How to Overcome Artist’s Block - with Jenna Rainey

 

Ambassador Jenna Rainey shares six steps to help artists overcome a creative block taken from her own experience.

Jenna Rainey is a watercolour artist, surface pattern designer, and illustrator, born-and-raised in Southern California. What started as a stress-relieving activity from a desk job in finance, quickly turned into the creative business of her dreams.

Art unlocked something in her that changed every aspect of her life. She now inspires hundreds of thousands of people to find and express their own creative voice through her YouTube Channel, best-selling watercolour how-to books, art retreats, and online courses.

Photo credit: Michael Radford

Six steps to overcome artist's block by Jenna Rainey

Set the Scene

This may sound obvious or simple, but clean your desk, put on some good music and set the scene. If my desk feels cluttered or there’s any stress in the environment whatsoever, I find it hard to be truly inspired to paint and be creative. Give yourself the upper hand by setting the scene!

Exercise

YUP. Going for a walk or doing a 20-minute at-home workout can make all the difference in my energy and the way my mind works while I’m trying to be creative. Think about the masters back in the day. Many of them were painting outside, they walked a whole lot more and they didn’t have smartphones to check every four seconds.

Photo credit: Voda Films

Journaling

Journaling my thoughts and inspirations before my painting time always helps to calm my mind. It opens it up to ideas I wouldn’t normally have if I just jumped right into painting. Bust out your favourite journal and just let the words flow.

Get outside

Similar to step number exercise, but make sure you’re getting some good sun and fresh air. Your body needs it, your mind needs it. It will impact your creative process. I promise. You use your body and your mind while you’re painting, right?! 

Photo credit: Zach Sorenson

Jenna painting on Saunders Waterford

Ditch perfectionism

There are a lot of perfectionists out there. But something that I’ve found interesting about perfectionism is that it mostly stems from a fear of failure or Imposter Syndrome. Think about it. Not starting a painting because you need to have everything just right or scrapping something before it’s finished and getting down on yourself…every artist has crumpled up pieces in their trash. Embrace it and keep going! Nothing is going to be perfect.

Try ‘The Artist’s Way’ Book

‘The Artist’s Way’ book is the perfect tactile book for taking you through a 12-week journey on getting unstuck from artist’s blocks. It’s truly awesome! I worked through it a couple of years ago and still come back to it to this day to remind myself of practices and mindsets that help with getting out of creative ruts.

Our thanks to Jenna Rainey for sharing her advice, originally posted on her blog.

To hear Jenna Rainey’s thoughts on watercolour paper read her ultimate guide. 

To see more about Jenna Rainey, see her links:

Website: www.jennarainey.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/jennarainey

Youtube: www.youtube.com/c/JennaRaineyChannel

Jenna Rainey is an ambassador for Saunders Waterford, see her biography on our website. 

To learn more about Saunders Waterford that Jenna uses visit our website.