How do you take a creative break from your projects?

[aqua03]

That's neat. I've been thinking of fiddling with Mario Maker on the Switch to give me a creative outlet during my break as well. Maybe I'll look for more stuff like that. (Or finally finish up all those half-built lego sets i have laying around....)

@CarltonIsaac

I've been debating on doing something similar to that as well. Though I just need to find another project I'm as passionate about as I am Drachenseele.

[skicoak]

Do (or learn) something else in an unrelated creative field.

Paint miniatures, sculpt, play guitar or do spoken word.

Don't get out of the habit of being creative...just channel it differently.

[nathanKmcwilliams]

I don't. Take. Breaks. Can't afford it, if I do, I lose progress in my art gains.
So I'm always doing something creative, the only thing that matters to me creatively is growing stronger.
(My scheduled comic hiatuses aren't actually breaks for me. I use that time to do new projects and practice more for when I come back from hiatus.)
But even so with all that pressure, it's pretty rare for me to have a burn out. If I do, then I take a day or two off, but that's about it. I can't afford to lose too much time.

[CarltonIsaac]

I can't afford to lose too much time.

I hear you, brother.
So much to do, so little time.Sometimes I wish I could do a Keaton/Multiplicity trick. ;D

[HGohwell]

Every time i try to step away from Drachenseele or my creative projects in general I get flooded with a bunch of ideas and constantly feel like:

So write them. But set yourself a word limit. 500 or 1000 words is a really good word limit, especially like exactly 500 words. Write it in 500 words and edit it. It's good practice at being concise, at editing and it gets the idea out and down incase you ever want to come back to it and feels productive because it's a challenge. I used to do this with random word generators too, so you had 7 random words to write 500 words exactly for each. Same with art. Set yourself like an hour or half an hour, set a timer, get a random word or your latest idea and draw it. And stick to the limit. Productivity, a challenge and something different all in one.

[DukeOfOool]

More projects, no, not just more
projects, enhance your horizon, open the door
read books on comic making,
writing, psycological analyzing,
books on rhymes and use online
libraries so you won't lose a dime

If you keep doing this
You won't lose any time
And even learn to rhyme
I'll tell you this is bliss

[Freemints30]

I just watch YouTube all day or try work on a different medium that's not related to my project. It refreshing.

[nathanKmcwilliams]

Yeah man. Between a 40 hour work week and my marriage, the rest of my free time is dedicated to my multiple projects. Which... really isn't as much as I want, but I manage about 20 hours a week on art if you count all the sketches I do between my two breaks at work.
Any little down time is dedicated to practice. I try to maximize productivity as much as possible.

[scribesunlimited]

(Or finally finish up all those half-built lego sets i have laying around....)

I really miss Legos. We have a Lego store here in town with some kits priced at like 100, even 500 or so.

[MeltingCORE]

I'm exactly like you haha! Gotta keep that pen moving. What I do is paint or write things that don't have to do with my major project but still bring me joy. (Like doing fan art of things I appreciate, or cloud paintings, sea paintings, etc)

[NickRowler]

Have you tried being creative in a way without putting pressure on yourself to post. This could be practice sketches, doing crafts, or having a project with no intention to post it.

Another thing is doing stuff that you felt you could do due to working. Like playing a video game, watching a show, reading a book, or going out and site seeing.

[jcmraz]

This depends but I have some ideas.

Take how often you update and cut it in half. If you update weekly then do it biweekly for example. For the other week come up with more short form comics. Either short stories, one-offs or just random ideas. Do this if you want to keep working but on different ideas to keep you going.

If you just feel like you're working too much and need to slow down then just cut your updates in half and take some room to breathe without totally stopping

[pilot-obvious]

I try to work on different parts of the project at different times. If I feel burned out from drawing art for it, I'll write scripts or come up with ideas/concepts. If my brain runs dry, then I might try and draw some of those concepts or work on pages for upcoming episodes. I like to give myself the ability to exercise different creative parts of my brain so that I can have a bit of variety. If I was constantly drawing and writing at the same time, I'd probably burn myself out.

I also have a creative job so in a way, I guess that's a creative break for 8 hours a day. The downside is that sometimes I just have to take a break from everything for a few evenings because it's like a creative overload for my brain and/or my wrist hurts.

