How can I get over painter's block?

Question

I seem to have lost inspiration

Answer 1

Go to your local park and just observe nature. Jot down a couple of ideas and let them brew in you for a couple of days.

Go to a public place where lots of people go like a mall, a court house, a busy bus stop. Observe the expression of people's faces do quick sketches. Listen to their conversations and write them without rhyme or reason in your journal - broken conversations. Take all of that and see what you can make of it.

Inspiration is a fleeing thing. You must search for it, it is not automatic. We are living in a world full of wonder as well as fear and beauty. Unfortunately we are also living in times where smelling a rose is a vacation, because we are involved in the business of surviving not in the business of LIVING.

Look for inspiration... She's out there waiting for all of us... Good Luck, God's Speed!

Answer 2

Do something totally different from what you normally do - if you paint abstract, then do a portrait (or vice versa). Find a way of playing with your materials like a child plays, without getting too serious. Set yourself a mechanical task, such as recreating a large scale picture entirely out of torn up magazines (this is just an illustration, not the only thing you should do...). Go to a gallery, especially to see painters you don't normally look at. Get back to what made you want to paint in the first place. dabble in some other art form - photography, poetry, music.

Answer 3

If you are working on a paintings, and say it is a commission, so the option to just quit is not there. I set myself an easy target to paint for say 10 or 15 minutes before I leave the studio for coffee, lunch or chocolate. I usually find just starting again gets me back into the mood and I'll be painting for an hour or so before I know it.

If your painter's block is subject matter. Paint the first thing you see. It may be the back of a door, a messy corner, dying flowers, still life subjects are clamouring for our attention. Try to look at any everyday object as a potential painting. There is one there - believe me.

Answer 4

try a ladder, or alternatively you could go back to painting with a pencil.if you are serious about painting and i mean creative painting then i can give you some advice, start with what you think you know, for example if you mix red with yellow you will achieve a shade/tint called orange, mix colurs and take a pencil draw the shape of an orange, fill in the shape with the pre mixed tints, dont even try to make it look like a orange,repeat several times.personally when this happened to me i was a student at the time what i was told i will tell to you, dont paint with a brush use anything that you have lying around, dont force yourself to paint go and sketch for a while use charcoal, boot polish,ink, any material you can find to get back your inspiration, i dont know what type of artist you are, but for me walking with a sketch book
and just capturing any dislocated fragments of nature did the trick
i went back to my studio and joined them up, like a jigsaw puzzle
and from those fragments a new image emerged, it was away from how i saw my work, what i was used to painting, it challenged my creativityin short it gave me back my momentum.
and please remember 'art is not what you see, it is what you make other people see'. regards and luck to you.

Answer 5

I am married to an artist/painter for 37 years. All I ever said was : Dear, the rent is due! It was amazing how quickly the muse returned and he found inspiration. If you need to make a living from art then you can't afford to have "blocks". If you do it for fun do whatever and whenver it suits you.

Answer 6

It sounds to me that things have went a little stale. I dont know how proffesional you are but
here goes.
Visit a gallery that you enjoy. Wallow in art that you are enthusiastic about.

Make sure that you are looking after your sleep, diet and exercise because deppression can set in and that can stiffle motivation.

Get someone to paint for. It can be difficult to paint just for yourself. It could be for a friend's or family members wall or a local cafe or working towards an exhibition.
I got back into painting by joining a local life drawing class. The fact that I enrolled and had a set time to go, got me started. lots of still life followed.

Good Luck!

Answer 7

Go and do something you like, walks in the park are supposed to help. So is swimming, sketch some of your old drawings and make them look much better than before, play a video game like Kingdom Hearts. (sisters advice)

When I lose inspiration, I read books, children's books with out pictures, that way you can use you imagination and you might want to draw that image in your head.

Just an idea.

Answer 8

That happens to me if I stop for a while. I find going to art galleries really helps, small obscure ones especially. Buy Time Out if you live in or near London for listings. Go for a walk and look at everthing you see in a different way and question it. What things interest you? Have you read a book or seen a film that could give you ideas. Good luck!

Answer 9

Which painter left it behind? How big is it? Maybe use a step ladder?

Perhaps the council could take it away - there's a number for that in the yellow pages.

Answer 10

Try a different media - video, poetry, drinking stories. The world's best artists are known to diversify

...and that if they get creative block, they spend their time applying for grants, trying to get into exhibitions, and knocking on the door of that art dealer!

Answer 11

Read a book. Destroy an old painting. Resurrect a forgotten painting. Paint. Find your inspiration do not wait for it.