how to work through creativity blocks

http://youtu.be/_ztQZdwPKYQ

My sister sent me this video she found which was very helpful, as well as having a cute animated cat. (particularly the purr at the end)   ^u^  Fortunately, there are captions available in English. 

Basically, it says to get through creativity blocks by:

1)  Do something inspiring to you.  Reminds me of my old Tumblr post about writer's block:  http://md3artjournal.tumblr.com/post/58989308813/writers-block
"I remembered a TED Talk discussing how education should be like farming, in that the focus should be on creating an environment in which growth is most likely to occur.  That’s exactly how I should conquer writer’s block.  In my case, I tend to have great daydreams that spawn stories, right in the middle of watching really great anime.  Also in the middle of reading manga I love.  They inspire me…or get my motor running.  Who cares which.  It works, and that’s what I should do."

2)  It then says to adjust your ambiance to facilitate your creative mood.  Listen to music, play a movie in background, change tactile materials (until finish warming up). 

3)  Then you get started on your blank page, choosing a method, dependent on your mood/inspiration:
A)  If you have a feeling in mind, then start with color splotches.  Gradually add in detail.
B)  If you have a movement/action in mind, then start with line gestures.  Maybe do several/many tiny gestural sketches, to test ideas.  Sketch from a source material/model if necessary.

Made lots of things today

Did a figurine photoshoot.  Managed to finish very quickly, since figures were already posed and prepped.  I had been meaning to do this shoot for a while, but just kept postponing for a chance to go outside.  In the meantime, figures were posed and waiting in my display case.  I finally went out for the shoot today around 3:30pm.  I forgot that in winter, this time is no longer the brightest part of the day.  Oops.  But still enough light.

Didn't want to waste my translucent polymer clay.

Made some new extenders for a Nendoroid support stand, since the original did not fit properly into Kurisu Makise's back.  I seem to notice this with a lot of my Nendoroids:  Support arms that are too big for the figurine's sockets.  Is this common with anyone else?  So, this is second time I'm starting to bake with the toaster oven, that has been given exclusively to my polymer clay projects, to protect the regular oven and food from plasticine fumes' residue.  The last time, the clay didn't seem to cure very hard.  But I needed to carve the clay after baking, so I didn't mind.  Besides, I thought it was a fluke, because the previous project was very thick.  But now, this is just a small 1/4-inch roll of clay, and it still cures kind of soft---even after increasing the baking time by almost double.  I'm beginning to wonder if that toaster oven has hot/cold spots or if I should much more drastically increase baking times, or maybe even just do multiple re-bakes.  In any case, this result is still a nice discovery.  Sometimes, I do want semi-hard cured clay, especially with some parts of figurines that need flex, like their clothes. 

Mushroom & potato sauté.

Mushroom & onion sauté.

Flour fried tofu.

Also spent too much time cooking.  I was totally going to keep it down to half an hour, but I ended up at almost 2 hours.  -_-;;;;  I blame my indecisiveness.  First it was "let's make a separate sauté for mushroom vs. potatoes", then I went ahead and mixed them, then I had more potatoes than could fit in the pan at once,...  x_x;  I couldn't just put away the potatoes; they tend to go forgotten and rotten at our house.  ~_~;  I also had to get rid of the tofu.  Sure, it's been overdue for almost a month, but it's been in the frig the whole time and it didn't smell bad.  Besides, due dates are usually just suggestions anyway.  ...At least, that's the kind of faith I was going to try with this case of tofu.  If I don't get a stomach ache tonight, I'll cook the second case tomorrow.  Too bad I forgot to photograph the tofu until it was almost all eaten.  ^.^;  But I did find a quick way to flour the tofu.  I just put a spoonful of flour at a time, into a bowl, covered it with a plate, then rolled the tofu around inside, and after a few swirls, all evenly coated.  ^-^

As nice as this is, I suspect I'm procrastinating.  I should be working on my taxes, but important things always intimidate me into paralysis.  (On top of my usual agoraphobia and social anxiety, it's not fun.)  Forgetting worries for a while is nice.  Maybe I'll make cookies tomorrow.  ...But I should work on my taxes.  Hmm...  If didn't know how unlikely it is for me to bake when I'm not procrastinating, this decision wouldn't be so tough.  LOL 
 (Seriously, I've got to stop being afraid of filing my city business taxes, just because I haven't done it before.  It's available online, so I'm sure they made sure to make it easy.  Just like the state did for state business tax filing.)

angsty check-in

So I'm in another one of my ruts where I've lost the will to make art/crafts everyday.  ;_____;  And I can't really blame being busy and away for holidays, anime conventions, numerous family events, or my week away, cat-sitting, because I could totally do figure photography or upload photos of drawings, while I'm away from my scanner.  But I've just so lost the will to do anything.

 It'd be easy to say this laziness is connected to the depressing lack of direction in my life or how I'm once again seriously doubting making art a career.  I mean, I've failed miserably as a business owner.  So much of it is self-promotion, and I just don't have the self-esteem for that (not to mention my social anxiety disorder).  There are so many times I could be networking with my business cards, signing up for conventions, or researching fairs to sell at---Or even just preparing more products to sell at whatever event I run into in the future.  But I really don't know what I'm doing with my life.  ;__________;  I could do so many arts/crafts/digital/writing, but I feel like my skills are only good enough for myself.  Once I consider doing anything professionally, I feel like I could never do anything well enough to be paid for it.  I'm so sure I'll disappoint any/everyone and myself, no matter what I'm doing or will do.  Again, I'm not Living, but just waiting to die.  ;_____;

 Well, enough of that angst. 

 This journal entry is in my art blog because I suddenly feel the urge to start a new project.  I certainly feel more inclined to make clay miniatures, figurines, and jewelry lately, but lately, I haven't really been home at my workspace.  The things I can bring with me are drawing sketchbooks and figure photography.  I've even been thinking of returning to watercolors.  I've felt inspired by webcomics to start a new blog for a daily comic.  Though there are so many things I could be doing, I should at least start up my daily Deviant Art uploads again.  Even if I start a new blog of an artwork a day, that would just be exactly what my Deviant Art already is.  In any case, I feel like I want to start producing some new art (again). 

I haven't been doing much more than figure photography lately, but even so, I've been skipping most of the weekly challenges from Google+'s Figure Photography community.  ;_;  Maybe I should at least get back onto that, before I start dreaming of drawing again, let alone, drawing a new, long-running project for a new blog.