On my off days, I like to think the act of me "making" anything is me being creative. Making food, taking pictures, etc... sometimes I go as far as telling myself, "I'm making my apartment clean, therefore I am creating."

[rajillustration]

honestly, I treat it as a time that I can like...read other people's stuff. It's kinda nice to be the person who is consuming content rather than the person making content for once.

[kmlangleyauthor]

I just need to find another project I'm as passionate about as I am Drachenseele.

You don’t actually need to find something you’re that passionate about. That one is your personal big thing and that’s great! But what about dabbling in, say, watercolor or something entirely unrelated to comic making? It’ll help you stay in tune with your creativity (which is important!) while still giving your brain the necessary time to unwind (which is also really important!)

Creativity and inspiration have an ebb and flow - that’s totally normal, so take a little break, listen to your ideas, don’t burn yourself out you got this!

[aqua03]

Thanks for the encouragement. I should just step back and let things come more naturally instead of forcing them, shouldn't I?

[kmlangleyauthor]

Yes! I’m a big advocate for creative intuition! It seems, well, counter-intuitive at first, but it’s been really helpful for me! Sometimes I’ll write every days for months and then I’ll drop it for days or weeks. But instead of my brain just doing nothing, I usually (always) “supplement” with art in some format (I dabble in art, so I have watercolor, acrylic, gouache, alcohol ink, colored pencils, just started doing digital art) and whatever seems fun, that’s what I’ll do. It doesn’t have to have a rhyme or reason, it just has to be something I’m feeling inspired to do. And by letting your brain just do happy creative things with zero pressure or expectations, I think it helps open up the channels to really push yourself in big projects with concrete end goals.

If you’ve never read it, I highly recommend reading ”Big Magic” by Elizabeth Gilbert. She talks about the creative process and inspiration (plus she’s funny and amazing).

So, here’s a TEDx talk by Josie Lewis (she has super fun art and videos on IG) and she talks about flow state. This video blew my mind and really helped me reframe how I push myself creatively. It was a brilliant reminder that not everything has to be this MASSIVE effort to be amazing. If you don’t want to watch the whole video, I recommend at least watching from the 8:39 mark (or the 5:10 mark) but she has some really interesting stuff to say through the whole thing

Also, make sure you’re taking the time to read! And then read some more!! I promise it’ll help!

[Darth_Biomech]

I juggle several projects to get around it. The problem is that I begin liking them both, and so I begin feeling bad when their progress starts being slow since I can't give as much time to them as to my comic project. I really want a 48 hour day...

[ratscout]

So I'd been working on my main big project, Inheritance, for about two years when I decided it was time for a loooong break like two months ago. I found what really helped me take a break was realizing how much I wanted to revise the story. However, I recognized that that, in and of itself was a big project to take on and that it would be best to just put the whole story on pause because I also have so many smaller projects I want to finally put to paper. I figured I'd recharge my batteries and come back to it in a few months.

[darthmongoose]

I paint minis, run D&D games, that kind of thing. I also make sure to do at least a little workout every day. Looking after my wrists in particular is important. I'm over thirty now and am one of the only UK illustrators I know who has never had RSI, carpal tunnel or similar, but oh boy I feel long drawing sessions in my hand and wrist now much more than in my twenties! I find painting minis very relaxing; it's a nice change from the pressure I put on myself while drawing.

There's a tendency for people to think if they don't draw literally every day they'll get worse, and I used to believe that too, but when I took a break due to burnout from working as a professional illustrator and then doing an office job for a bit, and was only doing occasional sketches every few days for fun for a few months, I found it actually improved my work.

The thing is, if you draw literally every day, you can start to ingrain certain patterns of drawing and bad habits if you're not careful and changing things up a lot and studying too. That's why a lot of pro illustrators, their work can get quite stale looking on a really long, gruelling project; they start drawing from muscle memory, prioritising efficiency and consistency of output rather than inventing each pose, expression and composition as a unique solution to a unique problem.
Regular practice is good, but be sure to change things up with things like studies, gesture drawings, media experiments, art challenges etc. so you're developing a deeper understanding of your fundamentals and a broader toolkit for approaching tricky art problems like unusual poses, expressions or angles, rather than just ingraining the same approach until you draw things a certain way every time without thinking.