Well, I thought that I’d talk very briefly about self-imposed rules and creativity today. And I should probably start by saying that not all self-imposed rules are bad. Sometimes, you can end up making a rule for yourself that actually has a valid reason behind it and which actually enhances your creativity in some way. But, more often than not, your own “rules” are getting in the way of your creativity.
Case in point, in order to get out of some mild art block whilst preparing next September’s daily artwork, I noticed that the main problem was thoughts of “You can’t paint this, it’s too repetitive!” or “Do you REALLY want to make several ‘retro fashions’ paintings in a row?” and stuff like that. The instant that I was able to spot these thoughts and pointedly ignore them was the instant that I got my creativity back.
Yes, there will be two consecutive semi-digital paintings next September with virtually identical “Y2K aesthetic” outfits in them. So what? This was what I felt inspired to paint. And it resulted in two – reasonably ok – paintings, which were certainly better than if I’d listened to the “No, you HAVE to paint something different for the next painting! Even if it’s just a boring landscape, which is dull to paint and dull to look at” thoughts.
And this is hardly the only example. Although I made infrequent fan art before February 2023, that was the month when I started a dedicated fan art sketchbook (which has since turned into more of an art journal) in order to rebuild my confidence in my own art. And, whilst this other sketchbook can sometimes distract from my daily art, it has done so much to remind me WHY art is fun to make. Yet, for over a decade before this, I was telling myself “Be original! No more than two pieces of fan art per year!” and other self-imposed nonsense like that.
And, to give a non-creative example, one of the reasons why I spent approximately five years where I barely read any fiction was because of burn-out from lots of binge-reading in 2018-20. And, as I’ve probably mentioned before, one of the first things I did when I’d finally recovered enough to start reading novels again earlier this year was to discard virtually all of the “rules” I had set myself during my binge-reading phase. Everything from “Finish and review a novel every 2-4 days!“, “Don’t read two books by the same author consecutively, and no more than two books per author per month!” and stuff like that. And, honestly, I feel a lot better for it!
Yes, self-imposed rules can be useful and valid sometimes. There’s often a good intention behind them, or a bad experience that you’re trying to avoid. Sometimes, you might think that these rules will help to motivate you or to improve the quality of what you make. And sometimes they can. But, if you are starting to feel less inspired or less motivated, then it can sometimes be worth breaking a few of these self-imposed rules to see whether or not it helps.
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Anyway, I hope that this was interesting 🙂
