’s block, and just remember to enjoy the art you make! 🎨✍️🙃
ACMonis 