Although drawing is frustrating and tiring, I’ve always had a love for art.

In fourth grade, I remember spending an hour with my beat up clipboard, and drawing a simple face that never came out right to me. The eyes never looked even, and I could never decide on which expression to give my drawing.

I would spend another 30 minutes on it and eventually give up. It became aggravating that I could never just draw whatever came up in my mind. I needed the drawing to be perfect when I first attempted it — if it wasn’t, then I would give up for another month.

Now that I look back, I can see that I had unreasonably high expectations for myself when it came to drawing. When I didn’t meet those expectations, it would leave me with no motivation to keep on going. 

This is usually how artists feel when going through an art block. 

Art block is a term describing the feeling when an artist, whether it comes to sculpting, writing, creating music, designing, photography, loses motivation to continue their creativity. Art blocks can make other artists feel a variety of different emotions. 

For me, it creates a sense that nothing I make is good enough.

Art block is very frustrating, as it not only affects my art, but it also affects other factors. It impacts my writing or anything that involves creativity by prohibiting me from continuing my work and actually putting an effort into what I’m doing. 

So, I created a list of habits and mindsets I am working on when I feel this way to help others who feel the same as well.

Looking Back

Occasionally, when I had an art block, I would look back at all of my recent drawings and get frustrated when I only found about two drawings appealing. I forgot how proud I was when I first made it or how much it meant to me.

Now, when I look back at my art, I try my best to remember how much hard work was put into making it, instead of being embarrassed about how it compares to the current quality of my work.

This can relate to other hobbies as well, like picking up an instrument. 

During my freshman year, I would play violin. I often didn’t feel encouraged to play because I felt like I didn’t improve much — then I looked back at the time I finally learned how to play notes with my pinky finger. It was difficult for me as I couldn’t move it much, but when I got it I was so excited and proud of myself, even if it took a long time.

When I looked back at that moment, I remembered how much euphoria I felt and how much work it took to achieve it.

This is a little sketch I did in fourth grade during school. I don’t like it much now, but back then I was very proud of how the hair and shading turned out. 

Looking back at this simple drawing makes me realize how much I have grown as an artist. It also reminds me that if my younger self saw my art now, she would be so amazed that I could fully color my drawings.

It’s important to remember those moments — where you accomplish something — as they remind you about how far you have come and give you more encouragement to keep on improving. 

Creating for Yourself

With the art industry today, art blocks just make the job for an artist more difficult to have.

Artists are expected to keep making art several times to make it more interesting and exciting if they want to keep their audience.

This can be extremely exhausting because you won’t have any time for yourself to create what you want to create.

Alex Hirsch, an American animator, voice actor, and creator of the Disney cartoon Gravity Falls, when being interviewed in Motion London 2024, stated that “there’s no way to make anyone love what you create unless you love it first.” 

What he means by this is that not everyone is going to love what you create, so don’t focus on trying to make something that everyone will love. Instead, if you enjoy what you are making and have fun creating it, then there is a fair chance that there are people who will love it as much as you do.

When I have this mindset that I must do something for others, I tend to feel like I can’t make any mistakes.

If you want to open yourself to your creativity and have more fun in what you are doing, you must open your mind to the idea of not having to achieve perfection all of the time. 

Do Something Else/Take a Break

When we spend a large amount of time on something that doesn’t come out right, we ultimately waste our energy and time on it.

Most of the time, when drawing, I would take an unusual amount of time on a sketch when it didn’t fit my standards — I would focus on the details, rather than the full picture, which annoyed me when I couldn’t get it right. Eventually, I would give up again and not want to draw for another month. 

The best way to not feel like you have wasted your time on something is by taking a break and refreshing your mind. I find that taking a walk, working on a puzzle, or even listening to music can help when doing this.

This way, you don’t tire yourself out and you can drive your mind to finish what you have started.

Get Inspired by Others

One thing that has really helped my art journey is by getting inspired by others. 

Most of the time, when I see really good art in TV shows or on Instagram, I would get mad at myself for not being able to achieve something like that. However, over time I have found it better to instead use that feeling to push myself harder when improving.

Now, I try to look at art that inspires me and use parts of it that I like in my art style. This way I can get a better sense of what I want to create as an artist.

This can be used for other hobbies as well like creating music. For instance, if you had a desire to create music but feel bad every time you saw another artist creating “better” music, you can use that envy to improve by experimenting with the stuff the other artist used to help you find a better sense of your style.

Taking inspiration does not equate to copying if you still make it your own piece of art.

This is a drawing I made near the end of my freshmen year where I used inspiration from an art piece by Meybis Ruiz Cruz, an illustrator and character designer who won the Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation Emmy in 2023. 

When I first saw their outstanding drawing, I immediately felt discouraged as I didn’t think I could ever catch up to that level of skill. However, instead of feeling upset about it the whole time, I took it upon myself to use their art as inspiration for my art style.

I used similar brushes and drew a woman with the same hairstyle Cruz drew in the original painting.  

Although I didn’t completely finish it, I’m still very proud about how it turned out — I felt like I exposed myself to new tools that I could use for the rest of my art.

Expose Yourself to New Things

When we expose ourselves to new things, we help our mind create new ideas and form different perspectives, which can influence us to create something new. If we stay in the same place, sticking with the same stuff, then we will be stuck with the same thoughts and ideas. 

This can be done in a variety of ways, like trying a new TV show you never thought of watching before, or listening to a different style of music. 

This way, we can get a better sense of what we do and do not like — this can even better influence your artstyle by applying more things you like from the new stuff you discover, thus giving you more ideas to create new things.

These two pieces were made for a project in my freshmen English I class — I had to make a cover describing a moment in the book I read over the Summer, Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson. 

I don’t normally do collages, so I was afraid about how it would turn out. I figured if I combined it with drawings, it would be more fun — which it definitely was! 

When making these pieces, I felt like I learned a lot more about what kind of art styles or techniques that I like and don’t like and which ones I would like to experiment with more. This gave me a better idea of the stuff that I would like to create as an artist. 

Keep a Sketchbook or Journal

Lastly, another thing that I feel is helpful during an art block is keeping a journal or sketchbook to jot down anything like ideas, things that interest you, or questions you want to think more about later. This way you can keep all of the ideas you have in mind and use it to work on future creations.

Keeping something like this exercises your mind to capture things without having big presuppositions for what you create to be perfect — creating will become more fun and it will be a lot easier to get your ideas out.

This summer I wasn’t feeling very confident in my artistic skills, so when I went out, I drew whatever I saw without any expectations on how the sketches should look.

A lot of the faces I drew are uneven or unrealistic, but I had fun with it. When we open ourselves to have more fun with our art it makes the process more enjoyable and less stressful, allowing us to leave more room for creativity. 

On the whole, art block can affect many people in different ways which is why it’s essential to realize that there are many ways to get through it, even if it feels like an inescapable thing to go through. 

Doing these things has made me feel a lot more confident in my art journey — it helped me improve my art more. Although I still struggle with a lot of things when it comes to creating art or doing schoolwork, I’ve realized that it’s natural — what is most important is that we try our best to overcome those struggles to push ourselves to our greatest potential.