January 16, 2010 - 12:19am — Spyrre
Meh. I don´t know exactly why, but I have been very tired recently. I haven´t had inspiration or energy to do much anything, art nor roleplay (which is bad, I used to play all the time o_O ). As everyone probably knows, this kind of phases are highly annoying, so I thought to ask if people had some tricks in their sleeves against these damn blocks.
What do you do when you have art/writing block?
Want to suggest an inspiring/fun movie/book/music/something else?
Maybe this could help me and other people suffering of the same "condition". =)
For my answer, movie-nerd as I am, I like to watch movies trying to gather some inspiration. The most inspiring movies I can think of are probably Princess Mononoke and Pan´s Labyrinth, but somehow I also enjoy of The Neverending story and such old fantasy movies. I listen music too, and have my mp3-player stuffed mostly with Susumu Hirasawa, Disturbed and Poets of the fall. It might have even worked, I actually got myself to paint again a bit listening music... <3
Music inspires me, since
If you liked 'Pan's
As for what I do when I have a drawing block, I try one of two things.
1) Do something focused, but not really creative. Still-life stuff is great for this because you can set up a display (fruit, fabric, shoes whatever you feel like) and leave it up for a week or so, drawing it when you have time/motivation (still, hour or so long stints are the best way to go). This will not only help you develop skills, but also helps remove the pressure to come up with something imaginative and creative.
OR, if you don't want to do that, you can always try the opposite side of things!
2) Do really large, really messy doodles. I find pads of newsprint paper are awesome for this cause they come in larger sizes, but are also dirt cheap (A pad of paper is usually under 3 dollars!). Use soft pencil crayons, charcoal, markers, or even paint for this. Try and avoid things that you can erase! If you can't erase it, you won't get hung up on making it neat and precise. When you do these, don't worry about details, or about proper anatomy/light sources/colors...just focus on getting what's in your head onto the paper. I've had loads of great ideas get scribbled out that I didn't even know where floating round my head!
Well, I hope those ideas help!
Art block is a horrible illness, don't suffer in silence! ;D
Hmm, yeah, something funny
You´re right about that "jealousy"-thing also, it just has that it can also make a block worse sometime. But watching other art might give ideas, at least. =)
Ooo, thanks Tera!
Your both ideas sound very good, especially the scribbly-thing... that sounds like it would be fun! Still-life objects tend to bore me though, but doing some random animals from pictures could be more my thing. *writes notes*
Wasn´t Mirror mask based on a book by Neil Gaiman? I have wanted to see that, but had forgotten it already, I really should look it up! Gaiman is awesome. <3
Yes it is based on Neil
weee i love pans labyrinth!!!