How to Beat Artist's Block

Tips for regaining your inspiration when you're suffering from artist's block.

http://painting.about.com/cs/inspiration/a/artistsblock.htm

See Also
http://www.google.com/#q=artist+block

Rik go in the nature meditate and you will find inspiration. look at the clouds, sun rainbow, storm , snow the water from lake streams the vegetation and animal. look at what happens and the harmony in it. experience and enjoy.

Hello MoonWillow, i feel sure that this will get your energy flowing ...

there's a series of 64 graphics that were established, tried and tested by the Servranx Laboratories between 1946 and 1967 ... this graphic was approprately named the "vortex" ... it's based on the vortex ring and creates a powerful tourbillon of energy using the ambient force that is always available in our environment and can be adapted to any specific purpose of your choice ...

http://www.servranx.com/Products/Graphiques/DE-RADIONIQUE/N%C2%B0-43---Vortex.aspx

have a great day

MoonWillow, here is an article I wrote for HubPages about Writer's Block. I will copy it here- hopefully, it will help you get things going again, even though it is about writing. I should mention that doing the writing exercises will help your block with your art! I know, I know, it's crazy- but try it! You'll see!

It's All About "Flow"

What does a writer do when he or she faces a writing assignment, and nothing comes to mind except a feeling that the well of words has suddenly run bone dry? How do you unblock that block, and return to your writing, ready to conquer all?

I have faced this problem innumerable times, and have finally figured out some tricks to get that writing part of me going again.

1. I have noticed that I am much more likely to face a block when I am writing about something that just does not excite me. For example, I have been given some writing assignments in school that just leave me "dry". It's much like facing a household chore that I just don't want to do. I procrastinate. I find all sorts of excuses to avoid facing the keyboard...including a sudden excitement for the very household chores that I previously was avoiding! The kitchen floor needs washing? All of a sudden, I am washing the floor, rather than staring down the assignment- anything but that!

2. I often face writing blocks when other aspects of my life are also "blocked". Everything, literally everything, feels like a total drag. I end up staring at an old DVD movie, munching on old popcorn, wondering when all the fun went out of everything.

3. I sometimes get blocked when I am physically worn out. The cure that I turn to is sleep, which ends up being an escape rather than a solution to fatigue.

4. I get blocked when I build the assignment up into a huge problem, which triggers my fight-or-flight response in my mind. All those hormones start racing, and this tangles my brain into knots.

So what do you do when these sorts of things happen to you? How do you overcome how you feel, and knuckle down to work?

1. I try to kick-start my creativity. Sometimes (and this may sound a little crazy), I have discovered that if I do some other type of creative activity, like painting or playing with clay, I can sneak into the back door, so-to-speak, and re-approach the writing assignment riding on the back of a creative high generated from another creative activity.

2. Sometimes I just release myself from the constraints of the writing assignment, and do flow-of-thought writing. I get a notepad, and just start writing any old thing that comes to mind. I try to write exactly what my mind thinks. Such an exercise might read like this:

I do not want to write. No, I don't. I want to sleep. I think this writing assignment is dumb. Why do I have to do it? The fridge needs cleaning out. Now, why did I think of that? I don't know what to say here. I can't think of anything to say, but I am supposed to write my thoughts down, so I just am going to do it. I just remembered that I was supposed to call my friend Sandy. Boy, that would be more fun than this. I wonder if it is going to rain....and so on. Try to get three pages of flow-of-thought writing down.Then, I take a break, and I try to find something physical to do for a while. Often, when I return to the keyboard, I can begin that assignment.

What you are trying to do is to find what the experts call "flow". Maybe you've experienced flow before. It is a term that refers to a state of mind where you lose all track of your surroundings, and are totally immersed in what you are doing. Musicians experience flow when they are playing their music and it becomes almost effortless. Engineers feel flow when they are designing something, and get lost in the act of creation. The key to unblocking writer's block is to find your "flow" again. If you are one of those multi-talented people who do more than one creative art, often switching from one art to another will unblock the flow for the first.

Flow is what is missing when you face writer's block. Picture a surfer, looking for the perfect wave to ride. It's the same thing. Getting through the block in and of itself will teach you what to do the next time you get clogged up and go dry.

I hope this little treatise helps you find your flow, and gets you back to your writing.

Blessings-and good writing to you (and makeup art!!),

Jaianniah