Tips for dealing with artist's block
I find these ideas helpful when I'm trying to get through a bout of artist's block, or am just bored with my usual subjects.
I hope they are helpful to you too!
| Draw Daily | Commit to drawing one picture a day. |
| Draw Weekly | Commit to finishing one drawing a week. |
| Draw to Music | Put a playlist on and don’t stop drawing until it’s finished. Set it to “no repeat” if you want to know when the playlist is finished. |
| Illustration Friday | Do the Illustration Friday sketch topics each week. |
| Character creator | Generate drawing ideas with the fantasy character creator. |
| Copy and Learn | Choose a favourite illustrator, drawing or painting, and copy it (for practice only). |
| Head to the Library | Visit a library and take your sketchbook to jot down ideas and styles. |
| Redraw | Redraw one of your old drawings or paintings. |
| Get Outside | Take your sketchbooks and paints and head into the city, to a park, or a favourite art gallery or museum for a change of inspiration. Sketch anyone and anything that inspires you. |
| Story Inspiration | Draw a favourite character or scene from a book, or illustrate part of a story, fairytale, or myth. |
| Facial Expressions | Choose a facial expression and find a way to tell a story about it through a drawing. Some examples are – laughter, fear, joy, anger, shyness, shock, surprise, mischievous, exhausted, confused, guilty, suspicious, frustrated, sad, confident, embarrassed, disgusted, ashamed, smug, hopeful, lonely, lovestruck, jealous, bored, sleepy. |
| Transfer Characteristics | Transfer characteristics from one thing to another, like transferring the characteristics of a fruit to a human, or a vehicle to a plant. |
| Looks can be Deceiving | Draw something that’s not what it seems – an evil-looking character doing good, a scary beast that’s frightened. |
| Costumes | Choose one small part of a costume – a hat, a masque, a pair of shoes, a necklace – and build an entire character around it. |
| Animal People | Choose a reference photo and draw that person with characteristics of the animal they remind you of. |
| Something sweet | Drawing something sweet, funny, or cute (or all three!) |
| Game Characters | Pick a game character – online, offline, rpg – and draw them complete with appropriate outfit, weapons, pet / mount, and background. Make the picture tell a story if you want to. |
| Keep It Simple | Drawing something simple with no background – an animal, a person, a plant, etc. |
Print this page