Creative block is a very familiar feeling to most creative souls. From time to time we all experience the feeling of being unable to make what it is that we usually make, even if we really want to.
So just what is creative block and how can we beat it so that we can get back to painting?
I’m so glad you asked 😉….
What is Creative Block?
In my mind, creative block is a stuckness that makes us question and criticise our every move or just completely paralyses us.
Were you hoping for a more technical explanation?
Creativity requires us to use what we have inside ourselves to bring something that doesn’t yet exist into being. It’s just that sort of mystical, intangible quality that makes a creative block equally mysterious.
I believe creative block exists only in our minds. It is a product of our thoughts and feelings. Even though it doesn’t exist in tangible form, it feels painfully real and influences our actions.
By the way, if this is sounding all too familiar and you want a practical process you can follow when creative block gets you down, you might want to check out my PRIME process in one of my most popular classes Mix It Up.
Learn the PRIME process to get unstuck AND find your own style!
Creative block really just boils down to fear and anxiety. Unfortunately, fear and anxiety is the opposite of creativity. It switches our brains from creative mode to survival mode which means all of our wonderful imagination and problem-solving abilities are not even available to us.
We are not able to see new possibilities or envisage solutions because we have closed those neurological circuits to give priority to the survival ones. In a fearful, anxious state our brains only offer us four options. These 4 possible fear responses apply to all situations, but here’s how I see it playing out with creative block.
fight - struggle on unhappily, working against yourself, criticising everything you do
flight - run away and watch Netflix instead
freeze - do absolutely nothing, inaction in the studio starts to leak into other areas of life
faun - consider emulating someone we admire or some way of pleasing our idea of a discerning audience, while criticising ourselves for having no originality!
Now fear and anxiety can be more of a general thing, something to do with your environment. Life events, and global pandemics, for instance. These are situations you can’t always avoid. They are simply part and parcel of being a human being.
You may also be feeling fear and anxiety specifically related to your creative work. This includes but is not limited to:
fear of wasting paper and art supplies
fear of wasting time and, of course
fear of not being good enough.
All of these things can stop us in our creative tracks.
How to Beat Creative Block
Luckily I think there’s an antidote for this thing we call creative block.
Whether it’s born of the internal fears and anxieties or something external that you can’t control that happens to be going on in your life at the moment.
I think the answer is to play.
Good things happen when we play.
When we are having fun everything seems easy. We get into a flow state. We relax and can see possibilities and are willing to experiment. We enjoy the process and can be much less judgemental since it’s only play - the pressure is off.
If you can turn your creative work back into a game you’ll find that that creative block dissolves.
That’s not to say that this is a one and done cure! Of course fears and anxieties crop up all of the time during our lives so it’s great if you’ve got some tools to use when that happens.
When we are playing we can loosen up and stop taking things so seriously. We can view all of our work as experimentation rather than something we have to get right. After all, when it comes to art there actually is no right or wrong.
My Favourite Medium for Creative Play
It might surprise you to hear that my favourite medium for this sort of play is watercolour.
Now I know what you’re going to say! Watercolour is the most exacting and demanding of all the possible mediums you might choose.
I believe that it depends how you use watercolour. Of course there are techniques that you can apply to get the most out of each art supply and exploit the particular benefits of each medium but there’s always more than one way to do things.
Sure you can use watercolour in a careful illustrative manner trying to avoid blooms and runs and uneven washes. But I would have to ask... why would you want to do that?
These things are some of the best attributes of watercolour in my opinion and I would be terribly sad if a glorious cauliflower didn’t appear in my painting every so often!
I think it’s precisely because watercolour does such unpredictable things that it’s a perfect medium for us to use when we need to be reminded to go with the flow.
Work with what’s working and let go of the rest.
See what happy accidents appear on the page and then make the most of them. Also, contrary to popular opinion, you can fix mistakes in watercolour.
Although I would hesitate to call anything a mistake. If you must, please remember that the word literally means miss and take. A take being just having another go, so if something turns out the way you had preferred it hadn’t, you get to have another go.
This is also why I think watercolour is a great medium to turn to if you’re feeling a little bit stuck because if you let it, it will do some of the painting for you.
I like to think of painting as a collaboration with the art supplies.
It's not all on you.
You get to let those supplies do some of the work and share some of the load. I base all my classes and tutorials on this idea because I feel so strongly about it.
By the way, if you happen to be one of those people who has tried watercolour in the past and found it frustrating or perhaps avoided it because of the things you’ve heard about how difficult it is to manage, you might want to check out my introductory watercolour class Better Beginnings in Watercolour.
Let the Watercolour Adventure Begin!
So the next time creative blocks stops you in your tracks, have a go at splashing some watercolour around with no other goal than to play.
In my experience one of two things will happen. Either :
the fun of watching colours swirl and merge reminds you of how much fun it is to create and you get back on your usual creative roll
OR
you get absorbed in your watercolour play and it turns into a lovely painting… almost by itself.
Try it and see 👍
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