7 Tips for What To Do When You Have NO IDEAS or Motivation!

Everyone goes through periods where you have no idea of what to draw or create, which affects our motivation. The irony of this is that I came up with the idea for this video because I had no ideas! These times can be frustrating, and the easy response is to wait it out until you magically get your motivation back. But this doesn’t usually work - or by the time it does, you’ll be wasting precious time just waiting around when you could be making things!

I used to mope a lot in these situations, but now I actively scope out possible inspiration for what to create. Motivation is something you need to be constantly working on to maintain, so I thought I’d share my tips for what I do to get my mojo back!

Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash

1. Create a Collection of Inspiration and Reference

Whenever you find something inspiring, add it to a collection of inspiration and reference. This could mean saving photos to organised folders on your computer, or music playlists on spotify. Then, when you’re in need of inspiration, you can just scroll through your collections and see what sticks out and makes you feel inspired. The amount of times I’ve depended on this for inspiration, I think I would feel lost without it!

Examples:

• Photo references of anatomy, perspective (including ones with very warped/intense perspective), lighting/mood/colour palettes, faces/facial features, fashion/outfits/material, expressions, landscapes, animals, whatever!
  Tip: Go through modelling agency websites for some unique-looking faces. Find movie stills for great lighting, mood, colour palette, or composition references.
• Other people’s art. You could like it for specific techniques or style, composition, colour, line, medium, whatever!
• Playlists of songs which set certain moods and influence you as such.
  Tip: Create music playlists for different moods or themes, so that when you want to paint an image with a certain mood portrayed, you can gain inspiration through music whilst working on it. Eg: Dark and moody playlists for dark paintings, upbeat or confident music for confident characters, etc.
• Make it easy to access.
  Tip: do it on dropbox or similar if you can, so that you can access it wherever you need to.

Using http://chadwickmodels.com to find inspiration for faces/facial features.

2. Think About Recent Experiences

Have you had any notable experiences or strong emotions you’ve felt recently? Try to channel that feeling into your art. For example, I got the idea of this video/blog because I myself was experiencing this exact thing! Use what could be a personal setback to your advantage, and use it as creative inspiration.

Tip: write or sketch down how you’re feeling at the time. It’s easier to remember or think back on those experiences for creating later on.

3. Trawl through certain websites which inspire you

Could be:

• themed tumblrs

• Instagram Influencers (a lot of people complain about the nihilistic millennials, but honestly there are so many unique people out there and I love when those kinds of people just upload a bunch of photos of themselves)

• Pinterest

• Blogs

• Youtube(rs)

• Fashion designer sites (oooooft alexander mcqueen)

It all depends on what inspires you or what kind of art you create.

Tip: Again, whenever you stumble upon inspiring websites, BOOKMARK THEM!

4. Listen to particular music that get’s you inspired or in certain moods. Eg: bright, smooth music for a calm drawing

As I said above, create playlists which set a certain mood or theme. Music has a surprising effect on your mood, and therefore inspiration. It’s especially good for times when you start a drawing in a certain mood, but can’t expect to feel that way for the entirety of the artwork (especially for works which take several days or weeks to complete) - listening to music can help bring you back to that mood and help you connect with your art.

5. Watch Certain Movies That Always Inspire You

Everyone has particular tastes in movies, and you can be inspired by movies for many different reasons - for the cinematography, the actors, characters, sets, costumes, soundtrack, or storyline.

Tip: I don’t work well if I’m trying to draw whilst also concentrating on a movie, so I find I work best when I watch a movie, and reference certain shots from within the movie, or a good one is to listen to the soundtrack whilst I’m working! Listening to the music from the movie will help take you make to the mood of watching it.

Utilising https://movie-screencaps.com to find great movie shots.

6. Have a Change of Scenery

• Go outside, go for a walk and listen to some music whilst you do, and just think. Note anything that you think about that gives you inspiration.

• Exercise - a way to give your brain a break and focus on something else, and also gives you mental energy - make you less lethargic and more motivated to be productive. After a good workout session you’ll feel motivated, and exercising with music can have the same thinking effect as going for a walk.

• Do mindless tasks and think throughout them. I can think of great ideas when cleaning, doing the dishes, showering.

• Avoid your phone for a while so that you don’t mindlessly scroll. This can kill many ideas - or, you can find something inspiring but then get lost in your scrolling and forget about it forever. If you find inspiring things on instagram, screenshot them and immediately upload the screenshot to the cloud - whether that be dropbox, icloud, or google drive.

7. Try to Avoid Distractions

• I find drawing whilst watching TV/movies to be distracting - everyone is different, of course, but I recommend listening to music over watching things, as it’s more motivating/inspiring than distracting.

• Same goes for social media or being online. Make sure you’re not getting too distracted by it and breaking your concentration or mood.

How To Get Out Of a Bad Mood

Sometimes there are days where I just don’t feel good for no good reason! It could be influenced by anything from lack of sleep or exercise, to lack of direction with my goals or schedule.

