CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

I was wondering...

Do any of you other artists on CAA experience the occasional "dry spells" in creativity? You know, when you kind of lose your inspiration, or have an incredibly tough time drawing a picture that you just know you could have drawn perfectly last week? XD

The main reason I'm asking is because I'm kind of going through one myself...I'll try to draw a picture, and it either turns out awful, or I don't even finish it, because I'm too frustrated with how awful it's looking. XD And there are some days where I'll start to draw a picture, and I can be done with the main subject in about 30 minutes, and everything'll look fantastic, and I'll be really happy with how it looks. Is this something the rest of you experience, or do I just need to sharpen my skills a whole lot more?

http://www.seventhsanctum.com/

It helps.

OMG yes I can totaly relate.

definatly.

what i find that helps is that I like to go around and search other art sites, and get isnpired.

or i like to look through quotes, or magazines to help inspire me. ^.^

Every day. Seriously. It's a rare day when drawing something is easy and it comes out looking great. Inspired days are great, but slow and steady effort is what makes it in the end.

Writers have this problem too, for the record.

Yes. All the time. If it's story wise, I usually just go back and try to flesh out some of my other ideas.

http://www.seventhsanctum.com/

It helps.

Okay, this site rocks. XD

All creative types have dry spells.It's not just artists or writers but musicians,actors,dancers,everyone who has anything to do with the arts expierences dry spells.It's part of being creative.What you have to do is find something different to do for awhile,simply get away from drawing or whatever and try something different.It may or may not help but it can't hurt to try.

YUUUSSS

For me though, it's like a lot worse than not being able to create anything. It usually lasts for a few weeks. Once I didn't draw hardly anything all summer...and It really depressed me.

But I find that sometimes that's the best time to grow closer to God. I know sometimes I dedicate WAY too much time to my art that I forget about Him. I forget about the Talent he gave me.

So ontop of flipping through magazines, why not read your bible a bit, and pray for God to give you some inspiration.

After all, He provides our talents and we owe everything to him. (bit a of my own personal disclaimer there XD)

good luck RD!

I LOVE Ronin's idea! I purposely took 1+ year off of drawing anime for online purposes (I still drew for classes and such... so as to not lose my skill) to focus more on God. However, I would guess that drawing is like anything else in life: when its the hardest and you push through, you grow the most. But taking time off to put your focus on God is never a bad thing.

Wow, thanks so much for all the responses in such a short time! Puguni, I LOVE the site you posted, it's so fun! XD I barely read magazines, but I should try to find some more often and look through them for poses, etc. CR-chan, I really like your idea! You're right, we can't forget Who gave us our talent to begin with! And it really helps knowing that pretty much every artist experiences these dry spells. XD Thanks so much for all of your answers!

Radical Dreamer wrote:I was wondering...

Do any of you other artists on CAA experience the occasional "dry spells" in creativity? You know, when you kind of lose your inspiration, or have an incredibly tough time drawing a picture that you just know you could have drawn perfectly last week? XD

The main reason I'm asking is because I'm kind of going through one myself...I'll try to draw a picture, and it either turns out awful, or I don't even finish it, because I'm too frustrated with how awful it's looking. XD And there are some days where I'll start to draw a picture, and I can be done with the main subject in about 30 minutes, and everything'll look fantastic, and I'll be really happy with how it looks. Is this something the rest of you experience, or do I just need to sharpen my skills a whole lot more?

Occasional? Try constant. Inspiration comes rarely to me.

.rai//

Yeah I get dry spells too. I get really frustrated when I sit down to draw and I don't know where to start. Or I try and it just won't come out right. Then I just stop drawing altogether. I stopped for about a year or so, and just picked it back up earlier this year.
Lately though, the only drawing I've been doing, is what God tells me to. And He's keeping me QUITE busy...

well I have been drawing for 16 years and I get dry spells all the time I agree with CR about just focusing on the Lord more I have to do that quite a bit and it really helps me in my art whern I am focuesed more on the Lord

All my creativity comes in spurts! Sometimes singing is my greatest passion, and then it will be drawing for a while. And then - the sudden urge to paint! And buy lots of painting supplies, canvases, and an easel and get it all home only to realize that I have no idea how to paint!

every artists do. for me, it happens all the time. i lack the creativity department and it frustrates me when i don't know what the heck i'm doing. sometimes i wonder why i'm majoring in cartooning.

For some reason creativity comes when I'm really, really busy and as soon as I get any free time I suddenly got nothin'. Maybe its 'cause when I'm working hard my mind is engaged and then it dies or something. XD

Yeh I can totaly relate to having dry spells but you deal with it. And that site from Puguni is amesome!

I'm a big fan of just pushing through until the inspiration comes back, but everyone has different approaches.

Actually, alot of my inspiration tends to come from seeing a simple idea in something else, which I take and expand upon so much that in the end, you can barely tell I based it off something else in the first place (and on occasion, I end up losing the aspect I first began to base it off of Xp ).

I'm in the middle of a little dry spell myself.

Yeah, I get artist's block.
Actually, inspiration and motivation for some of my not so cute work comes when I get agrivated(a mood swing).

Yep.. The best soloution for a dry spell is a water spell. (OMG PUN! XP)

Actually, I usually turn to God for insparation when I'm like that, He is THE Creator after all.

blargh! my gosh, i went through one that lasted an entire year! not fun.