If you ever have creative blocks, you know how frustrating they can be. And scary! It feels like they might last forever.

But I figured out a powerful trick.

I used to think that I needed to be inspired in order to sit down to draw. But it turns out that a lot of the time I need to draw in order to be inspired. Seems backwards. How can I sit down to draw if I am not feeling inspired??

The trick I've found is to just start drawing. Draw anything. Circles. Lines. Just start moving your hand around. Take the pressure off. Just make marks on a page.

Keep doing that every day, and you'll be surprised how quickly you get inspired to make other things besides simple marks.

After I had my son in 2022, I took some time away from my creative practice, and when I came back, I felt rusty. Trying to figure out what to draw was overwhelming me, so I decided to just play with shapes. It didn't take much brain power so it was an easy way to dip my toes back in. I made a bunch of thumbnail sketches and then when I would sit down to draw, instead of hesitating, I could just pick one of these sketches to play with. Happily, once I started doing this, it only took two days before the inspiration came flooding back and I started thinking of other things I wanted to draw.

So get out some crayons, some markers, some scrap paper. Nothing precious. And just start moving your hands around. Your creativity will thank you.