Please help me.

I am now officially in a graphical rut. I can't make anything. I open up Photoshop everyday just to find myself skimming through old graphics, opening them randomly, and not knowing what to do. My mind is completely blank, graphics wise. It's like artists' block.

I need ideas, inspiration, SOMETHING!

I know it has happened to some of you, and you managed to pass it.

I'm lost, tomorrow I'll make my dad buy me a Wacom. Maybe that will help, since all I do is doodle in summer school... maybe I'll doodle in Photoshop..

How about this. Drop the mouse and go outside. Go for a walk, run, damn, even go to bed. Just quit sitting at the computer. You can't force yourself to be creative sitting in front of a monitor. In fact, just you saying you open PS everyday to try and do something says a lot. You are almost forcing yourself to be creative on demand.

Go have a life. The computer wont fade away from lack of use. Take a week off and get a hobby or something. When you get to the real world you will find that you wont survive if this is how you operate. Most designers I know try and not even touch their computers till they have to. Everything is done on paper to start with. You cant generate much creativity when all you see is your office. Quit forcing yourself.

"I know it has happened to some of you"

Man that is everyday for me (well ok..not everyday...but i do have frequent ruts i fall into...many many..many ruts lol).

As to an aswer for it.....i aint got one. Although i do have a few tricks that kinda work.

1) Look at all your old graphics and the things you do frequently. They're probably similar in style right? Well the next time you open PS....do a style thats the exact opposite! Something that you havent done before...something that you may not even like!

2) Dont do anything! Bitch..moan..get really pissed off and light something on fire. Then go play video games and watch movies for about a week. Just BS all over and dont use PS for a while. Then your mind should be refreshed and you'll start thinking again. (it works...ive learned from experience lol).

3) My latest source of inspiration: http://www.epilogue.net.

4) Browse Deviant art. Why you ask? Because 85% of the work there is...well less than awesome (to be polite). Basically look at utter crap..and you'll realize you can do so much better and *boom* your mind will snap back into position! (i dont know why...but it works sometimes)

If all else fails....mooch a wacom off your rents (i think this is the best idea yet lol)

NL or spectra (whatever) actually has the most valid point here.
He is, in every way, absolutely correct.

Usually when I find myself in a rut, it's at the end of a hard day, i'm tired, i'm trying to function, but i really can't. The brain has to rest too, so I either go off to sleep or kick some ass in counter-strike. Just something other than webdesign.

On an alternative note, if you are fresh awake but are still in a rut (as I still often times are), go outside and hang upside-down from a tree. It might seem ridiculous to you now, and it will seem ridiculous to passerbys later on, but for me, it actually forces me to see the world in a different perspective, from a different poitn of view.

lol, got the idea from http://styleboost.com, you'll see that they have pictures of mountains and buildings upside down, it's very cool! :D


NL, I hope this doesn't count as postwhoring... lol
i just went away for the weekend and i'm trying to make up for it :P

Yep it happened to me too - I got a drawing of a starship that I do over and over again when I feel a block coming - it's the same one always - never anything changes - I know the lines by heart - I could do them with my eyes closed - usually after a few sheets of paper filled with the same starship I come up with an idea - - either that or I begin to go mad and throw it away and go see a movie

You see, I do have a life. I don't really spend THAT much on the computer, just at night.

I've some new movies lately, went to some plays. Simply hung out with friends, went to a large barbeque on the 4th...

I've done stuff. It's not that.

I don't know, maybe a Wacom will open new doors..

If all else fails...hang yourself from a tree lol. (upside down i mean..dont "hang" yourself ). That gotta be the strangest/most interesting mental block solver ive heard of.

*falls head first onto the ground....decides mental block is less painful lol

Why will a Wacom open a new door? You still arent producing ideas. Instead you've brushed off the suggestions and this thread seems to be about you mooching a wacom of your dad.

The point we are trying to tell you is that you need a break. The upside down in a tree is actually a great idea. Its a good technique to view things upside down to disassociate with them.

1. get a mirror
2. take off all your clothes
3. explore your body!

actually...

do a pixel war with someone. everytime i've done it, i end up creating something i never would have come up with on my own.

too bad i always loose to paavo.