The annoying problem for art creators is artist’s block of which is hard to get rid and will come back eventually. It interrupts the process of art making. “What should I do?” “Where should I start?” “What have I done?” These are some questions from artists who get blocked of creativity because they lost their way of work or cannot work as they expected. The cause of this difficulty is the repetition. Change is one simple word to solve this problem.
Most artists choose to stop, not change. They claimed that it is resting from work and they can find new inspiration from taking a break. Is it true? It is hard to identify between reason and excuse. Stopping at every art blocked does not help. It is an excuse for laziness, or for coward. If creators keep avoiding every blocked event, how can that artist establish art piece. Aquarian Melody, a university student and a freelance artist, believes that “Doing nothing is like the machine is stop working and shuts down. It will be worst.” Every little works—Sketching, erasing, recolor design, or planning in mind—are important and can be worked when artist get blocked problem. On the contrary, these works can be repetition and bring that blocked back again. To change, which is the solution with greatest result, is to find something adventurous, full of inspirations, and full of new staff to wider the imagination scope. The easiest, yet effective, way to eliminate the block of creativity is join an art online community.
There are many social networks nowadays. People gather in one place because of the same interest. For art online communities, members are both artist and audience. Each of them is the place for creators to share their pieces to audiences or other artists. However, social can be in harmony if there are rules, and the common rule of art is no nudity or too violence for children. Some websites allow those kinds of work as long as the one who post set a proper age limit. Do not panic, there are plenty types left to be drawn. The popular types of community are website and web board. Website works as a gallery and a blog. This is convenient for audience to follow their favorite artist. On the contrary, web board classifies topic into categories called ‘forum’. It suits for audience who want to easily search for genre or activity as expected.
One of Tony Robbins’ seven lies of success is that “work is play” (as cited in Pascoe, 2010). Believe his lie and play by doing art online activities, which are various. First, “Art Shop” is a shop that artist set the price and the condition of working at wish. In this kind of task, it is easy for creators because those who want art, and can accept the price, will approach into the shop themselves. Some customers may tip as a bribe so they can receive their order faster. The price is up to the community rules; some places may not allow real money deal, so the trade is for game money or rare game item. The opposite of art shop is “Art Request”, the art hungers post the information of a desirable work and the price they can offer. It good for artists who do not want to organize their shop and want to search for the interest idea they want to craft. Next, “Art Trade” is fun for those who want to get two work pieces in one shot. This activity is for two artists who like each other’s work. Instead of paying with other medium, they pay an art for an art. “Art Auction”, other interest activity, is suitable for a talented and famous artist. It sounds like art shop, but creator will work on only one piece. Set the rules, the work conditions, the start price, and the dateline of auction. The last highest rate will be the winner who gets the reward—art work. On the other hand, “Art Contest” is like art request, but the number of image is greater. Artist can search for the contest they want to join no matter the inspirations is interesting idea or the amount of prize. Last activity example is “Freebies”. Artists who draw for free or audiences who want illustration but will not pay for art are ideal for this task. Someone may say today is his or her birthday. Draw it as a birthday present is pretty sweet.
Art online community members can gain many kinds of benefit. First, activity is not only for fun, but also for inspiration—prevent blocked. Moreover, the great price artist can earn is not money or game item; it is responsibility. Working for other people means to finish the job, not to stop and throw it away. Next, it can also change internet into media to wider art perspective. Other kinds of art to be seen are sharing online, some artists show the step of making the work piece as a set of pictures or a movie clip. Study some of them because change media can solve blocked problem (Montgomery, n.d.). Furthermore, Montgomery also claimed that take a class is another solution. Then, study online class is not a bad choice, is not it? In addition, audience usually comments on the work they like. It helps building confidence.
To change is challenging, but it is not too hard to give it a try. Another lie from Tony Robbins is “there is no such thing as failure, only results.” Do not be afraid. Art online communities give artist more than anyone can imagine, more than the examples provided, and also more than be a solution for blocked of art. Try it and get into a new world. Sharing work online is not only drawing a picture, artist can also draw a smile on faces all over the world. (984)
References
Aquarian Melody, personal communication, June 21, 2011
Montgomery, J. (n.d.). How to beat Artist’s Block. About.com. Retrieved June 20, 2011, from http://painting.about.com/cs/inspiration/a/artistsblock.htm
Pascoe, J. (2010, July 30). Tony Robbins’ Seven Lies of Success. Joshuapascoe.com. Retrieved July 3, 2011, from http://joshuapascoe.com/?p=74
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