Art block or procrastination

[mariusthered]

Do you always know the difference between the two?

sometimes we are just too tired or sick to death of working on the same project or a whole host or reasons that give us art block. and we have spoken about this before and the ways we can get past in and revitalise ourselves with that creative zing to get the job done.

Other times we will just mess around and waste time doing anything but facing the job we need to do. Procrastination can be caused by lots of things, including plain old distraction from things like You Tube ( my weakness) . However if we really bite the bullet and look at why we are letting our lazy friend Procrastination take hold of things and waste out time most of us will face the fact it's just putting off something we are dreading.

if we ignore that our "art block" is down to fear of drawing something or writing that scene you have no clue how to approach then we allow ourselves to Procrastinate, sort of hoping we will forget the job in hand is still waiting for us.

only way to face this is to recognise the fear and face it head on. if your in need of help drawing some thing sure look on your tube or ask on here for the help you need, but don't allow yourself to put the job off or your old pal Procrastination will be back helping you eat all your time!

[yansusu]

I tend to procrastinate a lot and I think it's mostly because my attention span is really short. So I work on something for a while, then take a 'short' break and then that break turns out to be longer because whatever I did in that break was too interesting

I've only ever had a real art block once and the difference showed quite plainly: When I'm procrastinating, then I'll be able to continue writing by just reminding myself 'You should be doing that chapter' and I can sit down and do the rest. When I had art block I couldn't do that. Even if I did sit down, I couldn't get anything done or even if I started something new, I always stopped after a few chapters and never was happy with anything. That condition lasted for more than a year. I was unable to even finish one story in that entire year and was just a step short of calling it quits completely.

In hindsight, even though I was severly depressed during that time, I probably needed that forced 'break'. That art block was both my body and mind telling me that I couldn't continue how I did before and that I needed to change something or I'd be paying a price. In the end, while I thought I was wasting that year away, I learned lots of different new things that I probably would have never considered if I had continued writing throughout that year and it also gave me the courage to abandon everything I did before and start over afterward.

So overall, I think I want to say that even having an art block (or procrastinating for that matter) isn't inherently bad even though we might not be able to see that while we're in the slump. It's just something we'll have to suffer through and make the best out of like any other situation and in the end, we might have unexpected gains.

[JRHoch]

Someone once said that procrastination/block is a useful creative tool; it lets you know when something isn't working.

[nostalgicroxas]

Oh? I'd think of that as boredom, but maybe procrastination happens before boredom...... Now I'm getting all 4th wall, meta, existential on this....

I'd also like to point out that sometimes you (at least me) might procrastinate on things you want to and know how to do just because there's something else you want to do more. Pretty new video game you haven't ever played? Sayonara novel and drawing and everything else - I shall see you after I've beaten this 60hr game no less than 4 times.

[mariusthered]

yer ok fair point. I would say boredom is it's own announce it can strike at any time and you just don't want to know about anything when it does. like a temporary depression i guess.

[snailienz]

Someone once said that procrastination/block is a useful creative tool; it lets you know when something isn't working.

I agree! Art block or procastination is how your brain lets you know that something is up. Usually the two are kind of the same thing as "art block" is just a specific form of "can't do this now" that is specific to artists. If I can't draw it's usually because I've been working on one thing for too long or because I need to take care of myself a little. Sometimes I just need a break altogether.

Procastination is also kind of a symptom of executive dysfunction, which lots of artists have due to depression or other things (like my adhd. Sigh.) If I miss a dose or two of medicine I will jump off the rails doing other things or just give up entirely. It's a hard to deal with process, but I'm making it.

[lexuscarr14]

I am a huge procrastinator. Sometimes I don't post or make a comic for months which might be why my comic is not as successful as I would like for it to be.

I'm an Adult! | Tapas

[mariusthered]

feel free to keep posting in this thread if you want , but I will no longer be taking part in threads on this forum. I will still be posting my comic on tapas but that's about it unless someone wants to talk to me in which case they should Pm me please.
it would be wrong of me to ask for this to be closed just because I wont be taking part and rude of me to stop doing so without saying I'm no longer going to be responding to this thread.

[amortelito]

I am able to distinguish both. I procastinate and get distracted a lot. Which makes my working process very tiresome.

What I can't distinguish is "art block" from depression. I lost my passion and desire to make art, I could not think plot lines or twists, lost all my ideas. I started getting seritonine and my brain started to be healthier and I can go back to having wild imaginación.

[AceRagz]

Currently I'm falling behind on posting a lot and I think partly its art block but mostly procrastination. I have an upcoming character that I feel with the new environment of Apple censorship will make me reshape this character's story line and I'm hesitant to do that.