Do you have to be inspired and in the mood to do good work? Howard Pyle didn't think so. "That is all nonsense," he said. "I frequently have to force myself to make a start in the morning; but after a short while I find I can work. Only hard and regular work will bring success."
I can identify with what he's saying. There have been days when I had to drag myself to the easel and force my hand to move the brush around. Inspiration comes most often when I actually show up and work on a problem.
Durer's Melencolia I "It's ironic," observes the Metropolitan Museum, "that this image of the artist paralyzed and powerless exemplifies Dürer's own artistic power at its superlative height."
But there have been times that I've felt blocked from working because I eventually realized that something is wrong in the way I'm thinking. No amount of sitting at the easel and forcing myself to paint will solve the problem. In other words, if I don't feel in the mood, sometimes it's because I'm approaching my artwork in the wrong way or I'm trying to do a finished painting without having done the necessary preliminary work.
That's why it helps to follow these four guidelines:
1. If possible, set up a different workstation for writing or sketching.
2. Split yourself into two imaginary personalities and pretend you've hired a specialist to help you with the part of the process that stymied you.
3. Have a step-by-step process or a trusted workflow that you can plug yourself into. For me, that means doing thumbnail sketches, planning tonal studies, doing a perspective drawing, gathering photo reference, etc.Â
4. At the end of the workday, finish up so that you leave yourself something fun and easy to do when you start up the next session. Then, when you arrive at work the next morning feeling sleepy and uninspired, you've got something you can achieve successfully even without inspiration.
You remind me of when Art Center teacher, Ted Younkin, suggested two things: 1) Don't stop out of frustration, leave something good to do so you look forward to coming back to your work, and 2) Before you take a break, sharpen all the pencils. When you come back to your drawing, at least you have fresh pencils waiting for you. Both have worked for me more often than not.
As a former professional, I never experienced a malaise or inability to work. I was up early in my studio, or first to arrive at the office. My issue was the excitement and anticipation of the day ahead, awake at 4am. As a retiree and plein air painter, my focus day to day is on whether conditions; yes, whether the wind and rain will cooperate. The inability to sleep is a constant, with so much ahead. The day has no pause button.