when you’re losing your creative spark, how do you get it back?

[RNotteLovesOwls]

i feel like, artistically, i’m running out of ideas. doesn’t matter if it’s a music video for a client, or a song i’m writing. but i don’t want to lose my spark. artists, as per the title: when you lose your spark, what do you do to get it back? i would appreciate any and all advice you may have

[fairyrune]

try a new medium or subject. as a visual artist it really helped me to change what i thought of as "my art". lately i've been drawing for an art rpg game called dungeon coursers, and as someone who hasn't really drawn horses before now and lately has spent a lot more time drawing humanoids, it's been pretty refreshing. they move and interact with the world in different ways, i need to employ different tricks to show emotion, they have different colours and textures...

[arcus]

Collect inspiring art and references, look back at saved art, look back at my old art, do studies of things that are inspiring, watch/play/read something new, and brush up on the fundamentals. With the last point, learning something new puts things into a different perspective and make me notice things I previously overlooked, and motivates me to draw so I can apply what I've learnt.

try a new medium or subject.

This is what I've been doing lately. I have a bunch of comic ideas that have been sitting around, and instead of thumbnailing them, I've been writing them as drabbles. I'll get around to making them as comics eventually, but it's a fun way to flesh out ideas.

[havensworn]

hey there, wishing you all the best with your creations! In my experience, taking a step back and doing other unrelated things tend to help the best. Especially if you've 'lost your spark', which I'm assuming is some level of block or burnout. Art sometimes requires a little bit of living for that inspiration to hit again.

Though otherwise, what arcus mentioned about gathering art also helps me! Being around art and artists who are clearly passionate about what they are making is extremely motivating; makes me feel like I could do it too.

[Glumpups]

When I lose my creative spark I go back to the places that I found it. For me, the spark never came from myself in the first place. It came from the first concert I went to, the albums that soundtracked my teenage years, the videos that make me laugh til my stomach hurts. Above all of those I gotta hand my creative spark to the people around me that make such cool stuff all the time!

So, when I'm out of ideas, or motivation to turn ideas into a creative endeavour, I go and engage with the stuff that made me want to be a creative in the first place, sometimes it takes one song, sometimes an entire series of a TV show, BUT, eventually I wanna get on the DAW or put pencil to paper.

Being a creative is not just creating things, but the act of living within creativity itself.