How To get Rid of Art/Write Block

Don't force it, just take a break and maybe listen to some music or whatever else you may enjoy. Let the ideas come naturally because that is when they are at their best imo.

Ask yourself: does it have to be epic?

If yes: don't be so hard on yourself.
If no: good start!

From what I've seen people with blockages put the bar too high and get scared without even starting. So you need to have something or someone pushing you to at least do something (and it doesn't have to be great, just something). A deadline you get paid to meet is great, but we're not all that lucky. It could be a teacher if you're in an art class. Or it could be Tapastic posting every week + determination and forgiving yourself when the outcome doesn't meet expectations.

Oh and don't forget to do something completely different, your mind works at all hours...

I know this isn't the normal response, but I work through it. The important thing is to get the juices flowing. After a while, block isn't the issue. It's exhaustion.

I'm going to say something really divisive here. Some of you can agree with me, others can disagree. That's okay, I'm just speaking from my own experience. So without further ado....

Artist/Writers Block Doesn't Exist.
Artist/Writers Block Doesn't Exist.
Artist/Writers Block Doesn't Exist.
Artist/Writers Block Doesn't Exist.

When people suffer from this block they're not suffering from a lack of creativity or a lack of inspiration. They're suffering from two things: Intimidation and Perfectionism.

You're so caught up in making something amazing or awesome that you're forgetting to have fun! Your'e forgetting that every creator has off days. So many people go around crying, "I can't come up with anything! This is awful! Everything I do sucks!" and I'm just sitting there going, "Well...yeah. And?"

Not everything you create is going to be amazing. Not everything you draw will be perfect. You're allowed to suck. You're allowed to make things that are so bad you look at them and feel ashamed. You're allowed to create truly awful, horrible work. That shitty drawing and that shitty first draft are worth more to you than a blank page.

People who do this work for a living have bad days. What does a disney artist do when she has an off day? She keeps going. Just just throws it out there. You get SOMETHING down. It doesn't matter if you like it or not - that's not the point. The point is you'll have something to work with. You'll have something to go back to and refine.

You're allowed to feel down. You're allowed to pump out utter drivel and awful work. You're allowed to suck. You're allowed to have bad days. You're allowed to run out of ideas. But if you're serious about being in the business? You're not allowed to stop.

You can do it. You've done it before and you'll do it again. Don't let that smug blank page beat you!!!

-C

Can I change my answer to this instead?

I'm with Kotaotan. I just steer into the block and work through it. You don't get to 1800+ pages by letting a block stifle you.
Sometime, I'll just hop over and work on another one of my comics. Sometimes it's just a change of scenery that will jumpstart the creativity. Sometimes it whiskey.

I like to analyze what's actually wrong and go from there.

If you have depression then just getting out of bed in the morning is sometimes an accomplishment, so it's better not to beat up on yourself and make things worse, but just try to survive the day and do things to hopefully alleviate your problem like rest, eat well, get exercise, stop isolating yourself from other people.

If it's a problem of a lack of inspiration then what I like to do is go for a drive or a walk with music, and let the mind wander. Sometimes the best ideas come to me while I'm doing menial chores, as well.

Sometimes you might be burnt out on a project like you know it's not good and you're just tired of doing it, and the best thing to do there is just FINISH even if it's bad or you have to give it a different ending than you planned, and either edit it later after you have gained some distance and perspective, or move on to a new thing that reflects the current you a lot better. It's not a good idea to keep putting it off because you don't feel like it, and as a result not getting ANY work done.

What happens a lot when I get burned out on something is i keep thinking I hate this, I hate this, it's so bad. But, I'll finish it. Then a year later I come back to it and think yeah a lot was bad, but there were some good ideas in there that I didn't realize the value of when I first did it, and I should be more forgiving of my faults.

If by writer's block you mean, can't think of anything to write, then to me, that just seems like you're not approaching the task in a productive way. Stories don't appear fully formed, they're built brick by brick. If you don't know what's going to happen next in your story, or where to start, that likely means you haven't pondered long enough on all those tiny bricks that make up the world your tale inhabits. Making sure that world 'exists', in as much detail and nuance you can imagine, means that there should always be something to write about.

