Help! Artist's block questions (1 Viewer)

Do any of you ever get 'artist's block'? By which I mean unable to do any painting or sketching due to a mental brick wall.

My problem is just that. I do some stuff, sketching in the field, even from photos if I'm indoors in the evening and feel like it, but never seem to get beyond the 'basic outline' stage and as for serious painting, I seem never even be able to start to the effect that the paint never sees the light of day!

I even go months without doing anything even though I keep telling myself I will get round to it, but I know that one day I will simply have run out of time and will have never achieved anything. I want to do it and I want to be good at it, but it doesn't happen as much as I'd like probably in part due to there being not enough hours in the day although the problem is deeper than that, I think.

Is this a common problem? Do any of you get 'artist's block' and if so how do you get round it? Do you set aside time each day or each week to sketch and paint and make yourself do it?

Cheers
VB

Hi VB - I don't want to sound like an agony aunt but - It happens!
I work as a professional artist, designer, illustrator, writer - and some days I just can't do it. Sooo - I go for a walk, see some birds, some landscape, some folk. Take the sketchpad, camera, tape recorder - and start from the basics. Why do I want to paint (draw, etch, print, write or wahtever!) and find the reason by doing it. One way to clear a block - pour loads of 'stuff' at it!
It'll shift.

I just spent the last two hours typing various combinations of ''landscape''
in my google images search engine.

Theres a massive amount of variation in how different cultures have expressed their art through the ages, and each one of those cultures has an infinate amount of variety among it's peoples.

What I mean to say is that,sometimes exploring unfamiliar or previously
unknown art forms can bring with it a fresh sense of inspiration,which may even be incorperated into you own personal style.

Anywayz,hope the block doesn't last much longer!

Matt

If you're really having trouble getting started, you could try checking out art forums for contests and the like (a deadline always helps). WetCanvas is one that gets mentioned a lot around here.

Incorporating field sketching into my birding activities has done a lot to keep me drawing and painting regularly (indeed, I don't think I was half so absorbed by either until I brought them together!). Of course, there's always those days when I'm too busy 'finding something good to sketch' to actually get down to sketching. I'll usually get more done if I don't intend to wander about too much (birding from the car, say, or lugging the scope somewhere that I can remain stationary for a few hours and let the birds do their thing).

But I'll admit that 'long-term' works are a slow process for me. The gaps between each one seem to get bigger and bigger all the time! Having multiple projects to switch between helps. I'll also record any ideas I have as I get them, and if I really like an idea I'll finish all of the preliminary work (studies, models, composition) so that when I wrap up my current painting I have another one that's ready to go. Motivation to get that first bit of paint down can be tough to find, though. I find it best to dedicate at least several hours to something when I begin, so that there's enough on the paper to encourage me to keep going later (I have a lot of 'mostly nothings' that I'll never finish because I didn't take the time to get into them before I put my brush down).

Vectis Birder said:

. . .never seem to get beyond the 'basic outline' stage and as for serious painting, I seem never even be able to start to the effect that the paint never sees the light of day!
Cheers
VB

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This sounds to me like you are 'afraid' of the large, blank canvas board, rather than a 'block'. Try painting on a very small canvas instead of the 'normal' size that will take hours and hours to finish. Try to finish a painting in - let's say 5 hours time. Then begin to work on a longer, larger project when that one is completed. Or maybe you just need to 'waste' some paints on printer paper sheets. These don't need to be your expensive paints either.

I just started using colored pencils. I'm still using very inexpensive pencils and printer paper cut into fourths. I do have Prismacolor pencils, but am saving them for when I learn more about drawing. I'm 60 yrs of age and this is my first attempt at learning to sketch, draw or paint anything. I bought into the line that I just didn't have the 'ability' to do art. So artisticly I'd say my age is about 10 to 12 yrs, so I've got a lot of catching up to do with my art.

Good Luck,

Artists block....

Wonder who coined the phrase?

