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When it comes to creating something, like a drawing, painting or writing, how do you decide what to do? Are you always confident in your choice of subject or topic, or do you struggle with narrowing down the options? If you ever draw a blank and can’t think of anything, this article is for you. It provides easy and effective tips to help you unlock your creativity and get back on track when you’re feeling stuck, in a rut, or simply out of ideas.

Pinterest Pin images featuring the article title on a background of pretty colourful pebbles

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Conquering Creator’s Block

You’ve chosen to embrace your creativity and explore new avenues of self-expression. Whatever that may be, painting, drawing, or writing. Your mind is open to creative challenges & enhancing your creative skills. You are determined to unlock your creative potential.

So, you set aside some time to be creative. You get all your materials ready. You get comfortable in your creative space. You put on your favourite music or podcast. And then, …nothing.

Creator’s block sets in as you stumble over the question, what will you paint/draw/write about?

That can be a big, daunting question. Will you paint a landscape or an abstract scene? Draw a flower or a bird? What is the main event in your story, and where does it take place?

Even professional artists and writers struggle with creator’s block. Don’t let that stop you from starting before you even begin.

Below are a few easy ideas to help you overcome artist’s block or writer’s block so you can continue your creative journey.

There are many ways to express your creativity. Drawing, painting, and writing are just a few examples that I’m focusing on for this article. Don’t stop there – try different creative activities to see what you like best.

That being said, let’s dive into how you can get yourself unstuck creatively.

Inspiration Derived Randomly

A classic approach to deciding what to create is to pull ideas out of a hat (any container will do). Quickly make a list of 20 things you want to draw/paint/write about on their own pieces of scrap paper, put them in a bag, and any time you have a creative urge, pull one out. It’s a boring approach but effective.

If coming up with 20 prompts on your own seems daunting (it does to me too!), try using an online random generator.

Online Random Generator: Click and Create

The website Random Word Generator is home to several online random generators to use in a variety of creative situations:

Word Generator – spits out a random word to use as your drawing or painting prompt.

You can select the number of words you want, the type of words (noun, adjective, etc.), and even the number of letters or syllables. Or leave the options blank and see what word it gives you. And then draw or paint that.

Writing Prompts – helps you find things to write about.

For example, the first prompt I got was “Magic Potion: Who created it and what happens when it’s used?”. This can be the basis for a short fictional story or give you a starting point for freestyle writing.

Colour Generator – generates, you guessed it, a random colour. You can ask it to generate multiple colours to create a complimentary colour scheme. This can help you if you’re stuck on a colour palette for your painting. I asked it to generate 3 colours for me. It produced pearl black berry (#6C6874), sky blue (#2271B3) and dahlia yellow (#F3A505). With one click of a button, it produced another set of colours. I had some fun with this generator, selecting a different number of colours to see what it would come up with, all of which worked well together as a palette. You can generate up to 50 colours at once.

There are several other generators available on this site, including numbers, random facts, and, just mentioning for fun, a breakfast ideas generator.

If going online to get an idea for your art makes it feel like it takes away from the moment and intention of creating something with your hands, try using dice.

Artist’s Dice: Roll and Create

Simply assign each number on your dice a prompt and keep your list in a notebook. When you need creative inspiration, roll the dice and reference your prompts list.

Alternatively, I recently discovered these Art Dice made by Two Tumbleweeds, sold on Amazon, that come already labelled with prompts.

9 colourful wooden artists dice with their box — Art Dice by Two Tumbleweeds – Buy on Amazon

They’re cute, colourful wooden dice with inspiration for drawing and painting on each side.

There’s one for style, subject, mood, colour, medium, setting and texture. You can make thousands of varying combinations, so you’ll never run out of ideas.

And there’s also dice for writing.

9 colourful wooden writers dice with their box — Writing Dice by Two Tumbleweeds – Buy on Amazon

Find Inspiration in Your Environment

Your home or garden likely has interesting objects or items that would make excellent inspiration.

Go for a walk and collect a few things, like costume jewelry, a unique-looking candle holder, or natural objects like leaves or pretty pebbles.

Arrange the objects in front of you and use them as inspiration for your drawing or painting.

Try incorporating their shapes, textures, or colours into your artwork in different and unexpected ways.

pretty pebbles arranged in a row on a table

Embracing Creative Prompts

If you struggle with deciding what to create, you are not alone.

Having the desire to be creative doesn’t automatically lead the way to a flow of ideas.

It’s easy to draw a blank when we put pressure on ourselves to come up with good ideas. Or, if you’ve been flexing your creative muscles regularly for some time already, it’s not uncommon to run out of ideas or get into a creative rut. Creative prompts can be helpful in several creative situations.

It doesn’t matter where your ideas come from. Just start creating.

If you have any other ideas to help get unstuck creatively, I’d love to hear them! Please share.

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Drawing a Blank? Tips for Generating Ideas and Selecting Creative Subjects