3 Good Ideas on How to Cure Artist’s Block

This post highlights how to cure an artist’s block.  For about a year I had been stuck in a dry period.  It has happened to me more than a few times.

Ideas on How to Cure Artist’s Block:

1. Change your perspective

2. Do drawing exercises

3. Introduce new supplies

Change Your Perspective:

It is clear to me now that it is a matter of perspective. Only just the other day I read on Instagram a guy described his relationship to his sketchbook as like a playground.

This has never occurred to me. It has given me a free way of working that I am not familiar with. Competition with others was never a problem for me, but competing with myself is a stress on its own. Pressure to make a drawing that is at least as good as my best work was keeping me from expressing myself .

My thoughts about my sketchbook were more like building a showcase and striving to make something as good as my best drawings. Now that I have let that mindset go, I feel free to let things happen, and to experiment.  To take my own advice and embrace mistakes and learn what they have to teach me.

Do Drawing Exercises:

The drawing exercises outlined in earlier posts are what initially pulled me out of a long dry period and ended an artist’s block.  At a recent sketchbook meetup I met an artist who confessed that he was blocked and I thought maybe other people would like to know how I recovered.

The exercises are very low pressure reasons to be in my sketchbook.  No perspective, no cast shadows, no composition, and no expectations.  The results pleased me so much that I began to draw other things (like this drawing).  These drawing exercises forced me to just feel the pen against the paper and were the answer to my most recent artist block.

Introduce Some New Supplies:

Over the years, having new pens has always inspired me to make new drawings.  It has taken me some time to see this connection.  Since realizing this fully, I have signed up to receive ArtSnacks.  This service sends new art supplies in the mail and I am looking forward to receiving my first box!  I will be posting the experiments that I produce after my ArtSnacks boxes arrive.

Novelty is the key to getting in the zone, so buying new supplies is not mandatory.  Using unusual supplies and combinations of supplies that you already have will also work to get you there.

In addition to exposing myself to new art supplies, different art supplies is also a good way to change perspective and rejuvenate my focus.  So I will be sure to switch it up going forward.  Let me know if this has helped you.

About this Drawing:

For this drawing I used the Pilot V-ball extra fine in blue and black and the Derwent Inktense water soluble colored pencils.  I used some watercolor paint from a palette too but sparingly.  This fits into a natural hair series that I am working on.  Check back for more drawings of brown women rocking their natural hair and my two cents on the recent Natural Hair Movement.