Howdy!

Today I wanted to share how I battle with what many, many, many artists have gone through: art block.

There are so many times when I have an amazing idea in my head, a very high motivation to draw, and my drawing tablet right in front of me…only for whatever I draw to not turn out how I want, even the simple stuff. It’s happened to me so much that I’ve developed my own little system to combat it.

Search for evidence: One of the first things I do is just go back to old art and see the improvement I’ve made over time. This usually gets my motivation up even higher and sometimes if I really like an old piece, I’ll redraw it. Why engage my mind in art block combat when I can just flow along with an already good idea?

Making marks into things: Another thing I like to do is just start making marks and then just make something out of them. This is what I did recently when I was going through some art block and it worked pretty well.

For example, for this piece, I was just making some marks on the page and slowly started to see a girl staring at a castle. When it comes to art block, I feel like this piece has some metaphorical value to it. The castle wall represents art block and the girl represents trying to overcome it.

This piece also gave me a small story idea that I’ll be working on along side my comic: Writing and illustrating a little story book. So far, I have a vague idea of how I’ll use this girl (who I’m going to call The Littlest Knight) and what her adventure is going to be. So far I’m thinking something with dragons.

Is art block one of the greatest evils to exist in this world? Yes. Can it also lead to some amazing ideas if tackled properly? Also yes!

Thanks for reading!

~Isaiah Williams