hello, good morning, good evening, bonjour......
today I want to touch on a topic that has bothered me for the majority of junior year. the unspoken stain on the art world. the un-glamorous part of being an artist (is any of it glamorous?).....
creative ruts.
if you're an artist, writer, musician, or creative human of any kind....you know what I'm talking about. the lack of ideas. the ideas that flop. the bleh side of creativity.
here's my story: I love art. I always have. I've always been weirdly full of ideas. but somewhere along the road-probably around December-I had my first full-fledged creative rut. I couldn't think of anything. it was like my brain was stained gray. sure-I took pictures. but none of them were going in my portfolio or even the Google Classroom folder for class. I still doodled. but none of them were being scanned into Photoshop. I would have one big idea, and then it would flop. lucky for me, my photo teacher very well understood my pain, providing me with books and encouraging me to push myself (she was my saving grace the whole year).
it was on and off for a few months. now, my creativity is back to normal. but I very much understand the perils of a creative rut and know enough about them to create this post. maybe this post can be the remedy for your creativity, which just happens to have a cold!
today I want to touch on a topic that has bothered me for the majority of junior year. the unspoken stain on the art world. the un-glamorous part of being an artist (is any of it glamorous?).....
creative ruts.
if you're an artist, writer, musician, or creative human of any kind....you know what I'm talking about. the lack of ideas. the ideas that flop. the bleh side of creativity.
here's my story: I love art. I always have. I've always been weirdly full of ideas. but somewhere along the road-probably around December-I had my first full-fledged creative rut. I couldn't think of anything. it was like my brain was stained gray. sure-I took pictures. but none of them were going in my portfolio or even the Google Classroom folder for class. I still doodled. but none of them were being scanned into Photoshop. I would have one big idea, and then it would flop. lucky for me, my photo teacher very well understood my pain, providing me with books and encouraging me to push myself (she was my saving grace the whole year).
it was on and off for a few months. now, my creativity is back to normal. but I very much understand the perils of a creative rut and know enough about them to create this post. maybe this post can be the remedy for your creativity, which just happens to have a cold!
here are some tips from moi and my experiences to help you stay inspired! mine are more tailored to photographers and illustrators, as that's what I do, but hopefully they can help all types of creative humans!
1. view other artist's work
I am NOT saying copy other work. that is no way to gain creativity. what I'm saying is by seeing other successful work, that can help motivate you to want to work (since usually when creativity is gone, so is motivation). Go on Flickr and scroll through some images by your favourite photographer. Look through some Instagram pages. Let others inspire you and lift you back to your personal creative level.
2. find inspiration through words
one of my favourite methods to gain ideas. make a Spotify playlist of some of your favourite jams, and just listen. close your eyes to get a better picture. whatever comes to your mind, write it down. the same can work for reading poetry (one of my favourite sites for poems is hellopoetry). If there's a lyric or line that particularly stands out to you, write it down and think of what you can do based off of that one line. once you have a basic idea, think of colors, ideas, and compositions you could play with. I've always done this method, and photographer David Talley has a great method that's pretty much the same here.
3. find resources
find resources, whatever those may be!! Google articles and blog posts (hello!!!), talk to creative friends, check out some books. personally, I talked to my teacher who gave me two books to borrow which helped a lot! everybody has different creative methods, and finding different ones that are outside your box can help bring ideas.
4. get out of the same-old
do things outside your box. go explore another city. ride your bike down a new path. read a new book, watch a different tv show, or just find something different to do! the new surroundings and experiences will bring new ideas and vision, even if they're secondhand.
5. capture fleeting ideas
ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS have something you can put ideas in if you're out and about and think of an idea! get a little notebook if you have to. I always type ideas into my phone. I have too many notes that are just random words and inspiration.
6. dig deeper
I have a theory that our subconscious' are full of ideas all the time, but we just have to work for it (how rude). writing down dreams after you wake up isn't only a fun story to tell your friends later, but is a great way to gain inspiration for your art! I have a weird knack for remembering my dreams, so this is simple for me, but I know some people don't remember their dreams so vividly. If that's you, (this kind of goes with step 2) lie down somewhere cozy and turn on some music and close your eyes. you know how you sometimes have weird semi-dreams when you close your eyes for a long period of time? enhancing this with music and just simply thinking can surprisingly bring a myriad of inspiration. tapping into your subconscious will always bring some weird idea.
7. just relax
when this first happened to me I flipped out. I kept thinking "am I a bad artist now since I don't have any ideas???!??" but it's fine. sometimes you worry so much about having no ideas that you don't even focus on getting inspiration back. just relax and make sure everything else is ok in your life. for me, I had a ton of school work which most likely caused my creativity cold. once I had all of my schoolwork and classes under control, I started to have more ideas. so just calm down for a minute and breathe.
I hope hope so very much that my tips help you! after a year of copious art blocks, I am practically an art block pro. in all seriousness, just push yourself and your happy creativity will be back to normal before you know it!
xoxo,
the creative rut pro (sarah)
I hope hope so very much that my tips help you! after a year of copious art blocks, I am practically an art block pro. in all seriousness, just push yourself and your happy creativity will be back to normal before you know it!
xoxo,
the creative rut pro (sarah)