Talking about creativity and how to take care of it?

[Klaustasya]

Been asking myself this a lot lately.
Since June i've been dealing with a loss of creativity, not just about drawing, but rarely find inspiration or motivation to do something.
I feel like there's so hidden interior conflict inside of me, that's been going on for so much time.
Sure creativity it's an important thing for any kind of artist in the world, but also for people who don't have a vocation for art all. Creativity is a natural flow of ideas without judgement, and i value it a lot, especially because i believe that is deeply interwined with our inner selves and emotions and knowing how to positevely deal with it means that you're able to take care of yourself.
What are your thoughts regarding this topic? How do you take care of your creative side? What have you learned from your past blocks?

[SuperRazz]

Maybe you didn't take enough time off?

I think of creativity as energy that can be used up and recovered. How you recover it may depend for each person. My own method is to do something self indulgent and new that's not a part of my daily routine. I take walks in the park, eat cake in a cafe, watch a movie, etc. Basically I take myself out on dates. After that, I'm back to my creative self and ready to work!

[apbarratt]

This is a tough one and I don't think there's a one size fits all solution.

It's something I've been struggling with a lot recently, but I've found that one thing that helps me is having a fully scripted story or a note book full of ideas for strips to work with. For instance, I may not have the energy to come up with something, but I can always draw another page of something that's already scripted. Sometimes in working on that something else will then come to mind.

However, for me, the drop in creativity usually comes in hand with a drop in motivation too, and that's something I'm still struggling to find a way to overcome.

[darthmongoose]

Sorry to hear you're struggling. It's never fun.

My first piece of advice is: Don't be too hard on yourself. Trees don't produce fruit all year round, right?
It's natural for any creator to have lulls where either they're taking a rest or the work they're doing is just... mediocre, not great. A lot of new artists in particular stomp onto the scene with something to prove and to try to make every single piece they do for every single client or project super-duper groundbreaking and amazing, and every single panel in every comic a beautiful work of art in its own right. If you're a sole creator without assistants or inkers, colourists etc.... something's gotta give, and if you never sacrifice on quality... well... a lot of the time you sacrifice your own quality of life.

I've watched so many friends, head held high about how "tough" they are for never compromising the quality of their work as they tough it out on all-nighters get burned out, get horrible RSI or back problems, awful anxiety about their work and producing things that are increasingly stale, contrived and soulless. They only go back to the kind of quality that makes you remember what you liked about their work after they ease off and take a break or do something very different. At the end of the day, no artist or writer, no matter how good, is superhuman, and we all have our ups and downs.

The distressing thing that happens when you're working really hard and producing tons of content is that your ability to generate unique ideas or evolve your art style often suffers. It can feel really scary, like "oh my god, my creativity is gone!? What if it's gone forever!? How can I keep doing my job!? Am I A HACK NOW!? AAAGH!" That's how I felt when I was working really hard full time on commissions for clients. I just... couldn't think of any good ideas for illos or comics of my own, and I had no creative energy for them.

Then I read some blogs and things and found out about the secret ingredient of creativity that people overlook: It's Boredom.
To come up with creative ideas, you need time and space to just ponder things. Being creative takes massive "processing power" and if your brain is already overloaded with things, it's like having tons of chrome tabs open while running a big photoshop file with lots of layers; your brain just doesn't have the available RAM to process interesting connections between complex ideas that will allow you to remix them into something cool and new.

So my advice is: TAKE A BREAK! Have a nap, go for a little walk, read a book, play some tabletop games, have a relaxing bath or a nice cup of tea... do something that is absolutely not drawing or writing. The ideas will probably start popping into your head.

[yansusu]

I've only ever had one serious writer's block and the one thing I learned from that is that you sometimes just need that time. Like, I was unable to write for almost one year and a half, even if I started something, it fizzled out after a few chapters and I was very depressed by the whole thing. In hindsight, I just needed that time to concentrate on other things, to get involved with new stuff and just grow as a person.

Which is also how I'm taking care of creativity:
I'm normally always working on something (like, I work mondays to sundays several hours a day on my stories) but I've learned to take one break a year where I'll go on vacation for just five days. I'll go sightseeing, take some nice photos, read up on the local stuff and after I return, I normally have at least a new story for every day I was away
I'm also trying to dip my hands in different subjects. Like, there's a talk about a subject I don't know anything about in my town? I'll go there! There's an exhibition close to university that sounds interesting? I'll attend that one! The more things I see, the more inspiration (and knowledge) I'll get and the more I'll be able to draw from when crafting my stories.