At times like this, it’s incredibly easy to just wallow in your grumpy, irritable mood. But that doesn’t make you feel any better! 

I’ve found a good way to help get myself out of this mood, so try this next time you feel this way, too:

• Sit down with a pen and paper.
• Write down dot points answering this question: “What are my main problems right now? What is causing me to feel bad?”
• Go through each point, and write down what the SOLUTION would be to this problem.
• Write down steps to take in order to make this solution possible.
• If the solution is not possible or is out of your hands, you’re going to have to focus on letting go of that problem, as it will be wasted energy stressing over something you can’t control!

Working this way will teach you how to mentally work your way out of a bad day. After all, a bad day isn’t a bad day - it’s just a bad attitude! Only you allow a day to be bad. It’s all a matter of perspective!

What to do When You're Feeling Overwhelmed

If you find you’re feeling overwhelmed because you know you have SO much to do, but you can’t seem to get a grip over what needs to be done, I recommend trying this:

🔲 Sit down with a pen and paper. TURN OFF ALL DISTRACTIONS just for the moment - that includes watching any kind of TV, putting your phone away or on silent, and even turning off music (or maybe listen to background music to drown out any loud noises in your environment).

🔲 Think about what it is you need to do - start with the biggest, most obvious things. I find once I start thinking about and writing those down, then many of the little things I need to do will come to me. Write those down as well.

🔲 For the large goals, break them down into several smaller, easier steps. Not only will this make it clearer just HOW to achieve those larger goals - which will make you feel more in control - but it will also bring you much more satisfaction when you’re able to tick off each step. If you just write down one large goal, you’ll get frustrated when you’ll be working all day and still haven’t ticked anything off - you’ll feel like you’re getting nowhere.

🔲 Next, think about which of these points need to be addressed immediately, and which aren’t so urgent. Either keep a note of this order in your head, or re-write all of your goals and steps in order. Then, as you review this list, you’ll know exactly what needs to be done next. 🙂

When You Don't Want to Talk to Anyone... →

There are some times when I feel grumpy and not in the mood to talk to people. I put on my earphones and I ignore the outside world. But this more often than not makes me feel worse. It’s actually social interaction which can pull me out of the grumps!
The next time you’re feeling unhappy, and feel like you want to cut yourself off from the world - take a chance on talking to those around you. You just might feel better for it!! 

What I Learnt in 2016

I uploaded a video on Youtube of what I learnt in 2016!

The amount I grew in 2016 is crazy - it’s possibly the most I’ve grown in any one year! Here’s a recap of what I talked about in the video:

• Started working full time for the first time in my life.

• Learnt how to be disciplined and how to build a schedule that works for me, and how to stick to that schedule. It actually took me a while to realise that if I didn’t draw or gym in my very limited free time during the week (mornings and evenings), then it wouldn’t happen at all, and weeks and months would pass with zero improvement!

• Finally found a diet that works for me! With limiting carbs and sweets and unhealthy foods without feeling deprived of them or feeling the need to eat them all the time and have horrible cravings!!
  I did a 12 week program with my best friend and incredibly smart Personal Trainer, Emily, and the biggest things I learnt from that is:

  • The importance in fat in a diet when limiting carbs.

  • The effect eating carbs in the morning has on your energy and cravings (you crave carbs much more throughout the day, and you also have greater peaks and troughs in your blood sugar).

  • How good having a high protein and fat breakfast can have on your blood sugar and cravings.

  • How it feels to not be tired all the time because of crazy blood sugar.

  • How to push myself.

• I learnt a tonne about the gut, inflammation, blood sugar, and the effect the pill can have on your body. I found out that my gut was very unhappy (constantly bloated), and I altered my diet by eliminating gluten and dairy, with great results. I then found out the pill was still affecting my gut horribly, and my gut improved substantially after coming off of it (I can now eat gluten and dairy with fewer issues than before). I also learnt of the many silent symptoms that I didn’t even realise I was experiencing because of the pill - constipation (from affecting liver function and the gut), weight gain and fluid retention or similar (I’m assuming from the effect on my gut), making my breasts denser, weak nails (also from unhappy gut).

• I learnt about leaky gut - where cells can leak from your intestines into your blood stream, meaning that any inflammation that you may experience in your gut from eating hard-to-digest foods (especially gluten) can result in the inflammation leaking into your bloodstream and being transported to other areas of your body! Good motivation to eat well!

• I learnt to take chances, and not worry about having to be perfect all the time, and to just focus on and enjoy the process and journey!!! Of learning new skills, and improving on old ones.

So Happy New Year to everyone, and I hope you have a good year and work hard!!! Plan your future and reach those goals! :D

A short summary of the major things I learnt in 2016! Content: 1. Started a Full Time Job (0:23) 2. Learnt Discipline (0:49) 3. Diet & Health (1:30) 4. Gut Health, Inflammation and The Pill (4:04) 5.