So you make yourself a cup of coffee. Pull out your trusty sketchbook. Sit down at your desk ready to do some art and…Nothing.
No inspiration. No motivation. No reason to continue trying.
It’s as if everything you try to draw fails.
Many questions are whizzing through your mind.
“Am I losing my art ability? How am I even going to finish this piece?! Is the tooth fairy even real??!!”
Okay, maybe not the last one…
You, my friend, are experiencing “Art Block”.
What is art block?
It’s an emotional state that prevents you from tapping into your creativity and affects everyone differently. Some people only for an hour or two. Other people, for many years leading to them completely abandoning their hobby.
Some symptoms include:
- Don’t feel like creating art.
- No new ideas.
- Everything you create looks bad.
- Depressed.
- Mind goes blank.
- Lack of confidence
These are a few of the things you could be feeling.
How is art block caused?
So now we know how to spot this feeling, let’s explore some of the causes.
Here are 5 common reasons why you might be experiencing an art block:
1) Feeling too tired
You might have had a long day at school or work and are too tired to do anything.
Let’s face it, our lives can be pretty tiring sometimes. We spend the whole day thinking and doing without complete breaks of silence. This completely burns through our mental capacity and causes us to feel too drained to produce art.
After all, good ideas need us to think about them.
2) Surrounded by a bad environment
Your environment may be too distracting. It is easy to lose focus when there are high levels of noise around you. This could be noisy people in your room or house, or even the TV being left on.
It is also hard to buckle down and produce good art if the desk or living space you are working at is cluttered. There are too many little things that end up pulling your attention away.
3) Too critical of your own drawings
You are probably looking at professional drawings and then comparing yourself to them. Remember, it takes years of practice for us to be able to reach that level and produce a similar quality of art. It is something that will come naturally the more you learn and try for yourself.
Some artists may watch a lot of speed paints on YouTube. Others scroll through illustrations posted on deviant art or social media.
Many of us are guilty of collecting endless references for inspiration (this is totally me…). Don’t fall into this trap.
4) Not inspired enough
This point slightly contradicts the last but hear me out. Art block is such a varying problem and effects everyone differently. Sometimes you might be in a funk and need something to get your creative juices flowing.
5) Your eye for good drawing is improving
This one is really important and can often be overlooked during an art block.
You have probably gotten to a point where you are able to recognise what is good and what is not working. Analysing your own drawings and determining that some areas need more improvement.
Don’t worry, this is a good thing and completely normal. We need to go through phases of improving our skill level and our eye for good drawing. In this video, YouTuber Sycra explains this concept very well:
It’s just a phase
So now you know why you are experiencing art block, you don’t have to stress so much. Don’t give up, this feeling will pass.
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