But if you mean, you've written yourself into a corner, where it feels like the story has no clear options for moving forward, then that is something I'm well accustomed with. It took me a the best part of 5 years to navigate my way through all the roadblocks in my own story, which in hindsight, were always there because I hadn't properly fleshed out my characters made unnecessary assumptions, and convoluted scenes for not much reason other than that's how I'd originally envisioned them (even back when the story was completely different). As with regular writer's block, the only way to clear out the weeds and find the way forward is to really get into the characters in your story to a depth that goes much further than will be revealed in the finished product. When you finally understand every character's motivation, their fears and goals, their hopes and dreams, so to speak... at that point the way will be clear, because you'll know exactly what they'd do next. And that's when you drop something in front of them to make sure they can't get what they want : )

The best advice I can give is to just step away for awhile and let your story breathe!

^'I'm a writer only so I wouldn't know what to tell artists...but I'm certain that giving your mind and creation time to develop fall under the same umbrella

some of the best story ideas i've had come at random times, when I'm not in front of the computer

but i also tend to map my stories out....so writers block isn't something i've had because I always have definitive plot points that I'm aiming for...

Can't agree with this more. As long as your'e not under a deadline, give your story time to develop.

I'll often find my characters talking to each other in my head while I'm doing mundane things, and every now and then something will be said or done that opens up a new direction I hadn't seen before. This often happens at the most random times.

Taking a break is probably the best advice. I know that I would find things that inspired me or look up things related to my comic whenever I got writer's block or got in a rut. Sometimes I would just remove myself from it altogether for about an hour or two just to clear my head a bit.

*One thing I would recommend that worked for me overtime is that I always kept this tiny notebook in my pocket. Whenever an idea came to me I would have the notebook on hand wherever I was and jotted it down. This came in handing alot whenever I had problems working on my comic.

Talking here for the artist block, i'm currently on one too:

• Don't draw stuff that you never drew in your life because there is a reason you never drew them, and forcing yourself to draw them just to step out of your comfort zone will only make you feel more preassured. instead, pick up a theme from your comfort zone and see if there's something new you can do with it:
  you like drawing faces? what happens if you switch the number of eyes? have you ever draw a different face? an old man face or a baby face? expand your comfort zone instead of stepping out of it!

• Do some bad drawings on purpose, pick up a cheap flying paper that no one cares about and just draw something willingly terrible, crash your pointless expectations!

• Draw something that you haven't drew in ages but that you used to like a lot (for example i used to do a lot of anatomy studies, after 5 months i think it's time ti give it a chance.)

I know these might sound not too convincing from someone who's suffering of an art-block herself buuuut....i'm actually better at giving advice to people rather than to myself XD

Well it's true that art-block doesn't exist, actually i realize that those who suffer from many art-blocks periods tend to feel stuck in most of the things they do. For example, sometimes i'm to concerned if i'm doing something right or if it's a good or bad thing to do that i totally forget to go with the flow, and this is where any kind of block disappears, the key is to do whatever you feel to do without judging yourself in anyway.

You want to lazy around?
it's okay
You don't want to write or draw?
it's okay
and so on...basically acceptance

When the mind is free from any self-restriction we put on ourselves everything returns naturally, though i'm still in the precess of learning this properly XD

Read! The best way to get through artist/ writers block is to read

This video actually really helped me, whether you're a writer, an artist, or both.

I don't get it much anymore. The way you get over it is by doing it more. I started drawing on redditgetsdrawn almost every day. I kept drawing and drawing. When I couldn't think of anything I would find something and just draw what I could see. Eventually you'll always be able to draw competently. Some days will be better or worse than others but you need to work on personal competence until you can just get over it to say it bluntly. A professional doesn't have the leisure of having artist's block. You have to work more like a professional

Try exploring different avenues of your craft. Experiment! Find out what else you can learn to do and possibly have more fun doing. It may give you ideas for what your working on and help bust through that writer's block

Keep your own idea file, and review it when you 'just are not feeling it.."

Have a set of things (styles, formats, gifs) that you want to try. Just having options can help.

Naps! I often file in my idea file with a dream idea.

Take a long drive, those ideas always show up when I am not able to act on them.

Things I found out as I wrote "The Muse's Door"

Take a break from drawing/writing. It might be a burnout. But if taking a break still doesn't work, then track down the reason what might be causing you this block, or reflect on what makes you write/draw in the first place. Why do you need to write/draw? Why do you still want to write/draw when you can't?

For me, when you're devoted to art, it becomes a second skin. And it is deeply connected to how you are as a person. So, starts with understanding yourself.