Everyone who creates art - for a living or for fun - will experience creative block at some point in their life.

It’s an unavoidable fact, but learning how to identify creative blocks and work through them can make these periods a lot easier to manage!

What causes artistic block?

There are many reasons why we suffer from artistic or creative block - it could be related to your physical or mental wellbeing, not being happy in your place of work, or just a classic case of crippling self-doubt.

What does creative block look like?

If you’re struggling to start a piece of work that has to be done, if you want to create but can’t quite bring yourself to pick up a pencil, if you’re disappointed with your work and can’t bear to keep going - that’s creative block.

How to handle it: first steps

First of all, you can try to identify the cause of your block. Are you unhappy in your place of work? Do you feel like you’re stuck in an artistic rut? Do you just really need to touch some grass?

Sometimes you can beat the block with just a bit of a spring clean! Even if cleaning isn’t your idea of entertaining procrastination, it needs to be done sooner or later, so why not now? A clean work environment can do wonders for your state of mind!

If you can, take a break from work. Go for a walk, preferably somewhere natural. Use your body so your mind has time to rest. You could even take a holiday - you never know what might inspire you! The point is to engage in a little self-care, and remember that you’re a person first, not just a badass artistic machine.

Getting back to it

You’ve had a walk around the park and not looked at any of your work in 24 hours. That’s a great start, and it’s fine to procrastinate for now, but eventually you will have to get back on the creative horse.

Set yourself a gentle schedule for getting back into creating by setting aside a small amount of time each day - just ten minutes is fine. You’re under no obligation to share what you’ve made, and it doesn’t need to be perfect!

If you think a lack of technical skill is what’s holding you back, why not have a look into training courses, watch one of our How to Tattoo videos, or pick up an instructional DVD to really cover the basics.

Finding inspiration

If you’re lacking ideas for your art, you might find that it becomes stale. It’s time to try something new!

You can use drawing prompt websites and drawing challenges like Inktober to get ideas in a stress-free way. Throwing out a drawing a day is great practice, and will get you used to presenting work that might not be your best.

You could also try changing up your subject or style. If you’re mostly known for neo-traditional portraits but fancy doing more animals, find an online course that’ll teach you how - or just sit down and draw them over, and over, and over. An intense study of a particular subject might just inspire a whole new style of art!

And if none of this is working, it’s time to think outside the box. Try drawing with your eyes shut, or using a tool that you wouldn’t usually use - the weirder the better. Learn to watercolour, or go back to basics and try out some finger painting! Speed painting or drawing is also a fun way to improve your creativity while releasing yourself from the pressures of perfectionism.

Finally, if you’re feeling hopeless, why not redraw an old piece of your work? You’ll be amazed at how far you’ve come along!

Hopefully we’ve given you a few ideas on identifying creative block and taking steps to overcome it. And if you have any wise words of advice, we want to hear them on our Instagram post!