Anyone else out there get into art/writing/comicking slumps?
However they be brought about- stress, overwork, lack of inspiration, depression...
they SUCK!!!

I'm in one right now, and banging my head against a wall isn't improving my abilities.
Or the appearance of the wall.
Oddly enough.

The worst part is that I havent had a chance to update my comic- when I do have free time to work (which is rare) I cant draw anything (which bites).

SIGH!

~B

Yep, I get them all the time, and it's super frustrating. I don't really have a good way to get myself out of a serious one, either.. it seems like I usually just need to wait it out. The little mini-slumps, I can usually just spend some time reading inspiring comics, or listening to music that I like, and get up enough motivation to start drawing again.

Stress is definitely a huge factor in when they strike for me. If someone is endlessly harping at me about a very short deadline, all of my inspiration like, curls in a little tiny ball in the corner of my head and won't come out for any reason whatsoever. Which is, of course, the absolute worst time for it to do that, because clients don't like to be told "uh, I'm gonna be late because I can't really draw anything today, sorry". So I end up turning in something that is (to me) sub-par and getting even more stressed out and depressed because I know I could have done better, even if the client is happy with the work. It's a vicious cycle.

Fair ladies, why wail ye so? Let me lie down and wail with you, for doubt not I am much more heavier than ye are; for I dare say that my sorrow is an hundred fold more than yours is, and therefore let us complain either to other, and then shall I tell you what woe I do dure.

I made a separate thread about my liiiittle crisis a while ago. Most of the time I seem to know what I want to do and how to do it, and the only issue is that it can take a whole day to do a single panel... But every now and then I'll get stuck not knowing how to draw something that looks amazing in my head. Or trying and failing miserably. So I take a break and get down to it the next day. And I just keep trying till I make it. Also, a lot of my artwork is about experimenting, so if I can't achieve what I want with a given method, I'll just try something else. E.g. if cel-shading doesn't work, I'll do soft shading. And conversely.

I can't relax when I'm frustrated. I get restless. If I sit down to read a book, halfway through the page I'll pause and sigh: gah, I'm a failure... Sometimes, though - especially when it comes to writing - listening to music helps. This one time I was completely stuck after writing some 40 pages, having no idea whatsoever what to write to connect the current events to the events that were to come some time later. So I lay down, put on my beloved "Diorama" cd, started listening to it - and BAM! The second it started playing, ideas and images just EXPLODED in my head. The first song didn't even finish when I had it all figured out.

Nice time to make this thread. I have yet to go beyond my pencil stage this whole week thus far. I am almost 3 days behind and don't seem to care much this week =P

So instead of kicking myself for not updating like I usually do, I have been doing a few things I've been needing and/or wanting to do for some time. Like, get a haircut. Watch the new season of House. Buy some new clothes and get a copy of my comic printed out in case comixpress is late printing before the convention.

I also started (and finished yesterday) watching the 1st season of Shotime's Dexter. That is a very good show. I may go ahead and take the whole week off from drawing and, for once, I am trying to do so without getting frustrated.

Normally I have lost much sleep due to this, but it's time to get my sleeping schedule back in check as well!

I get that all the time. For me, the worst is when I have no lack of ideas. The ideas/inspiration are all there and ready. I just can't bring myself to put them on paper. My worst slumps come when I'm not busy at all, when I have nothing else to do. I'll just sit around in a stupor instead of actually doing anything at all. When I'm actually busy with other things, somehow, that's when I can actually get into writing/drawing/hobbies.

I get that, a lot.

What sucks the most is that when I do get an idea, it never really comes out the way I wanted it to (sometimes it does... but that's a another story).

I never really have the problem when it comes to my comics because I know how to just... keep talking. It works for me, at least.

It happens especially when I BEGIN a comic or during the first time a character is introduced the first time or when the setting changes. For example one scene is in the iraq desert then the next is in hell then the next is a house. It screws me up.

Take a look at these horrible pages of mine:

http://www.drunkduck.com/BK_Shattered_Hate/index.php?p=6284
http://www.drunkduck.com/BK_Shattered_Hate/index.php?p=6303

http://www.drunkduck.com/MAG_ISA/index.php?p=270907

being stimulated in other ways helps...and not just that way your thinking. reading, watching a movie, exercising, talking, etc...these help quite a bit in getting your energy and inspiration built up. Now if the book you are working on has lost that spark...try delving into it and trying to find out why it was important in the first place, like saving a marriage.

not to toot my own horn...toot-toot...but I struggle with not having the time to do my pages.

I feel your pain, between work and school, getting time to make comics is getting harder and harder. @_@ I love making comics, but getting time to do it is just so hard.

I totally feel your pain too. I'm in quite a slump. I missed my self-appointed deadline of October the 1st. Deadline was missed because of the stress of trying to put together a wedding. I spend all my free time either screwing with that or staring at storyboards on the computer screen... with still 10 pages to go and now 11 days late. I'm working on a chapter of all dialogue and I just can't get myself to focus on it and get it over with. You'd figure it would be easy.

*joins lowabarbidoll in wall banging*

I'm on a major slump with my Night Zombies... comic but I have a trick, whenever I get on a slump I simply move on to another comic : ) The joy of having 11 comics.

Wow!

This seemed to hit a chord amongst my fellow artistes.

Time is my big problem too. Time and stress. Working a job, doing freelance and then doing the single parent thing- basketball practices, early school sessions, band practices, choir...etc... It'll be nice when they drive. Except for the stress. -.-

So we shall all suffer together in our angst of slumping. Sigh.

~B

I'm not in a slump, I've just been lazy for 2 years.

You mean you haven't been working on your Dangerous Things?

Book Three of Due East was a challenge because we had story and now, a self-imposed deadline to do 2 comics per week. I like that pace but by the end of the issue, it was wearing on me.

Now that we're at a point where we can take a hiatus, my brain is total mush when it comes to plotting. We have general ideas but sometimes you have to wait for inspiration.

I'm taking a poll on anguish.

Female = 5
Male = 5

I'm not counting the ones with "no time." I don't think that counts.

Heck no

Drat.

As far as slumps goes, most artists will get into slumps, even ones that are professionals. The pros HAVE to push through it though, or they don't eat :P Just sitting down and MAKING yourself 'art it up' can sometimes break a slump, but just plain old relaxing can help too.

Oh lordy lou - the writer's/artist's block. I get those all the time, when my confidence see-saws up and down like a drunk clown doing handstands on a catastrophe-curve.

I've discovered that the only way for me to get through them is to take a short break and do something completely different, and then come back after a couple of hours/days and sit down and just do it anyway. My mantra is "It doesn't matter if it sucks, I'll fix it later."

So even if I churn out fifteen craptastic sketches of, I don't know, an old man with a walking stick, I know that if I can keep at it, the sixteenth and seventeenth sketches are going to be passable.

Or, when all else fails, curl up in your chair and watch One Piece until the depression passes.