(add your own tips in the comments!)
• Do something active instead of sitting at your desk or in your bed trying to draw. It’ll switch up your energy.
• Go outside and run around, practice a sport you like, go walking/ hiking/ jogging / running, go swimming, go on a trampoline, etc.
• Take a shower, put on actual clothes (as opposed to pajamas or stuff that’s just for hanging around in the house.) This will get you in a productive mindset and energy, because this is what you do when you’re getting ready to be productive/ do work of some sort.
• If you’re in the artsy mindset, just go ahead and create something. Even if you’re still having trouble drawing, you can still create. Write something. Paint something. Glue glitter to stuff. Draw little spirals all over a piece of paper. Cut up a magazine and mod-podge the pieces to a tissue box. Legitimately whatever you feel like doing. You’re still creating and that’s really fun, especially when you’re just going with the flow and randomly doing whatever you feel no matter how crazy or stupid it seems.
• Write descriptions of what you want to draw. You want to draw a character but just can’t touch your pencil to the paper? Make a list of every little thing you want your drawing to include. Their hooked nose, their cool eyebrows, a certain pair of shoes, everything. Now you have a strong idea of exactly what you want to draw, and have a checklist of things to include that’ll make it look that way. (This helps with drawing in general, I do this a lot.)
• If your art block is from perfectionism/ fear of messing up- know that 1.) you’re not going to get better at drawing if you don’t draw. 2.) IT’S OK TO MESS UP. Please don’t beat yourself up about it. It’s a million % okay and everyone does it, even your favorite artists who seem to never make any mistakes– 3.) the majority of artists online are only posting their best work. So you’re seeing them as these flawless, amazing artists, and then comparing their best work to your worst work and beating yourself up over it. They mess up to, they have awful sketches that look like potatoes, they just don’t show them. It’s fine. Also, something you can do is to draw on newspaper or other really cheap paper instead of on nice art paper or in art notebooks. That can lessen the pressure to ‘not mess up.’
• Overall, if you’re in a block, you want to switch up your energy. Take a break for a while, do different things like exercising or playing music. On a more long term scale, make sure you’re getting as much sleep as possible and that you’re drinking enough water and eating healthily. Taking care of your physical health makes it a lot easier to feel good when doing art.
• Spend some time socializing, especially with people who have a creative or artistic energy. This can be extremely inspiring. (It is for me, at least.) Talk about art. Brainstorm ideas with them, make up storylines and characters and worlds.
Hope these help. Love you; keep creating!
Watty's Blog 