Artist block is a common problem that artists face both when starting out and throughout their career. However, as a tattoo artist, you have clients coming on a schedule - which means you can’t take weeks at a time to try and overcome artist block. That is why it’s so important to have a plan to get over artist block when it happens to you.
In this article, we’ll give you some suggestions for how to push through artist block and keep creating tattoos.
Here are the suggestions we’ll cover through for fighting artist block:
4 Ways to Get Over Artist’s Block
1
Take Time to do Things You Enjoy
It’s common for tattoo artists to get caught up in building clientele and tattooing all the time.
Tattooing 24/7 can take a toll on you, so it's important to make time for things you enjoy. Engaging in self-care as an artist running your own business will allow you to keep your passion alive without feeling overwhelmed. Take some time away from tattooing to do other things you love and come back refreshed.
2
Go Back to a Fun Piece of Art
Even when you’re going through artist block, you need to be able to come up with tattoo designs and keep working. It helps to have fun pieces of artwork to go back and work on, even if they aren’t for tattoos. This will help you get back in the “groove” of drawing and make it easier to create new designs.
You can create artwork and print it out to sell, give away, trade, or just hang up around the tattoo studio. Keep some unfinished art around so you can always have something to jump into when you need something fun that isn’t for work.
3
Draw While You Watch TV
A fun way to get some inspiration is to draw while you’re watching whatever you like on TV. When you have artist’s block, it can be hard to focus on drawing. You can use what you’re watching on TV to come up with designs and be able to sketch and draw through your artist’s block.
When you’re doing this, remember that it doesn’t have to be completely perfect. Just jot down some designs that you can go back to later to finalize. If there’s a TV show or sport that you love watching, this is a great way to get back into drawing.
Check Out the Tattooing 101 Sketchbook
Coming up with your own tattoo designs day in and day out can be difficult - especially when you’re dealing with artist’s block. However, if you can’t create new designs that fit and flow with the body, your tattoos will look awkward and limit your earning potential as a tattoo artist.
For most artists, learning to draw with flow takes years of trial and error…
And it can be really hard to wrap your head around when you’re just starting out. The best way to get the hang of it fast is to look at references of other artists’ work and see how they did it so you can replicate it in your own work.
As you practice drawing and tattooing those professional designs, you’ll naturally learn how to create designs that have flow.
That’s why we created the Tattooing 101 Sketch Book.
Inside, you’ll find 74 tattoo designs drawn for you by our professional tattoo artists. You can use them to inspire your own designs - or you can stencil them up and start tattooing right away.
Instead of hoping another tattoo artist doesn’t see that you’re practicing with their designs, you can rest assured that these are 100% for you to use however you like.
When you draw the designs inside or use them as tattoo stencils, you’ll get used to creating designs with flow, which means you’ll be able to draw tattoos that always look good on the body. If you would like to get your hands on a digital copy of 74 pro designs, hit the link below:
Click here to visit the Tattooing 101 Sketch Book.
