Greetings Artisan!
One of the dreams we have as artists is being able to spontaneously create.
To sit down in our perfect creative space, crack open a blank page, stare lovingly into the infinite of creation, and effortlessly create a masterpiece.
But this is not how it always goes.
Often, we struggle to even get started.
You can easily have trouble with the simplest things, such as...
...Figuring out what to draw.
This should be easy! After all, we are artists; we want to create things.
And it can be even more frustrating knowing that you should be able to come up with something interesting to put down on that blank page, and yet the ideas just don't flow...
If you have found yourself staring at an empty canvas, feeling paralyzed by the endless possibilities, you're not alone. As artists, we often grapple with self-doubt, creative drought, and the overwhelming pressure to create something original and meaningful.
I certainly struggled with this early on. Sometimes I had a lot of ideas, and my creative drawing sessions went well. I was able to create a sea of interesting characters and ideas. Sometimes, the inspiration just flows.
But other times I had nothing... It felt like what I was working on was dull and lifeless, that all my ideas were pointless, that I was missing something, and that I just couldn't come up with any original ideas. I became paralyzed by my own inabilities and just stuck in a rut.
It took me a while to really figure out the strategies I needed to get over this.
I also noticed throughout the years that many students suffered from the same thing.
So when I was building the Line and Colour Academy, I made sure to include a series of tools that really helped tackle this problem head-on.
One of the tenets of the Line and Colour Academy, which focuses on building your artistic ritual and developing a simple, reliable process; is that we can learn through doing.
It's possible to improve and get better simply by engaging in the act of creation.
From my experience, this is actually the best way to learn and the best way to develop a true artistic voice and master your creativity.
This way you can draw fun stuff and improve your skills at the same time.
In order to do this, we need to develop a consistent artistic practice.
We need to figure out what we love to draw.
Now, there are many different elements involved in really getting your motivation and inspiration sorted and getting to a point where you can regularly create the art you want without dealing with artistic angst and hangups—getting bogged down with blank page syndrome or artistic block.
One of the most important, though, is what I like to call the "Like List."
The Like List
My Example Like List from The Line And Color Academy.
This is a simple exercise that creates a framework and a reference for what you really love to draw.
It's also important to find ways to stay motivated and inspired, to surround yourself with art, to set good expectations of what it's going to be like to sit down to create, to really figure out what success is going to mean for you, and to define what a good artistic session will be.
But the "Like List" really gets at the core of what we love to draw. Reconnecting with our deep artistic self in this way can often unlock your creative potential.
The exercise is actually really simple (And not that original or creative in it's naming!).
We sit down, we brainstorm and organize all of the things we'd like to draw.
Easy right? You bet, just do this:
- Write down everything you enjoy drawing or creating.
- Focus on subjects that bring you joy, not what you think you should draw.
- Don't worry about pushing boundaries—this is about reconnecting with what you love.
Now, this can actually be a really in-depth and emotional journey. People have been known to take a couple of hours to really dive deep into inspiration and rediscover the cozy subjects that they have always loved drawing.
I recommend that if you're just thinking about this idea casually, you just whip out a bit of paper right now and start brainstorming some of these ideas for five or ten minutes. This will give you a good insight into the process. It's important to remember that this list is a living thing you can add to, edit, and adjust over time.
I often rewrite my list at the beginning of my sketchbook so that I can easily access it, and it's easy to tweak and adjust things as I go.
This is a really simple basic assignment, but it can also be a really powerful one. And there are also a number of little tricks, ideas, and adjustments that you can do to really take this to the next level.
If you want to learn about those extra tricks, I made a video on the "Like List" exercise this week, and you can go check it out here:
|
In it you will learn:
- How this exercise will help you defeat the blank page!
- How you can easily complete this exercise in five or ten minutes!
- How I use this exercise in my own sketching sessions.
- Watch me do a drawing demo where I go into more depth on strategies you can use to defeat the blank page and come up with cool things to draw.
Cheers!
Tim
If you haven't lately:
Check out The Line and Color Academy:
The like list is just one of the concepts in the Line and Colour Academy that helps you build and maintain a Consistent Artistic Practice. We go in-depth on this topic in Stage 1. Actually... There's a whole seven day, Step by Step mini course for Stage 1 that gets you up and running quickly with your Sketchbook. Just click play and it will walk you through setting up your Artistic Ritual.
