Friday, October 2, 2020

How Do You Make Art When You Are Experiencing an Artist Block?

 I think that every artist goes through some flat periods where they lack some creative inspiration. You end up staring at your canvas on the easel  for hours  wondering  what to paint on it. You barely paint a stroke on your canvas. Sometimes these things turn into days or weeks or years. This is known as the dreaded artist block. 


Here are my top  five tips for you that have worked for me and helped me  overcome the dreaded artist block


 1) Join an Art Club 


Being a part of an Art Club  can definitely inspire an artist to pick up the brush and paint. You get to be a part of a vibrant art community  and see artworks of other artists. By talking to other artists as to how they created their artworks and learning their art techniques can get your creative juices flowing. I feel very fortunate to be a member of the Sunnyvale Art Club for  about 11 years at the time of writing  this post. And every time we  have  a meeting , it motivates me to go and pick up my brushes. 


Sunnyvale Art Club  https://www.sunnyvaleartclub.org




https://www.sunnyvaleartclub.org


Quick Tip: If you don't  have access to an art club in your area, then Youtube is your next best friend. 


2) Take a Break from your studio and go for a Walk


 The  best way that I found out to get over the dreaded artist block is to take a break from my studio and go for a walk at my local park. I would also take   a pencil and my journal and my camera.  I would then go and do some field sketching of the wildlife  like observing wildlife behavior of the animal/bird and then draw and record it on my nature journal while I am at the park. I would also do sketches of  flowers , stones or anything that I find interesting and draw them onto my nature journal. I would also use this opportunity to snap some  pictures which I can use as reference photos for my future artworks. 


Field sketching helps me overcome my artist block  by igniting new ideas for future paintings thus cultivating a richer experience of being creative. 


Mallard Duck



 3) Read an instructional Art book


Reading an instructional art book has helped me fire up my creative juices. Here is a good book that I recommend reading :


Daily Painting: Paint Small and Often To Become a More Creative, Productive, and Successful Artist by Carol Marine. 


Daily Painting Book


I think it is a great book for someone who wants to pursue painting but are short on time. Daily Painting focuses on painting in regular intervals and creating many small paintings using an alla prima technique.   This book has many how- to lessons , by following along I find that I am learning new art techniques found in this book  which in turn helps me keep my creativity alive. 


4)  Visit an Art Museum 


Visiting an art museum for me definitely cures my artist block. Looking at artworks by  the great masters inspires me to pick up my painting brush and paint on my canvas. 


Art Museum



If you are not able to visit an art museum, then you can peruse some of the master paintings online at Museum of Modern Art ( MoMA, New York) . This website has tons of information of modern and contemporary  artists.   I like  looking  into the artist artworks, reading  about them and try to understand what elements worked so well for them and make them work for me.  Another favorite  website of mine is the Google Arts and Culture website. This website features content from over 1200 leading museums. There are tons of articles to get you motivated. 


Website links:


MoMA, New York--- https://www.moma.org/collection/


Google Arts and Culture--  https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/beta/




5) Cleaning up your Art studio/ art space


Sometimes cleaning up your art studio/ space and removing clutter in your art space can do the trick. I would move things around my art space/ studio and maybe  re-decorate my space with some  of my favorite things in my case it is figurines/ toys of reptiles in  my art space to get into the mood of creating art. 



Picture of my small art space where I create my masterpieces!


I hope these tips help you to get past the dreaded artist block and help you pick up your brush and create your own masterpiece. Let me know in the comments below how do you get rid of the dreaded artist block or if you have found this article useful  or which one is your favorite way to overcome an artist block