When Creative Block Strikes

You've managed to clear a few hours in your busy life to actually make things.  Yay!  You sit down and...nothing.  Sigh. Or perhaps you're generating stuff but it just stinks.  Ugh.

Creative block is a super annoying thing. 

I have developed lots of strategies for dealing with creative block over the years, but after a while you know when you're tricking yourself.  So, I turned to Facebook and Instagram to ask for some advice last week.  The advice I got back was sooooo good and so helpful that I wanted to share it with you here today.  I took all of the advice that came in and I organized it into a couple of basic categories.

Here are some ideas for breaking through creative block:

• Look for inspiration:
  • Watch YouTube videos for inspiration.
  • Look at art technique books.
  • Search Pinterest.
  • Look at blogs.
  • Take a class.
  • Look at random images, books, or magazines and jot notes.
  • Try a challenge.
• Play:
  • Draw circles over and over again until a page is filled.
  • Scribbling and doodling.
  • Take a white crayon and scribble.  It becomes a resist.
  • Spread paint or spray ink on small, square watercolor cards.
  • Take a small card and play with backgrounds or stamping or collage...fun in a small space.
  • Try a different medium.
  • Try new ways to paint.
• Make a particular kind of art you find relaxing and non-challenging:
  • Gelli Print
  • Zentangle
  • Knit
  • Make Mini Journals
  • Coloring Book
• Do something else:
  • Read
  • Walk
  • Organize supplies
  • Clean
  • Swim
  • Explore outdoors
  • Go to the library or bookstore
  • Talk with friends
  • Eat
  • Try Chocolate & Netflix
• Be true to your personality:
  • Just keep making.
  • Just wait.

These last two pieces of advice are particularly interesting to me because they're so contradictory and yet so true.  Are you the kind of person who stops to catch your breath when you're running or are you kind of person who likes to push through the pain?  Neither is the right or better choice, they're just different ways of approaching the same problem.

I'll leave you with my favorite piece of advice, which comes from Marguerite:

"I’ve stopped calling it a block and call it a break or reboot and almost every time I learn something new so that I don’t freeze up anymore and see it more as an opportunity."

Yassss, girl!  In the absence of a chemical imbalance, attitude is the key to happiness.  Let's all see creative block as a wonderful opportunity to grow!

I made you a little list to print up and stick on your wall, in case you need it!  It fits on an 8.5x11 piece of paper.

Thanks for stopping by!