5 Ways to Overcome Creative Blocks

Creative blocks are something we all go through, no matter the field we’re working in. And it’s definitely something boring—and frustrating. You want to draw; to create; but it’s just… Something doesn’t work. You have absolutely no idea what you want to create, or you may also just feel like drawing the same thing over and over again, and, well, this blocks you.

I have gathered here three things I do when I have no idea what to draw, or when I feel like my creativity won’t come say hi, and that work pretty well for me.

So without further waiting, let’s start this blog post!

1. Draw the words you draw

Is it a pun? I have no idea. I thought it was fun.

Anyway, some time ago, I installed an app (Lucky Draw) that allows me to write words (which I also can categorise, etc.) that I can then draw randomly. Obviously, you could also write words on paper, and pick them randomly as well, but I would personally have lost all of these in a few seconds, so i opted for the digital version!

Most of the time, I will draw four of these words; then all I have to do is to create an illustration where I incorporate each element—and more if I feel like it!

I have decided to categorise all the words, so I have several themes on my main page (summer, winter, witch, fairy tales, and so on), and I just typed the words that these different themes evoked to me. Meaning, I wasn’t thinking about how I would draw them once randomly picked. So the interesting part in this method is that I will eventually find myself drawing things I wasn’t used to—hence getting out of my comfort zone!

Just to give you an idea, here is how I use it:

Now I know what to draw!

Of course, it loses all of its interest if you draw words infinitely until you find those you actually wanted! Some words might be harder than other to illustrate, but it’s worth the try.

2. Your Pinterest Home Screen will be your moodboard

I’m pretty sure we almost all use Pinterest to find references, inspirations, and many others. But when in a creative block, you might not even know what to enter in the search bar. So don’t worry, as there is a solution for this—you don’t need to search anything!

The only thing you’ll have to do is open the Pinterest app (this can also work with We Heart It, or stock photos websites such as Unsplash or Pixabay), refresh your main page, and then look at the images that appear.

Let’s say, you have three detailed illustrations, two cute sweaters, a landscape photo, a house with heart-shaped window. Just pick a few elements that you like, and try to compose your next illustration.

For instance; one of the illustration depicts a little boy and his rabbit, so I could decide to include these characters to my illustration. But to change their traits, I could also dress the boy with one of the sweaters. Finally, I could change the setting, and draw in the background one side of the house with the heart-shaped window. And what if the landscape photo had been taken at night? Well, the boy could be playing in his garden with his rabbit friend, with the night just starting to fall. Or it could have fallen already, and our two characters could be chasing fireflies.

There would just be so many possibilities, actually! And once again, this kind of exercise can also help you get out of your comfort zone.

3. Redraw an old piece

Okay, this one probably won’t help if you already feel like you draw the same things all the time, because that would just reinforce that feeling, I guess. But for those who don’t have this impression, this can be a good way to get back in a creative process.

You can scroll through your Instagram account, until you find some of your old drawings. Chose one, look at it. You may just want to redraw this illustration as it is but in your current style (depending on when the original drawing dates, this could have changed a lot!), but you could also pick up a few elements you’d like to change on it—maybe the colour palette, of the hairstyle of a character, their body type, the settings of a scene… It’s up to you!

This can also be motivating to compare your two pieces when you finish the new one, so you can see how much you’ve improved and all the things you’ve learned so far!

And for those who feel like drawing the same things over and over again, you could try to find drawings you did when you were a child—you probably didn’t draw the same things at this time!

I recently found some kinds of paper dolls I drew in 2010 or something like that, and that I used to play with. There were cats with wings and kokeshis—and let me tell you, I haven’t drawn these in quite a while!

4. Draw from an imposed colour palette

There are now plenty of sites where you can generate a colour palette randomly, with one of the most famous being Coolors.

You can find palettes that already exist (which I recommend you to use for this exercise), but you can also create your own (some drawing apps like Procreate allow you to import images and automatically generate colour palette from them).

You can choose a palette with only a few colours, and maybe an analogous scheme, if you want to make just a simple drawing (like a character, and no background at all). If you want to draw something more complex, choose a palette with wider range of colours.

When you have your palette, just try to only use the colours that are in to create your illustration—no cheating! I would lose all its interest if you start adding too many colours that weren’t in your base palette!

You might find yourself drawing a green-ish character, but, hey, the goal is also to make it a bit challenging!

5. Try a new medium

Sometimes the creative block also strikes because you’ve indeed been using the same technique for a really long while—not an eternity, but almost! You might just be tired of doing the same movements all the time—and that’s perfectly normal.

So why not trying a new medium, even just for one drawing?

Whether you make digital or traditional art, this can be a good way to change your mind, try a new technique and maybe even a new style, learn new things, etc. You may just even sketch with a pen on paper—which is probably the cheapest option. But you could also try watercolour, gouache, acrylics, paper cut… These are all super fun to try, and these may give you new ideas for your future projects! Of course, if you think of doing this once in a while only, it’s no use to buy an expensive set of new materials.

And for those of you who love digital art too much to go back to traditional, it works the same! You can find thousands of brushes with different feels and textures over the internet—and if you don’t want to pay because you think you might only use them from time to time, know that a lot of people share theirs for free. If you use Clip Studio Paint, you can find many in the “Asset” menu, and if you use Procreate, you can find some on Gumroad as well. You don’t have any excuses, now!

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And here we are—the end of this post. I hope it was useful. These methods work for me when creative block knocks on my door, and I do hope some will work for you as well! You can also share your own methods to get rid of creative blocks if you want to!