6 Ways to Break Free From Artist’s Block

Posted on May 7, 2009 by Jamie

You suck. Every line you draw is worse than the previous one. Your perspective is all broken. Your composition is weak. Nothing looks the way it looked in your head. Face it. You’ve hit the artist’s block. Every artist faces such blocks at one point or another. It’s terribly painful and discouraging and can really sour your disposition. But fear not, Monster Cutie has 6 surefire ways to break you out of the artist’s block!

1. Take a Walk

Put your pencil down, get up from your drafting table, take a good stretch, put on your walking shoes, and head out the door. Sometimes the easiest way to get out of a rut is to just get out of the physical space where you work. If it’s a nice day outside, take a walk around the block. If it’s a little nasty outside, you can do some push-ups or jump rope or walk up and down a flight of stairs a few times. Get that blood pumping again and you may find the haze of artist’s block melt away.

2. Talk to Another Artist

Call up an artist friend and see if they have time for lunch or dinner or just a quick chat on the phone. It sometimes helps to get a new perspective on whatever is tangling you up. Show them your work. Another set of eyes is always helpful when you find yourself struggling. You may find you’re headed in the right direction all along, you just needed someone else to tell you so.

3. Learn a New Technique

It sometimes helps to break out of your comfort zone. If you find yourself working in a particular style or using familiar techniques, learn something new. A new method of working or a new technique will force you to focus on something other than your artist’s block. You’ll be concentrating on your technique rather than the piece that’s been giving you so much trouble and before you know if, you’ve worked it all out.

4. Change Mediums

A change in physical medium may do the trick. If you’re working primarily digitally, break out the pencil and paper. If you’re working with dead trees, turn on that monitor and break out the digital crayons. Maybe try your hand at some 3D computer modeling or physically sculpting something. Changing your medium forces you to focus on the physical act of making art rather than the piece

5. Draw Some Fanart

If you’re having trouble working on a client piece, take a break and draw something for yourself. Do some fanart of your favorite comic book character, super hero, band, or whatever else you have a passion for in your non art life. Drawing something you love will help get those artistic muscles flexing again. Once you’re done, you’ll be ready to tackle that client piece with new energy.

6. Do Something Non Art Related

If all else fails, take an hour or two and do something completely unrelated to art.  Read a book, go to the mall, grab some food, play a video game, go rock climbing.  Give yourself ample time, at least an hour, to recharge.  Then you can return to your work fresh and energized.

Your Turn

The next time you find yourself up against that artist’s block, hopefully one of these 6 ideas will help you break it.

Do you have any artist’s block breaking techniques to add?

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  • http://charm-city-studios.com CharmCityShinobi

    Something I like to do with concept projects, whether it’s client work or personal art, is research if I get stumped. Even if it’s something I’m familiar with, it doesn’t hurt to learn some more. I like to include symbols from tradition and mythology to add depth to a piece. Even if a majority of people don’t recognize the reference, the inclusion of new information I didn’t originally associate with the subject matter gives me extra perspectives to work from.

  • http://webpages.uah.edu/~reimerd torsoboy

    sometimes I find it helpful to work on a “related but opposite” side project. I figure most illustration subjects (even technical illustration) have some sort of opposite subject matter. For me right now, I’m working on a body of work that is mostly these cute little robots. I keep having difficulties developing new characters, so I’ll take a break and draw some animal characters or people characters. It helps flush out stagnate creativity, but italso helps me get new ideas for the robot body of work.

    I find that his technique works wonders if youre working in a specific style, like “realistic” or “cartoony.” I like to do a lot of character design, and most of that stems from costume and prop design. If I’m having trouble seeing it realistically, I’ll try to draw it as cartoony as possible. That way shapes are abstract and can’t opperate in the real world. Seeing it like that forces me to then start thinking how can I turn that cartoony design [back] into a realistic design. I’m forced to make design choices to best fit the cartoony look, and then altering to fit in the real world. Works wonders! I imagine this works well the other way around too, reducing complex designs to core identifiable shapes. Its just a way of working out the kinks. Sometimes artist block is just your mind telling you that your idea has problems hat need to be worked out.

  • Gary

    Look around the room and note horizontal, vertical or diagonal lines created by the objects around you (going to an unfamiliar place may help) and just draw those lines. Draw the line of a door frame as you see it from where you sit. Draw the line of a sidewalk from where you sit. Whatever. Just draw some lines around you and don’t resist when youw ant to keep going.