Hello I usually go by Zardoz on the net.
I used to draw a lot. I might even draw again someday.
I finally know what it's like to have Sleep Paralysis. I wake up in the night and I'm picturing this thing I want to draw, but I know if I try to draw it it's gonna come out wrong (an agony not meant to be felt by mere mortals) so I just lay still and hope it goes away, so I can move.
These ideas are haunting me! I want them gone.
Is there an exorcist for O.C ideas? I need them out and traditional methods continue to fail me?
bro, if its any consolation, we're all like this, almost every artist i know suffers with this stuff, so at least you're not alone on this
I'm LITERALLY in a bad rut for like, days now, exactly in the same position as you lol
it'll pass, it always does, hang in there
I'm in the same boat, what helps me is writing down my ideas and starting with the simplest ones first
i know the exact feeling and i almost wanna cry bc this is the first time i've seen someone other than me vent about it. i wish there was a solid answer to it, but everyone is so different. everyone offers advice but none of it seems to ever work, so you're stuck feeling like even more of a failure. hope you can find an escape from the anxiety and be able to draw freely again.
just know that its completely okay to feel like this and you're NOT a failure or a bad artist for needing a break. ppl function at different speeds and sometimes productivity/happiness can be followed by intense burnout.
in my case, the only thing that actually helps me is just taking a break, have some time away from social media, and draw my favorite things without posting it (or just post it later instead of immediately). it kinda resets my brain into making drawing feeling like a good experience again, rather than the task paralysis and PDA having a talon grip on my brain while i compare myself to my moots who just post constantly lol.
saying stuff like "itll pass, you'll be fine, hang in there" usually feels really dismissive of the issue, but i do stand by it. it WILL pass, it's just hard to figure out when and how and it's hard to overcome the feeling of being completely stuck. as much as im preaching, i still deal with it so often that i debate myself on whether or not im even okay enough to be posting online lol
Yeah you seem to understand exactly what I'm going through. I felt like this yesterday as well, so I spent the entire day reading a book and didn't regret it.
Today though, I forced myself to draw shit and it was awful. I just couldn't do it. It was an entire day of me avoiding a canvas. Didn't do anything, felt stress the entire day through, and am ending the day feeling like I wasted my day entirely. I'll try to be smarter next time.
one day may be a little stick figure scribble, while the next could be a whole piece. never know when it'll hit but im sure you'll get there. just don't force yourself too much. if it feels too hard (like for me i get nauseous trying to even scribble sometimes orz) then maybe it's still too early to force it. hell maybe even scribbling on a different medium might spark something? before i became disabled and i worked long nights through burnouts that was something i really enjoyed 🤔
Oh god, this happens all the time. I think for me I get scared that I'll waste my time drawing something that looks bad, but instead I end up wasting more time trying to get myself to draw in the first place.
totally understanding the feeling, sometimes you just spent so much energy on a draw that then you feel afraid of not having the enougth for the next one, and the cycle goes on and on.
hang in there, you can do it!
