i'm going to art school rn for illustration, STRUGGLING with art block, and seeing your art reminds me it's supposed to be fun and rewarding and not painful and stressful. thank you
Hey thanks for supportive comments. It's always massively encouraging for me to hear!
If it's any help, I've always thought of "art block" as something that just doesn't exist.
(I'll be speaking in terms of "this is how I do it, feel free to try it", not "this is how YOU SHOULD do it".)
You can be depressed, sick, fatigued, unmotivated or struggling with focus/attention issues (speaking as someone both ADHD + TBI with tinnitus, I struggle daily with the latter), etc. or any other number of things that make it hard to draw. But "art block" doesn't exist as its own thing.
I DO know "art block" is often just a shorthand term, when you rationally know it's something more specific confounding your drawing time. But in my experience that added layer of obfuscated nomenclature makes it harder to address the core problem.
Also I generally treat art/storymaking the same way I treat going to the gym. I might be HUGELY demotivated, uninspired, unfocused, stressed or depressed that day, but I know for a fact that I will feel WORSE if I don't show up and at least try. Even if it ends up being a lousy, weak lifting/drawing session, the ONE thing I can hold on to is the knowledge that I overcame resistance to simply GET STARTED and put in the work I could. Getting started is always the hardest part. Everything after that is just building and maintaining momentum.
Besides, you never know when a bad day's work session might surprise you with good results.
Something a friend who's a competitive Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu fighter and bodybuilder once said something I hang on to: "Success doesn't come just from being the best at something. Sometimes it's about being too dumb to quit." It's the same with art. Take breaks, rest and recover, but don't let a recent loss convince you to skip out on practice and let your creative muscles atrophy.
Anyways thanks again, and I hope there's some nugget of useful info in this for any of you!