What you are experiencing is not unusual at all. It is a mental block of sorts, one that I seen a lot whilst working in animation. Oddly, the more experienced animators answer was to take a short break for an hour or so and relax, then return to their desk and work their way through it, in other words it was the starting that was the problem, not the lack of inspiration so to speak. Animals were also present at the studio and allowed to roam freely as such, several cats and dogs were regular at the studio with their owners. It was encouraged because of the calming affect they had on the artists. They also became models on many occasions when animators were drawing cats or dogs. Basically if you cannot start a drawing and end up looking at a blank canvas you get more uptight. Once that hapens the creative process is derailed. Try going off for a bit and coming back, go birding, sketch a little outdoors and come back. Music can help a lot too. Draw on scrap paper for a while to loosen up, then just start. I find if you have done your homework on a painting before you start,ie. you have sketched the intended subject and are familiar with it it makes the painting very much easier to begin. Thumbnails, colour notes and rough colour sketches are hugely helpful. Often if you have researched the subject enough you will be itching to start the work!

Personally I tend to paint in binges, that is I will paint pictures intensively over a period of weeks. I could finish anywhere between 5 and 12 paintings during this period. I become completely absorbed into the paintings and often "switch off", I will come around to realize that three or four hours have passed while I have been in the zone, this time has flown by and has a distorted quality. The painting done in these periods is often excellent.Once I have exhausted my reference pool I have to replenish it,ie. go birding for a few months in order to build up a new pool of ideas for paintings. This takes a variable amount of time for me depending on how often I can get out and what I see...

When I do get out birding I sketch as much as possible and take reference photos. Sketching and birding in general provide all of my inspiration over time. After a few months I will look back through sketches and paintings start to form in my mind. I have a library of reference photos of mostly habitat, tree braches, leaf litter, close ups of grasses and flowers, rocks, sandbanks, water surfaces etc. These sometimes help fill in gaps that sketches often lack in their detail and help greatly.

At the moment I am coming close to a large painting bout after a summer out birding here in Sweden.After that the winter landscape will be my next project along with the birds I see over the winter.

The process is the same in sketching and painting, starting is 60% of the work. Just do it, start drawing. After a while you will get into it and then you will get something worthwhile done.

Hope some of this can be of help to you, I think its a bit different for everyone.

Yep - lasted 20 years! Beginning to unblock a bit now though thanks to Tim et all

Thanks for all the input folks, it's most helpful. I've been doing a bit of drawing this afternoon - albeit from photos I'm afraid as I'm confined indoors with infected ears - and it looks good so far.

Vectis Birder said:

Thanks for all the input folks, it's most helpful. I've been doing a bit of drawing this afternoon - albeit from photos I'm afraid as I'm confined indoors with infected ears - and it looks good so far.

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Nothing wrong with using photos if it gets the creative juices flowing again. Hopefully this small start will get you going again.

And hope the infected ear heals soon - earache is almost as bad as toothache!

Another idea to help you find 'inspiration' is to use google 'image' search. I typed in 'iceberg' and was amazed at how many neat photos and sites came up! of course, I'm not suggesting that you 'copy' anyone's photos, but sometimes just viewing them can be a 'springboard' to your own ideas. Your mind will sometimes get an idea for a painting that has nothing to do really with what you're looking at - it just sorta pops in there while viewing those other photos.

I think the hardest thing for someone who isn't a professional artist is getting started. Finding that time. How do you justify spending time on something that your aren't getting paid for, or doesn't clean your house?
Just find that pocket of time that you would have otherwise been checking email for the unpteenth time, or watching a program on tv, and do your sketches.

Artist block happens to me a few times a year. I feel like I am walking around with my shoulders in a hump and just feeling creatively lethargic. But then, just in time, something inspires me, be it a picture, or a workshop, or fellow artist.

Good luck with your sketches, make yourself do it, especially those times when you want to, but you don't think you have the time(ie forget about the laundry, or other chore that can wait)---those are the times that will make you feel great after getting into it.

Best
Elizabeth

Well, I managed to do some stuff from my own photos yesterday (while watching Forbidden Planet, Gillette Soccer Saturday, Casualty and Volcano on TV!) which I'll post when I get round to scanning them. I'm reasonably pleased with them especially as I'm still out of practice.

