Hello everyone! Recently, as those who have been watching me have probably noticed, I haven't exactly been uploading a lot of content lately. This is due to the dreaded sickness that has slithered and fogged it's was into the crevices of every artist's thoughts; the artist's block. For the past few weeks I had been having severe inspiration blocks that have simply given me nothing but a lack of motivation to draw. Needless to say, I have compiled a list of cures an artist can use to help relieve ones artistic blockage to prevent them from getting an artist's block in the future.
(Cures on this list are both thing that I have found from multiple sources, along with some techniques of my own.)
Listen to musicEven if you do not normally listen to music, find something peaceful to listen to. Inspiration is bountiful in the lyrics of many song today. Even a song with no lyrics can provoke some kind of inspiration to fly from you and into your pencil.
Take a breather from your "Comfort zone"Let's say you have a knack for drawing realistic scenes with hyper realistic detail. Instead of focusing on detail, try creating something a little more simple. If you're into drawing cartoon characters with heavy outlines, lighten up and create something realistic. Take any detail in your art style now and do the complete opposite. Even if it's down to using mute colors instead of neon colors, one change can make your art look noticeably different, providing a spark for a new line of future work.
Become calm.Take a walk. Listen to music. Drink a glass of tea (or if you hate watered down mint leaves and candle shavings then have some hot cocoa). Try to relax yourself to get in the mood of drawing. If you're stressed out, worrying about some shit that's bothering you're always hectic life, you can't draw shit. You'll be more likely to procrastinate through endless youtube videos and tumblr posts than get anything accomplished. Which leads to the next cure...
Momentarily detach yourself from social mediaWant to listen to music? Sure. Keep an episode of Space Dandy or some shit playing as background noise? Have at it. Talking to your friend about the ups and downs of having a giraffe in your house while being sucked into facebook, twitter, tumblr, and deviantart all open on separate tabs? NO. You see, your trying to cure your art block. Coping with your lack of inspiration or motivation for creating a piece by spending countless hours reblogging pictures you wish you could have drawn yourself, is only prolonging your artist's block further. If you want to talk while you draw or listen to music then that's great; just don't let whatever your doing become a petty distraction.
Stream of consciousnessDon't think, that kills the mood, ruins the vibe and leaves you with nothing to look forward to. Write a random thought down on paper and express topic with whatever comes to your mind. Don't pause to correct anything, just let your words flow. Do this a couple of times, for a few minutes each, and you should have some interesting concepts. Take these concepts and draw them out, paint them, sculpt them, engulf your piece around one of your stream of consciousness concepts.
Spin around to create your rough sketchI now this sounds stupid but it works. Take out your sketch book, open it to a clean page, start spinning slowly and draw a complete sketch. The quicker you sketch, the less time you have to spin. Now close you eyes for ten seconds, extend your book in front of you and look at your sketch. A lot of the time, an artist is stuck in a slump because they begin drawing a piece and can't find the flaws. They know something is wrong, but they can't pinpoint what. If you take a moment to draw in an awkward way ( spinning, upside down, with opposite hand, etc) you can effectively pinpoint the errors in your piece about as accurately as if you were to view your piece after leaving your art for an hour or so.
Try a different mediumMuch like finding a different style, changing your medium allows you to explore a new outlook in the artistic work. Acrylic Painter? Try watercolor. Sketch with charcoal? Go digital. Allow yourself to widen your horizon with the different mediums around you.
Drawing characters? USE A F*CKING POSEHoly Shit Batman. I have seen way too many people stop drawing for long periods of time because they can't draw anything else but bust shots and side views of characters. Use a reference for poses and use it to your advantage. Take gesture sketches at coffee shops, or mash elements of different poses together to create your own pose. The more poses you draw, the more you begin to familiarize yourself with anatomy, making it easier to create a pose by memory.
Draw 100Hate drawing feet? Draw 100. Loathe sketching hand? Draw 100. Draw 100 sketches of an object you wish to improve your artistic knowledge of. After 100 sketches, you will establish a better understanding of your object of choice to where drawing it by memory will be a piece of cake.
AND IF WORSE COMES TO WORSE, NONE OF THESE TECHNIQUES WORK, AND YOU HAVE NOTHING ELSE YOU CAN POSSIBLY DRAW...
Make some fan art. Now this is not meant to sound hypocritical. I love making fan art and I love seeing the art that a fandom provides. But by drawing only ponies, or only pokemon, or sonic characters, you'll end up just basing your future work on the art style that you've created fan work of. It will be harder to establish your own style unless you expand your knowledge beyond fan art and dabble with realism or another artistic style.
With this being said, I hope this helps with curing some of the artist's block that you may be experiencing now. I should be uploading some more artwork in the near future, but in the meantime, I wish you all a great day and sincerily hope your artist block is destroyed.
Helpful Links:Art Prompt GeneratorAnother Art Prompt GeneratorEvery Videogame Soundtrack PossiblePeaceful Chillstep To Listen ToHelpful Assortment Of Poses and AnatomyAnother Awesome Site for Poses