Team Mathafaqa

Admit you have talent

No, seriously, do it. Say it right now, aloud, in front of your computer. “I am a good writer/artist/musician/singer/whatever.” Just admit it to yourself. Because I swear when you do, your work will become better. You’d be amazed at what you can produce when you feel confident in your abilities.

Stop comparing yourself to other people

“I’ll never be as good of a writer as Hemmingway/Bronte/Rawling!”, “I’ll never sing like Adele/Florence Welch/Joan Jett!”, “I’ll never paint like Picasso/van Goh/O'Keefe!”, “I’ll never draw like Davis/McCracken/MacFarlane!”, “I’ll never play like Hendrix/King/Cooder!”

No. You won’t. You will never, ever be as good as them. And they will never be as good as you. Every artist is unique. You have your own voice just like they had their own voice. Don’t try to be someone else; be you.

Be proud of your work

Wrote a shitty poem? Song? Manuscript? Paint something you didn’t like? Drew something wrong? Who. The hell. Cares? At least you DID something! That’s more than most people can say! You finished a piece of work. Be proud of that accomplishment.

Realize that not everything you do will be great

This ties in with the previous tip. You’re going to do shitty things. It’s part of being an artist. Stop putting so much pressure on yourself to create something great every time. Strive for it, sure, it SHOULD be your goal. But realize that sometimes you’re just going to do something that sucks, and then get over it and try to do better the next time.

Be proud of your talent and enjoy it

its like having all the money you wanted ,but you dont know what to buy. Making this to look at when I get stuck with lame ideas. These are all suggestions from my followers:

Taking a break:  No option for me but it surely can be good for other overworked peeps

Exploring new art forms: depending on your art style, surrealism would be something I’ve never tried before.

Shape game: Either sketching blindly and connecting the dots or sketching random shapes  and fill them with faces or whatever comes to your mind.

Draw something you never drew before:  …a good picture…

Draw a shark:  How to draw a shark by Will Terrell 

Read books:  Let your mind to the picture first and then your hand.

Poses:  Action poses - freestyle dancing - fight styles - (dancing people in general)- life drawing - online 3D model

Redoing Artwork: Either your old stuff or from your favorite artists, your way.

Reverse storyboarding: take your fav movie and sketch the the shots after every camera change.

Screencaps: study them, draw them, look at composition

Characters: Let your OC’s do extreme expressions, let them do things (driving,cleaning,running,etc)

Concepts: How people could look like on other planets. Look at Character Design

Planing an art project: A comic in my case, thinking about environments and characters etc.

Drawing upside down: ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿

Fanart: Illustrate your favorite book, series,Manga ,etc

The Creative Act of Listening to a Talking Frog

“Artblock” for our blog about fighting and overcoming artblock

Those feelings are slowly swelling up, sadness, anger, fear and disappointment clog your brain, there is no more place for positive thought, everything becomes negative. The heart is screaming that it is okay, but eventually it loses hope as well and in the end there is no light. Only darkness. Desperately trying to reach the meaning and the purpose you have been working so hard, the conclusion is that all of your hard work comes to an end and you will not go any further. This is as far as you go.

However.. It is not time to give up, because you can never truly know how far you can go until you try. Sometimes it helps to take a small break, sitting down and asking yourself “why am I doing this?”. It is okay to feel bad, to let yourself feel completely useless, it is okay to let go, trust me. Because when you do, the heart will scream again “you are worth it, don’t give it”. The heart will scream out loud, no matter how much you want to lie. You can lie to anyone but yourself. If you have even the smallest, tiniest doubt about giving up, then DON’T! That one can make the huge difference and take you one step forward.

So ask yourself, why are you doing this in the first place? Why are you creating? Is it because you like it? Then that’s more than enough to keep you going. Everything you’ve done so far becomes pointless when you stop trying. So don’t give up. You know it yourself that you have surprised yourself many times. And there will be more, I promise. Just keep on going. Surprises never stop to happen, because YOU make them happen without even knowing.

Updated my Art Cycle image thingy to make it a little easier to read. Still lots of info packed in there with my sub par infographic making skills but ah well. 

Whenever you feel bad about your art ability, please remember this! Art improvement for many is a cycle, art blocks do not mean you are doing worse. You are just getting better at seeing your mistakes, which is CRUCIAL to getting better at making art!! 

(If you want to translate this to your native language here’s a blank! http://sta.sh/01r8b4swvhy4)