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Artist's block can be very disconcerting. One day you have so many ideas and projects you want to start, the next day there's not a shred of inspiration in you. It happens to all of us at one point or another.

A NEW STYLE: Try using another style or doing your work in the style of another artist. Make a drawing, freehand or use a graphite transfer method so you can get started on the project a little more easily. Then use one of these methods - use three shads of the same color. Green is a good one because there are so many shades and variations to choose from, but blue, red, orange or purple. Or recreate your drawing in a pointillist style, cubism or exaggerated shadows, anything that takes you in a new direction.

A NEW MEDIUM: If you work in oils, experiment with a watercolor method. You don't have to buy new supplies, just thin your paint way down and remember to leave the light and add the darks, instead of starting with a dark background and adding light later.

Try pastels, colored pencils, or even sculpture with some of the inexpensive materials available in craft stores.

EXPERIMENT: Take several colors of tissue paper or construction paper and tear each color in different shapes or sizes. Place a large piece of white paper on the floor, or table top, or just use the floor. Mix the torn pieces together in a large paper bag, then grab a handful and let them flutter to the floor and observe the way the colors, shapes and sizes look together or against one another. Add, subtract additional pieces, or start over. It's a great exercise to help get you thinking about shapes, colors and negative spaces in a new way.

SEARCH: A visit to a local gallery or museum often helps me. Or go through art books and magazines. Take the pressure off of yourself and just enjoy other artists' work.

TAKE A VACATION: This can be a real get-away vacation or an artistic break. Give yourself permission to 'not' create and enjoy another facet of life. Listen to music, take a drive in the country, do some gardening or work on sorting through your old photos, anything that will take you away from feeling that you have to produce something. Sometimes we get so caught up in worrying about being blocked that the cycle continues. Getting away in one form or another often breaks that cycle or leads you in a new direction.

It's rare for an artist to be blocked for very long, treat it like a brief illness or phase and it will become just that, brief.

Learn more about this author, Pat Merewether.
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