The one thing I haven't done enough but know I should is taking better care of my body. Like, my mind is one thing and it's what is mostly important for my creativity but if my body is getting worse over time, then all of that creativity inside my head won't help. Guess I'll have to take some more care of that aspect next year *sigh*

[GabiWolf]

I agree with everyone else having “quiet time” is the best way to take care of your creativity. Just let your mind wonder.

I can only really work on my comic in the morning before work or sometimes during my lunch break. Both times I’m outside and usually just let my mind wonder and take in my surroundings, then I get a spark and start drawing. I have tried to force myself to work on my comic after work, but it never happens. It dark it’s gloomy and I’m tired after a long day at work. So I just stopped pushing the issue.

Find your time, your space and your rhythm, and creativity will bloom.

I have seen to much anxiety in webcomics and that’s what kills the creativity. You are not gonna lose a flood of readers just because you where a little late in updating or one of your panels wasn’t the best you could have drawn. Having great art work and updating on the same schedule at the same time isn’t going to increase your chances of making it big, anymore than just finishing the product. People just say that because that’s what they did and how they believed they made it. That doesn’t mean it will be your path. Besides who wants to hit it big when they are burnt out?

[SeraphicMayin]

For me, Creativity is a process. It's how we take our emotional experience of the world and what we think about it, and craft that into a narrative that can metaphorically share that emotional experience with someone else.

In order to do that we need two things:

Source Material (Life lived and media consumed) and
the Skills needed in our given medium (knowledge of plot, prose, drawing, etc.)

I find ideas dry up when Source material dries up. I see my creativity flow well when my Well of source material is full. I try to regularly go out with friends, watch good movies and shows, and listen to good audiobooks.

I also study story craft and practice drawing with different side projects where it doesn't matter if it succeeds or not, it's there to sharpen and hone my skills.

Both these things help me cause I cannot afford burnout nor stopping daily work as it's my only sources of income.

I've learnt that we may not always enjoy the work, but when we are Self-aware and organized we can at least take the next smallest step in whatever project we have.

That and the way I take care of my creativity is to get at least 7-8 hours rest at night on a consistent schedule. And do my house chores. This gives my brain time to relax, replenish energy and provide pockets of boredom where ideas spring like weeds :).

I only ever got blocked when I felt I had nothing at stake or nothing to say cause it had been a while since I did any Self Reflection. I trust my mind to pull relevant things from my subconscious and link it some way in my imagination; sometimes i just have to relax and get out of my own way.

[Klaustasya]

Maaaaybe, like, true enough, i never took a break for more than one week. The thing is that i don't havy any other particular hobby besides drawing, so i take art-blocks or lack of creative energy very bad, mostly because, yeah, i don't have almost anything else to do, so i feel a little lost ^^" also, for me (example) walking around doesn't really spark me anything, neither any physical activity, because everyone is different and though i recognize these things can be very refreshing and useful for the creative process, i still don't gain anything back from these routine activities...my case i think it's a bit complicated hahaha.

[Klaustasya]

Unfortunately i don't have any written scene for my comic yet, like, okay, i have collected some data of course but the lack of motivation makes it hard to wanting to work with it sometimes, even when you apparently like it

[Klaustasya]

Thank you for your answer and support
Also don't worry, i learnt to take art slumps less heavy now haha.
You're right, the best thing someone can do in this cases is to take complete break from drawing, it's probably the most suggested type of "cure" for artists (at the same time i think art-blocks are the first proof that you are an Artist, because you care and worry about constantly produce new works, so yeah, at least i know i don't really hate art hahaha).

Taking a break is fine, but on the other hand, i don't have any particular hobby besides drawing: i've been drawing non-stop foooor 3 years, if i recall? So i don't really remember what i used to do when i was not making art of any kind, sadly.

I could always go for a walk, talk with a friend or read stuff, but since i get very dark whenever creativity falls it's hard for me to feel positive about trying to do something in general (not discarding the advice at all, trust me! But it's a mood thing, for me).

