Education:
This may be something you hear a lot, but continuous education is a key part of keeping your creative flare alive. You could attend events, engage with trends or even speak with other artists, but whatever way you choose is going to help. Discussing and bouncing ideas off others is a great way to facilitate learning. I find sharing my thoughts and listening to others seriously helps with inspiration.
Also, when attending events or engaging with trends, you can often unintentionally take inspiration from something new or rediscover something that you are passionate about. It’s important to go into any learning situation with an open mind, making sure you accept different perspectives in order to fully invest in your own education.
Trends:
Trends can be another great place to get yourself out of a colour block. Look what trends are out there and have fun with them – adapt the trends and make them you! This is a fantastic way to create something current, whilst still making it unique to your own creative identity. As trends are forever changing, they also give you a chance to practice and enhance a range of your skills. Keeping on top of trends not only helps to spark your inspiration, but it will also communicate to others that you are up to date with the industry.
Embrace the Colour Palette:
Do you ever find yourself sticking to similar colours? Well – don’t! There are so many colours and shades out there to have fun with, allow yourself the opportunity to experiment. Taking yourself out of your comfort zone is a great way to see new perspectives and be inspired. Start looking at colours you wouldn’t normally use, or shades that you normally wouldn’t put together, and see what you can come up with – you never know, you may end up loving it!
Mood Boards:
This last technique is great if you want to give yourself some visual inspiration. Mood boards help you put your thoughts and ideas on paper, and I find having these visuals really inspiring. The boards can be created on any theme you like – nature, fashion, anything at all! Whatever the theme, I recommend comparing different images, words, phrases or colour swatches next to each other.
You could even share your mood board and collaborate with someone – again, it’s all about being open-minded! This will help you to see your thoughts from a different perspective, allowing you to experiment visually. This is not a process to hurry; take your time with it and don’t pressure yourself. Just have fun and, with time, the inspiration will come naturally to you.
Preventing colour block can seem like a daunting task, but you don’t have to suffer in silence. Instead, use it as an opportunity to have fun, experiment and get your creativity back on top form. These suggestions take time, but you will definitely start to see a difference.
