Breaking the dam

For a few months, I felt like my creativity was flowing in a slow trickle. I was dribbling out work here and there, posting small illustrations for Instagram. Then for a while, it felt like my creativity had dried up completely. I had stopped creating anything.

A return to flow

After working digitally for over a year, I was suddenly longing to return to 'analog' art. I missed the happy accidents and messy experiments, and I missed the tactile nature of traditional art. Photoshop brushes can mimic paint well these days, but it is not the same as real paint staining my brushes and fingers.

With these thoughts in mind, I pushed my graphics tablet to the side and made some space on my desk. Using some watercolors and Copic markers, I created splashes of color on cheap paper. I layered marker over watercolor, marker over marker, just to see what would happen. From the colored papers, I cut out rounded shapes.

With these shapes and some paper and glue sticks, I sat on the floor so I could spread out. Working slowly, I moved scraps of paper around, working on all twelve pieces at once. I waited until a composition felt 'right' before I started gluing things down.

These little collages were the result.

I set them aside for a while. Then one evening, I grabbed the collages and kept going. This time, I didn't overthink. I kept painting, kept doodling, and pushed the collages further.

Some of them turned out well, and some collages I had ruined, but it didn't even matter. I was happy that I was experimenting again.

I had had a breakthrough. The dam blocking my creative flow had finally burst.

And since then, I've been creating with a kind of intensity I haven't experienced in a long time. I feel inspired again, and I’m ready to stop holding myself back.

My current studio floor.