Battling Creative Block
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Hey! Just wanted to thank everyone who attended the 3rd Thursday Webinar on creative block. I couldn't read all the comments and questions becasue I was running the show, but I heard there was a lot of good feedback and questions.
If your question wasn't answered in the webinar, go ahead and ask it here I'll try to answer it. Answers from the community would be wonderful too. I love to hear how everyone deals with these creative issues.
I also uploaded a 13 min clip from the webinar here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FK8kENLy7yw
And the full webinar can be viewed here for SVS subscribers: https://svs.thinkific.com/courses/battling-creative-block
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I just listened to the 3rd Thursday episode. I wasn't able to participate in the live class, so I will ask my question here:
For me, something that has become a new problem in recent months is that I feel I have gotten much better, and am currently in the process of really puting together my vision for my work (thanks so much to SVS for everything). However, I am now creating new work each week that I feel really good about, and then when I move onto the next image, I feel that I can't live up to my last piece. This is somewhat a good thing that I am getting better, but at the same time I do not yet have the confidence in what I am doing, and don't know if I ever will.
At the moment my schedule is Monday-Thursday for my thumbnails and finished drawing, and Thursday-Sunday (if I need that much time) to finish the piece. I work from 6pm to midnight every day, and have kept this pace since joining. Probably since joining last July, I have had three or so days where I needed to take a break.
With that said, each Monday I am in misery, and it is because the last thing I completed I feel took all of my effort, and I put all I have into what I just did, while also learning and adding new things I learned to that image. I am somewhat flying in the fog, and much of it is working without me really knowing why the image worked just yet. I also feel like I won't outdo my last piece. Though, by the end of the week it seems to work out, but I always struggle with this wall of doubt, which leads me to reject most of my thumbnails, and just sit there for a moment and really not be able to produce anything. It really causes me to strain myself mentally.
Any thoughts on this sort of block which seems be caused by growing as an artist?
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@Eric-Castleman Hey Eric, that's an impressive schedule and amount of work you're getting done. But I think you're suffering from burnout and it's no wonder if you've only taken 3 days off for the last 11 months.
You should be taking at least one day off a week to completely unplug from your work. And then I'd also recommend taking a week to 3 weeks off once a year. YOu'd be amazed at what this will do for you.
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I love the holistic approach. Talking about exercise and the spiritual aspects of blockage.
Thanks
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@Jake-Parker good advice! I will try applying that to my schedule.
I think the reason I don't stop is because I fear that if I stop I will forget what I learned. Like I am forcing what I am learning into my intuition, and since my confidence in what I'm doing isn't quite there, I somehow relate that to not stopping or it will all disappear.
Thanks for the great reply!
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@Eric-Castleman you need to read (or listen to) a book called the Talent Code: http://amzn.to/2sL77T9
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@Jake-Parker will definitely read. Thanks for the recommendation!!
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@Eric-Castleman said in Battling Creative Block:
I think the reason I don't stop is because I fear that if I stop I will forget what I learned. Like I am forcing what I am learning into my intuition, and since my confidence in what I'm doing isn't quite there, I somehow relate that to not stopping or it will all disappear.
@Eric-Castleman I totally understand that fear! But I've found that most of the time when you give yourself some time and distance from certain concepts, when you come back to them you "get" them a lot better than you did before. I've seen this time and time again while trying to improve my own work. I think when you over-burden your brain, you are not allowing things to sink in. It needs that rest period for growth to take effect.
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Thank you so much for this webinar! I am new to this site and community, and have never posted before, but I had to let you know that you really helped. I've just been struggling with this for so long (years) and really felt like the block had defeated me and I just couldn't create anymore. But when I heard your breakdown of the causes of block, it resonated with me. I can give myself a break and realize that there has been so much in my life that has contributed to this, and start getting a handle on it. I also really found some comfort in Will Terry's comment that we're always artists and that doesn't change even if we are in a slump! And Lee White's comments on being OK with making ugly art ( and doing "fake work"--that one made me laugh because I have a career in that! Ha!) Anyway, I so appreciate all of the talks and courses so far and have learned SO much already. You guys are awesome.
