Crafty Tuesday: Some Ideas on How to Defeat the Blank

There are times when, in the creative process, you just draw a blank. (Actually I’d love to see what some of my artist friends would do with the prompt draw a blank). The creative muse sometimes just wanders off for a pee and a smoke before the next act (obscure Monty Python reference kind of sort of). Or your motivation decided to get up and leave for a play date with another motivation that is a friend of theirs.

My suggestion is step away for a little while but only a little while. Don’t give up on what you are doing but take a breath and let it out. Go do some dishes or some other task that needs doing to give your brain a break.

Put down the thing that is frustrating you and pick up something else you are working on. Or start something else. I have a number of pieces that are in various stages of done and there are one or two that are my go to when I get frustrated or feel I have nothing left in the tank. These are my anything goes pieces that will probably never be shown but allow me to practice various techniques. Call them my Franken-pieces.

I find that if sculpting is driving me crazy then try pattern drafting or sewing something else or even knitting. Sometimes if pattern drafting is driving me daft, I sculpt whatever to shake my brain loose.

And then there are the times when there are deadlines and one don’t have the leisure of a blank. Those are the times where one just buckles down and keeps going until the project is done. Might not be perfect but it does what it needs to do. And some times just muscling through is the perfect way to get rid of the blank.

So what do you do to get rid of the blank?

I am grateful for the ability to just do when it needs to be done.