What is an artist's block?

Also known as a creativity block, artist's block is a moment in time where an artist cannot access their creativity and struggle to create a piece of work. Traditional or digital, every artist experiences an art block eventually. But don't panic and remember it is only temporary.

Still one may wonder how can I fight off an art block? Well, here are a few tips and tricks that can help you overcome.

1: Drawing prompts

-- I mentioned in another blog drawing prompts such as Inktober are very helpful when it comes to fueling creativity. There are many drawing prompts online, that are not Halloween themed, that you could do to feed yourself some creative inspiration.

2: Fan Art

-- You could draw fan art for your favorite show, movie, book or celebrity. Fan art gives you something to draw but allows you to experiment as well. Below is fan art I drew of a YouTuber during his charity live stream. The picture portrays him as a superhero with the acronym PMA (Positive Mental Attitude) written across his chest. This piece was created during one of my creative blocks, while I was watching his stream and got motivated to draw him as a hero because he was raising money for Gamers Outreach Foundation.

3: Redraw and old piece of work

--Redrawing an old piece is a fun thing to do to see self-improvement and isn't something that requires too much creativity to do, yet, it can inspire you to create more pieces and revive your creativity. The link below is to my Instagram and shows a comparison of two pieces of art I drew a year apart from each other.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BtEaUXlHa7Y /?hl=en

4: Draw random people

-- This may be one of the most fun ways to inspire creativity because art often reflects life so why not draw from life. Youtuber Will Terrell has a series online where he draws people he sees out in public in fully rendered characters. the link below is to his series on youtube. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgPPLTdFt4DZvYtdmEzR4iBh4DROjgBQQ

5: Art Challenges

-- Art challenges are all over the internet and there are many different ones, you are sure to find one that interests you. from the three marker challenge to the gender swap challenge, there is something for everyone. Youtuber Josiah Brooks, also know as Jazza on youtube created an app called Jazza's Arty Games, there are many different challenges and activities on this app. you can pick your challenge and time limit then the app will generate prompts according to the challenge you pick. the app is 2.99 and worth every penny.

6: get new supplies

--this one may cost a bit of money but can be worth it. Have you always wanted to try gouache? maybe go by a sample pack and experiment with it. getting new supplies can inspire you to make something new as well.

7:youtube

--youtube is full of artists who are willing to share their craft, watch some top trending art videos; if there are particular internet artists you like, watch their videos for motivation. Some of my favorites will be linked at the very end of this blog.

Art block typically stems from exhaustion mentally, physically, or emotionally. if you find yourself stuck in a block, take some self-care time. if art is a job for you sometimes you may have to create art while blocked. I know during my senior year of high school for my AP (Advanced Placement) Concentration I had to create 12 pieces in about a month. by the end of this, I had a total burn out and felt like I was creatively drained

.8: Take a walk

-- get out of your art space and observe the world around you, you can find creative inspiration everywhere especially in nature. even if you decide not to draw from life right then and there, you can take pictures to use as references later.

9: clean your workspace.

--if your studio is a stressful mess, tidy up a bit having a clean space may relax your mind enough to get creative. cleaning may also give you time to take your mind off of art for some time to let you refresh.

10: Get Messy

--maybe being tidy isn't your thing so, go opposite and get messy. do something abstract, get some canvas and throw paint or just collage. find non-traditional materials and see what you can do with them, some of my best pieces I just found something around the house and began testing with it. the image below was painted with coffee from the local coffee shop RedBand. not only was this a messy piece, after I painted it all it was very stick and I had to find some cocoa powder to use over it and make it less sticky. I've never used coffee for painting so I felt very inspired to make a piece with only brown tones.

youtube artist to check out:

Jazza: https://www.youtube.com/user/DrawWithJazza

Baylee Jae: https://www.youtube.com/user/BayleeCreations

Drawing with waffles: https://www.youtube.com/user/drawingwiffwaffles

Fun2draw (Mei Yu): https://www.youtube.com/user/Fun2draw

Lavender Towne: https://www.youtube.com/user/HariSaysMeh

The Drawfee Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/Drawfee

It's the month of October and class is in session, what is a fun way to teach the students the curriculum while allowing them to be creative? Month long drawing prompts of course!

I know when I was in high school our art classes had basic lessons we needed to learn; continuous line, value, shading, still-life, and many more. No matter the curriculum I always found myself restrained to certain guidelines that trapped my creativity in a box, for example to learn continuous line we had to draw self-portraits but there is only so much you could do with that; because of this I began not enjoying art and just making it because I had to. This made me really dislike art during that time because I felt like I couldn't express myself enough. A way that I believe can add some creativity to the classroom is Inktober and drawing prompts alike.

What is Inktober? well, thanks for asking Inktober is a month-long challenge created by artist Jake Parker who aimed to exercise his ink drawing skills and introduce himself to the habit of everyday drawing. the challenge is aimed to improve skill and encourage creativity. each day there is a prompt which is just a single word that participants will draw an ink drawing based on. This is extremely helpful for creativity because it gives the artist a base to revolve the piece around, yet it isn't to specific. For example, the prompt ghost; the artist could draw a literal ghost or you could draw something that alludes to ghost, like an Ouija board, graveyard or any other thing that you can relate to a ghost. The prompts allow the student to work each day on a fresh piece of art.

So, how do we incorporate the curriculum into Inktober? the art standard #2: Organize and artistic ideas and work the curriculum for Advanced HS Levels VA:Cr2.1.III states: Experiment, plan, and make multiple works of art and design that explore a personally meaningful theme, idea, or concept. Inktober will allow students to experiment and create a new piece of artwork each day, so then by the end of the month, they will have multiple pieces that relate to Inktober.

Drawtober, similar to Inktober is also a monthly drawing prompt list. the differences? well unlike Inktober Drawtober has no limit to the media and materials you can use; while Inktober is based on just using pen ink, Drawtober allows digital, markers, pen, colored pencils, or anything else you can find to use. the other difference is Inktober is typically just one word and is relatively vague so the artist can do with it whatever they like, Drawtober is a bit more specific in it prompts on the other hand.

An example of how you can use these in the classroom would be: say you are teaching your students about collage art, for that week's assignment you could take a week of prompts and say "for 3 of the seven prompts you want them to collage there work in some form." This could mean they could collage the background with newspaper cutout and the draw over it to create a full piece that 1: follows a prompt 2: addresses the background and 3: demonstrates the ability to create a piece of work using collage skills.

I believe that these would be a fun experiment for students, each day it will be something new so students can get a fresh start and a new wave of creativity. If a student isn't fully satisfied with a piece or a prompt, having a new one each day doesn't allow a student to be hung up on what the don't like which can lead to a creative "slump". Furthermore, people who participate are encouraged to post online with the corresponding hashtag, doing so allows students to see other drawings and get inspired, and also allows them to put their art out there and begin building an online community and portfolio for themselves.

Break the Block!

Inktober and drawing prompts alike.

It's the month of October and class is in session, what is a fun way to teach the students the curriculum while allowing them to be creative? Month long drawing prompts of course!

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