Recently (well, for over six months now…) I’ve found myself in this state that everyone calls an “Art Block”. Even though making drawings and music was my favourite thing in the world, I just couldn’t get myself into that creative mindset. Sitting behind the desk and actually getting things done, be it an art piece or a new song, felt more like a chore than a pleasure. At the beginning I thought “well it’ll last only a couple of weeks for sure.” But before I knew I was completely lost creatively and mentally.
It made a toll on my well-being, I started doing absolutely nothing except watching mindlessly YouTube videos and eating junk food because of that huge black hole inside of me that grew, even more, every single day. I’m slowly getting out of this bad place and I thought that maybe I’ll help someone in a similar spot.
- Stop living inside your thoughts.
The first thing that I’ve noticed after I actually tried to overcome this thing was that I didn’t do anything that could actually inspire me. All I did was watching absolutely non-sense videos and lie to myself that I’m slowly getting better, that I just need a break. The only thing that was living inside my head was negativity, feeling bad because of letting my followers down, mental problems and thought that I’m actually useless. Well, it all comes down to actually feeding your brain the good stuff. You know, the creativity filled essays, movies that inspire, books that change you, even good video games. Everything that I’ve listed is so important to actually feel inspired and coming up with ideas. Instead of playing the same thoughts in your mind on repeat, you should focus on learning new stuff through the medium that you love.
2. Start small.
One thing that made me hate myself, even more, is giving up on every single project that I’ve had an idea for in the course of those six months. Well, now I know why they all have failed. They were too big! How the hell could I start a t-shirt company or make my first animation if I couldn’t even sit behind a desk and come up with a single idea? I focused on cleaning my workspace, trying to get a normal sleeping cycle. Watch any movie without checking my phone all the time. After that, I wrote to my old friend if she wanted to make a small project together (more on that at the end.)
3. Remember that it’s about the thing about it and not money.
The quickest way to kill any dream is to attach financial expectations. Having the mindset that everything you do is for making money and then getting mad at yourself that you not only make whooping zero bucks but also make worse stuff is just soul-crushing. Making art for money is a way of dropping out of your hobby, you’re feeling frustrated, and that is a big no-no if you want to actually be great at something. It’s about the love for something, being automatically driven to it.
All of those things combined made me not only escape my lack of creativity and the will to do art, but it made me a better, healthier person that is actually doing something out of the pure love for it. It is really hard sometimes to remember about being passionate about something. But once you relearn what in the first thing made you do what you love, everything gets better, and makes you create even more amazing stuff!
Thank you for reading, consider dropping me a comment!