Basically, i think i'm pretty life-stuck more than art-stuck (bigger scale XD)

[claiborneart]

For me personally, it helps to make sure I take the time to write down random ideas, even if I know I'll never draw them, or don't think they're very good.
A while ago I got into a bad mindset of "if this idea isn't good enough it's not worth anything", which led me to reject all of my new ideas for not meeting this unknown standard, which slowly led me to stop having new ideas. I had to take time and scribble down a lot of objectively dumb ideas to get interesting one flowing again, and honestly it took me several weeks to get back to feeling somewhat inspired after a single bad week.

I guess I'm of the mind that inspiration is something that needs to be tended to gently, like a fragile houseplant.

[apbarratt]

Indeed, I'm lucky to have written a fairly details script during one of my super motivated and creative phases, but yeah, it's not very useful advice when you're in the lower phase of it all.

I agree with the other advice that's it's okay to take a break. Ultimately, none of it is important compared to giving yourself some self-care. For example, I've been really struggling with Inktober this year and the more I struggled with it the more I felt bad for it. This morning I posted a message to folk to announce that I'd be dropping out of it, and just the ability to say, "yeah, it's okay, I'm not going to keep that commitment," was a real relief and weight off my shoulders.

Again, I'm going by personal experience and what works for me might not work for others, but it might be that what you need is not approval from others to give yourself a break, but permission from yourself

[Klaustasya]

Honestly it's so nice to see that you can take care of yourself so good ^^ sometimes for me taking breaks that i actually enjoy it's even harder that dealing with art-blocks because i have poor management of myself (working on it, but it takes time of course).

One thing that i've noticed about me, is that i'm so used to be self-absorbed into art or my typical stuff, that i don't feel much interest towards local events, books of certain genres or movies, so i'm always in my own "bubble" and hardly find the inspiration to do something completely different to chill (i don't know if it's a common feeling, honestly i hope so, cause i sound heavily depressed like this haha)

[claiborneart]

Well, I can't offer useful advice on being life-stuck, but maybe if taking a complete break from drawing feels bad, you could just change tack for a bit?

When I didn't feel like drawing any comics, or really anything original for over a year, I still wanted to draw (felt bad if I didn't draw might be a better way to describe it, but semantics), so I would draw nothing but studies directly from photos.

As for mood things, taking a nice walk somewhere you don't usually go to is rarely a bad idea. Sometimes just a change of scenery/routine can help me a lot.

[Klaustasya]

Yeah many artists can't keep up with Inktober...it's a challenge meant to stimulate creativity and discipline but it's hard for almost everyone, i didn't even tried this year, so i feel you! Glad that you feel realived

Well, for sure, taking a break it's important! I hardly take them because i never know what to do to make time pass (sounds weird, but i do have periods of nothingness) but the most important thing to me is to remain calm, worrying about art-blocks only makes them worst, this is what i gained from my past experiences.

[Klaustasya]

I tried taking a break from drawing illustrations and to put down a webcomic (i like the idea of having one! Looks fun and entertaining, this is why started recently) but after 20 pages i'm already having mixed feelings toward it as well. So....hello slump! Haha

I guess you need first of all a positive attitude to throw yourself into doing anything, otherwise it's just gonna feel forced even for the best solutions

[claiborneart]

20 pages is already an impressive accomplishment mate - but yeah, keeping up steam for a longer comic is already hard enough on its own.
I'm gonna second everyone else's advice here on taking some time to relax however you feel like - either a full break outright or some very short low-stakes pieces that you feel comfortable dropping the first instant you want to.

[yansusu]

I don't know if it's common but I do have phases like that. Like, I was a heavy reader in my younger years than read almost nothing for a few years. Then two years ago (during my writer's block) I got into watching lots of series but I can't enjoy any of them right now. In fact, I drop most of them during the first episode even if I try I did get another job recently though and I'm getting lots of inspiration from there right now. So I guess there's ups and downs with that as well.

[Klaustasya]

Thank you! I try to give my best as much as possible XD
Sure i've met even worse art-blocks (like those were you literally trash all your sketchbook and you suddenly state to hate art hahah still i recovered from that in the past, somehow).
I just hope taking a break helps, cause otherwise i have no idea what to do.

[Klaustasya]

This is comforting actually!
Looks like nothing beats a fresh and new experience