What is your comfort doodle? - My strategy for beating Art Block

Have you ever felt like you absolutely had no drawing in you. Like you could not even pick up the pencil, because you'd just be staring at the empty page - no inspiration, no energy, no motivation. 
My guess is most of us have. There are plenty of Youtube videos teaching you how to get yourself out of a rut, motivated, push through, beat the art block... 

I have definitely had to deal with those down days - and still do. There are plenty of them. Especially on days when my job requires lots of brain work or problem solving, the last thing I feel like doing after work is being creative. 

But I have found that this helps me:

My comfort doodle = something I can always put on paper; the first thing that comes to mind when I pick up a pen(cil) without a plan. 

For me this is a horse head and swirly lines. I have studied the outlines of horse heads so extensively (years ago this was pretty much the only thing I would draw) that it just comes naturally. Swirly lines seem to be a similar story - they are natural to me and come out when I doodle automatically while on the phone or listening to something.

So since I know that these are my natural, automatic comfort doodles, when I have no inspiration at all they can get me started and provide a bridge from art block to actually doing some serious drawing. 

Next time you feel like you are outside your creative head-space and lost the key, try this:

• Take an empty page and your favorite medium
• Put the pen(cil) to the paper ad doodle your comfort doodle
• Expand the doodle - keep drawing and adding details

Voila! You have created something. Good-bye art block!


Nadin