Cures for Artist's Block

Your Own Hand

Have you ever looked at a piece of art depicting the human figure that was done really well — except for the hands? It turns out that many artists struggle with recreating hands — which is strange because they usually have two of their own that they can draw.

That's right, draw your own hand — and I'm not talking about tracing an outline and turning it into a Thanksgiving turkey — actually study it and draw it. The best thing about drawing your own hand is that you can place your hand in so many different positions and look at it from so many different angles, and in so many different lighting conditions.

So, when you know you want to sit down and draw something, but you cannot think of anything to draw, just bend some fingers, get comfortable (because you might be there awhile), and start drawing what you see. The more you practice drawing your hand, the better you will get, and the next time you have to draw a human figure, the hands won't be such a challenge.

Trees

One limitless thing to play with on a page is trees. Trees are like people, in that there are no two exactly alike. Therefore, there is no limit on the different ways to draw trees; you can bend their branches into any path or any shape that you want to depict.

You can draw some of the branches like they were broken, or you can just doodle away for hours drawing lines in the bark or making the branches intertwine. Your trees can be full of leaves, or they can be barren, or somewhere in between. To add even more character, you can draw some hollows.

One thing that is especially fun to do is to turn trees into people; their branches make the head, arms and fingers, and their trunks and roots make the body, legs, and feet. You can even make faces in the bark.

If you don't want to do fantasy art, that's okay; you can always just go outside into the real world and find a tree to copy. Or, you can just grow your own tree with the power of your mind and your drawing implement of choice.

When it comes to drawing trees, like the real things, the sky's the limit.

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