There are a number of mixed media artists’ blogging about how they are suffering from creative block, or artist’s block, on a daily basis. While this is a frustrating situation to be in, it is not impossible to break the block. We are going to talk about how to break the block one day at a time. For this project, we are going to work in either sketchbooks or art journals. The choice depends on what you are most comfortable working in.
We are going to work on this one-week at a time, little by little:
- Day one: open your book to the first blank page, and then draw a rectangle in the center. Use a ruler, draw it free hand, make it as large or as small as you like. Use pen, pencil, crayon, marker, or whatever else. There are no hard and fast rules here.
- Day two: take some watercolor paint (or very loose acrylic paint) and do a color wash around the rectangle. Choose any color you like. Keep the color consistent; make it mottled, create dark edges, or just do a flat wash.
- Day three: write a quotation, a few sentences of journaling, a song lyric, or an anecdote around the edge of the page. Use markers, pens, gel pens, or whatever else you feel comfortable writing with. This should look like a border.
- Day four: create a mini collage using junk mail, magazine cut-outs, scrap paper, or whatever else you like in the blank rectangle in the center of your page.
- Day five: using markers, paints, crayons, pastels, charcoals, or whatever else, create a border around your collage. Use whimsical shapes, swirls, and other interesting patterns.
- Day six: add embellishments to any areas where you have painted and there is not anything interesting happening. These embellishments can be game pieces, pieces of wire, stickers, or whatever else you have on hand.
- Day seven: splatter walnut ink or paint over the entire piece.
There: in seven days, you have taken baby steps toward breaking free from creative block. The best thing to do is avoid focusing on a theme or focusing too hard on the materials choices you make. The possibility of blocking yourself further is present if you are placing too much focus on these elements. Now, repeat this process for several weeks or, until you are ready to create something different on a canvas, on an altered object, in an altered book, or whatever else.
