Sunday, April 17, 2016

How to Overcome Artists Block?

How to Overcome Artist's Block?

The worst thing for an artist is when you cannot get an idea out of your head to create. It is very frustrating especially when you are so excited, motivated, happy and ready to create. Your siting there in front of your medium and nothing!

Sometimes the best thing is to take a break from your work. Take a different approach. Accept that you cannot get something going at the moment and walk away. Call a friend, family or two and go do an activity. Go to dinner, movies or anything to occupy the thoughts of trying to think of something. Take part in something totally unrelated to the art you are trying to create. Go for a walk….anything! do something that brings your good feelings back.

If you feel that you are taking too much time to think of something? Push through it…. Fake it til you make it. Just start creating whatever. Adjust as you go along. Sometimes the great ideas come from something totally abstract. Make something and create whatever.

If you still feel that you cannot push through, copy something. Go online and print a picture and transpose it, watch some videos online of other works of artists and copy their ideas without plagiarizing of course! Type in a search term of your favorite colors or shapes in images on google and see what comes up? Look online for your favorite artists and look at their work. Look at images from stock photography. Close your eyes and start drawing shapes on a canvas and see what comes up with. 

I want to also talk about another philosophy to coming up with the motivation for new work. Tap into your unconscious. Sit and relax focusing on your peace of mind. Have a paper and pencil or pen handy. Preferably a pen so that there is no erasing. When you begin to concentrate on relaxing observe the first thoughts that come to mind. Write your thoughts as you see them. Continue focus on your thoughts and as you address each thought remove them from your consciousness. After you either are repeating thoughts or recycling, begin to introduce what it is you want to focus on. Dig deep in your thoughts for the art you want to create. If it a certain genre you are interested in think of that. If it is colors you want to focus on continue to create in your mind.

The purpose of this exercise is to stimulate all of your emotions involved in creating. Creating is an emotional process. It is not just a simple thought it is a very strong emotion. We usually create artwork from our experiences. Our emotional experiences are reflected in our art. The colors we choose in our art describe the emotional state, the detail will come from the calm, the abstract and flow will be determined by the level of energy we have during the creative process.

Sit back and relax if you are experiencing a creative block and try to focus on those thoughts instead of focusing on why you cannot think of anything to create. If you focus on the quality of your thoughts and accept them as they are, you can determine what is blocking by the journal you are keeping.

I hope my message was clear and helpful.
As Always I Love You.

This process works for me as it did this week. I am creating again.