I have managed to secure myself a corner of the spare front room which has plenty of light, desks and places to keep paint, etc, and this will help no end. Lack of a painting place has been a major problem in the past.

I've got a barn owl finally on the go after procastrinating for a few days.
Being paid for it really makes you concentrate...

Vectis Birder said:

Well, I managed to do some stuff from my own photos yesterday (while watching Forbidden Planet, Gillette Soccer Saturday, Casualty and Volcano on TV!) which I'll post when I get round to scanning them. I'm reasonably pleased with them especially as I'm still out of practice.

I have managed to secure myself a corner of the spare front room which has plenty of light, desks and places to keep paint, etc, and this will help no end. Lack of a painting place has been a major problem in the past.

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Hi VB - I think you have got a really good discussion going here. There's advice from all over the world which I, for one, will certainly use when my next block occurs (as it will). But I think you have actually found the solution yourself (albeit through allowing your 'block' to be dissected by the world's birders) - that solution, I think, is 'the corner of the table'. Every creative person needs a space in which to create, be that a studio, spare room, hut, birdhide, computer desk, or table corner. It becomes 'your area'. And - now you have your area - don't let someone put a plate in it (unless it's spag bol, of course!).
Good luck and make sure you announce the sketches.

|8)| goes with the territory!..i tend to think its just a necessary stage of ~simmering~
when it occurs with me, i just work with it..dont stress over it..
refill your cup by doing something you enjoy and havent had the time to do it..
take a bikeride with your camera or sketch pad...pull over and sit in the sun..eh..if your in the northeast make sure your dressed warm now!...

i tend to hit lows and when i seem to get deeper and deeper into a block i try different things....sift through old sketchbooks...line up your work...look for something that had inspired you before but you put to the side..
sometimes that hesititation of working on a canvas is only because you dont know where to go...how to start..how to continue..
check out if there are local classes offered in basic drawing or life study...check the library,many times they will list local arts associations or cultural clubs that will know these things..
i belong to artpapa.com, which is right now having a bit of reconstruction probs,but where many artists socialize and share their work and woes.

if you find yoursef constantly stalled and not liking the direction your work is going..many times its because you need to try to move to the next level of study..
a routine? can help break those blocks...even if you dont feel like sketching many times if ya just set up and do so, you will find yourself drifting ~into the zone~ soon enough....but you have to take that first step and grab the pencil and sketchpad.
art is much like any other adventure, you have to work hard at it...
try a different perspective, if you cant seem to manage that landscape? scale down the focus...take a tiny bit and blow it up, look at details,values and texture..stare down at that microcosm at your feet! instead of that vast vista sprawling before you!

Well, here are the drawings I did yesterday. I did them from my own photos of some Black-headed Gulls. I have to admit although I have a 'block' and consider myself out of practice, I am not unhappy with these although they are not field sketches.

they are wonderful examples of study sketches...
the more you do the more comfortable you become..
many times we can look far too tightly at what we draw..
a sketch is defined as loose lines constructing a whole...i think
you are far to critical of your own work! ~wink~

Nothing wrong with your sketching Vectis, but personally I find 'block' tends to occur when I'm doing a picture just for the sake of doing one and don't really have the feel for it, I do pet portraits which is a good earner but I really have to be in the mood to start one. (though it is getting easier as I now look at them as a challenge rather than a pain)
I suppose its the confidence factor similarly to if you feel you're out of practise, so I find the best way is to make a sketch, plan in my mind a step by step of how I'm gonna tackle it, then take it slowly, confidence comes as each step progresses and I find I quicken the pace as it goes along.
If it's blank canvas 'fright' you're suffering from, once again I think it's a confidence thing, plan your step by step so it starts by covering a large area quickly with a pale wash, it's amazing how that helps, taking the whiteness away seems to take the fear away.

Good luck

Those sketches are fantastic Vectis.

I know most people on here aspire towards a finished looking piece, with color, background, what-have-you(not saying that is bad at all, they are wonderful), but me? I like the sketches. They more often show the true being of the bird.
And the real hand of the artist.

These are good, VB - I can see you're already drawing your way through it. (Always nice to see an artist on the 'way to recovery!')