#can't create

[chevvy-ryder]

Me rn: 🫠

[things-that-nobody-asked]

Oh, to not use your phone in almost all day bc you try to write the next chapter for your series but you can't, so you reblog some artsy stuff hoping it will give you inspiration but you go for another hour of doing nothing.

[ravenblackpublicationsllc]

14 Rules: Artist’s Who Can’t Create Anymore

For those who no longer see as an artist and stop themselves before they start. Here are a few things to help you. Perhaps you’re too worried about other people’s approval or admiration. STOP THAT! I so did this behavior for years and it brought my art to a stand still. Maybe you’re so busy and bogged down with life that you forgot how to see as an artist again. I get that, I SO get that. You’ve been forced all your life to conform into a box. Or you wedged yourself unwillfully into that box because society didn’t accept your unique you. You wanted to blend in, be accepted and be “normal”. No no...don’t do that either. You strange and wonderful you. You’re wild hair and dress, your personality and the odd way you see the world are AWESOME! The world needs You and Me, the strange wonderful people of the world. We are here to shake things up, to break up the norm and shake things around a bit. Like an artistic Earthquake. 

There is the other aspect, the world around you is a boring grey (not literally). It’s a 9-5 cubicle with bills waiting at home and the same old every day. Or your life seems plagued by woes. I understand this too. Gosh, I do. Remember, Sometimes, the best creations come out of the worst pain. Look at Edgar Allan Poe. Hell, Van Gogh was severely depressed, look at the beauty he created. Every great artist suffers some mental malady, if they say they don’t, then they’re probably crazier than you or I combined.

Perhaps NONE of this applies to you and you don’t know WHY or HOW you lost your muse. Well, try to keep some of these in mind and maybe she will come back to you.

Here are some key things to remember:

1) First of all, always do it for yourself, this will force you to move forward, then do it for your spectators and finally… if you feel confident enough… do it for your peers.

2) You can stop by realizing that it inevitably leads to a point of frustration. Knowing this- why would you "choose" to continue instead of changing your focus? Find a point of focus in your artistic efforts and concentrate instead on doing your best work in that area.

3) The thing that really matters is that you are producing work that meets a standard you've set for yourself. If you can do this, it's likely that what everyone else is doing won't affect you in the same way.

4) Mistakes are a natural side-effect of doing something new. If you want to avoid them, the best method is to avoid new things completely. That's what may happen to you if you share your every picture: even when filling a page in your sketchbook with studies of a hand, you'll only choose the easy poses you feel comfortable with. It just feels scary that your fans could see a bad drawing of yours!

5) Having the public observing your every step makes you less prone to risk. If there's a chance you may lose, it's better not to play at all and to pretend you could win, if you wanted. You miss an opportunity to learn something by losing, just because you don't want others to see you lose!

6) Embrace your imperfection and let yourself be bad. It's better to show others all your pictures, good and bad, than to draw only the things you are sure will look good.

7) Go, try it—sketch something, then tear it apart, just like that. It's not the last drawing in your life, nor is it the best picture you'll ever draw. The more attached you are to your drawing, the harder it is for you to learn and change.

8) Draw to be better, not to be praised.

9) If you want to have fans of your art, not the style/topic you use, you must do your thing.

10) You can tell a talented artist from a skilled one by one simple fact: the latter is not attached to every sloppy sketch, because they know they can replicate the effect or even draw something better next time.

11) There are no drawings that don't turn out—there are only mistakes that can be fixed in the next one.

12) There are so many ways to describe reality, and you can make a drawing more complete than a detailed photo simply by including the side of perception.

13) The biggest misconception about drawing, the one that all others derive from, is that it's easy. So easy that children can do it, and if you can't, then you're just not talented enough. Once you free yourself of that way of thinking and start to treat drawing like any other skill, you may finally progress. No matter how long the way before you, you can step boldly on it!

14) Don't let your ambition stop you from being a beginner!

[sterekemissary]

Have you ever had a really great idea...

...but never the necessary tools or experience to give life to that idea?

Yeah, that's just about all my efforts in a nutshell.