Artist Block: Figure Out Why You're Stuck Before You Try to Fix It

You want to make art. Me too!

You think about making art. You save ideas, collect (more) supplies, and tell yourself you’ll get back at it soon.

But when you finally have the time...you don’t.

Maybe you clean the studio instead. You scroll through other people’s work. You pin 63 images from 'art inspo.' You decide twenty minutes isn’t enough time to bother. Or you sit down, make a few marks, hate everything, and walk away.

We call it artist block. You might call it art block, artist’s block, or creative block.

Whatever you call it, it's a barrier.

But what if your art block isn’t actually a lack of creativity?

Sometimes you don’t need another idea. Sometimes (I'd say most times) another idea actually won't help. More ideas can solve for the wrong problem. What do you need instead?

You need time, space, a clear next step, or a break from the running commentary in your own head.

Before you try to fix your art block, it helps to understand where you’re actually getting stuck.

What Is Artist's Block?

Artist block is the feeling that something is standing between you and the work you want to make.

It can sound like:

• I don’t know what to make.

• I don’t have enough time.

• I need to organize my supplies first.

• I need to buy more supplies first.

• Nothing I make is any good.

• I’ll start when life settles down/the kids grow up.

• I’ve lost whatever creativity I used to have.

  
  

Creative block is a broad term that can apply to writers, musicians, designers, and other creative people. Artist block and art block describe that same stuck feeling as it relates to making visual art.

Whatever you call it, the block is real. You're stuck. Usually, you're also frustrated. But it doesn’t necessarily mean your creativity is gone.

I’ve thought I lost my mojo before. More than once. Looking back, I hadn’t lost my creativity.

I had lost my rhythm.

And rhythm can be rebuilt.

Artist Block Isn't Always an Inspiration Problem

Most advice about overcoming art block assumes you need inspiration.

Try a new medium. Make a mood board. Buy a fresh sketchbook. Find a new prompt.

Any of those things might help. But only if a lack of ideas is your actual problem.

I'm a big believer in solving for the right problem.

A new prompt won’t create time in your schedule. New supplies won’t quiet perfectionism. Organizing the studio won’t help if you still don’t know what to work on when you sit down.

Art block can come from several different kinds of friction.

I see four:

1. Time

Sometimes you genuinely have very little time. Work, family, caregiving, and ordinary life can take nearly every available hour.

But sometimes the problem is what you believe creative time has to look like.

You think you need an uninterrupted afternoon. You want enough time to settle in, make real progress, and clean everything up afterward. If that kind of opening rarely appears, you rarely begin.

Twenty minutes can count.

You may not complete a painting, but you can choose colors, make a sketch, prepare a surface, or take one clear step forward.

Art can happen in the margins of a full life. That's why I stopped treating studio time like leftover time. Made a big difference in my art practice.

A small studio session is not a consolation prize. It keeps you connected to your work.

2. Space

You don’t need a beautiful studio, but you do need some way to reach your work without rebuilding the entire environment every time.

If your supplies are packed away, scattered through several rooms, or buried behind other things, setup becomes part of your art block.

Space can also be mental.

You may technically have a place to work, but it doesn’t feel like yours. You expect to be interrupted. You feel guilty leaving supplies out. Or the space is connected to so many other responsibilities that it’s hard to shift into making mode.

The answer may not be a bigger room. It may be one claimed corner, a portable supply kit, or having tomorrow’s materials ready before the session begins.

3. Momentum

You have time. You have supplies. You may even have several unfinished projects.

But nothing grabs you.

You spend the first part of every session deciding what to make, finding what you need, or trying to remember what you were doing last time. Every studio session begins from zero.

Momentum grows when one session makes the next one easier.

Before you stop, leave yourself a next step. Write down the idea that appeared while you were working. Put the supplies you’ll need next where you can find them.

You don’t have to generate fresh motivation every time. You can leave yourself a trail back into the work. That's the whole idea behind building an art habit that sticks.

4. Mind

Sometimes your mind makes the whole experience miserable.

Your skills feel rusty. Nothing looks right. Your current work doesn’t match what you imagine or what you used to make.

Then comparison arrives. You look at someone else’s finished work, established style, or successful business and compare your beginning to their middle. That never feels good.

You may also expect every piece to be beautiful, original, meaningful, or worth selling.

That is a lot of pressure to put on a studio session.

That pressure has a name. Call it art anxiety, perfectionism, or fear of the blank canvas. It's the voice that says the work has to promise to be good before you're allowed to begin. Sometimes it's really art guilt in disguise.

You need room to experiment, repeat yourself, make ugly art, and create things that never become anything. If every session is a test of whether you’re still talented, of course you resist sitting down.

Sometimes the way through art block is to lower the stakes.

You Don't Have to Diagnose Your Artist Block Perfectly

It’s useful to understand what might be getting in your way. But there is also a point when thinking about your art block becomes another way to avoid making art.

You may not know what the real problem is until you sit down and try.

Give yourself one small, intentional studio session. Put twenty minutes on the calendar. Decide what you’ll do before you begin. Pull out the supplies you’ll need.

Then pay attention.

What made it hard to start? What helped once you got moving? When did you lose energy? What surprised you? What do you want to do next?

The session gives you information.

You may discover that time wasn’t the problem. You were using half of it to decide what to make. You may realize you still love painting once the supplies are in front of you. You may find that the rusty feeling starts to lift after the first few awkward minutes.

You don’t have to figure everything out before you return.

Sometimes returning is how you figure it out.

Begin Your Creative Comeback.

If you’ve been circling your art without quite making your way back, the free 5-Day Creative Comeback Challenge will give you a place to begin.

Over five small steps, you’ll give yourself permission to create, make a plan, prepare your supplies, complete one manageable studio session, and decide what comes next.

You don’t need to make a masterpiece or overhaul your entire creative practice. You just need to show up, notice what happens, and make the next session a little easier.

Your creativity may not be gone. You may have simply lost your rhythm.

Let’s help you find it again.