By Seth Apter

Very often when struck by a loss of inspiration, artists will begin to over think and over analyze. The following strategies may help you to reconnect to the more creative side of your brain.

Randomly select a photograph on your smart phone or hard drive and choose one aspect (could be color, composition, subject, emotion, etc). Use that to create a quick sketch of a potential work.

Without censoring yourself, free associate a series of words that either pop into your head or that describe your mood in that moment. Then use those words as inspiration to make something.

Choose one supply from your undoubtedly large stash of supplies that you have not opened yet and use it as the main jumping off point for a new piece.

If you collect found objects and bits and; pieces (and who doesn’t?), randomly choose one. Then look for a second object that “goes with” the first. Keep repeating the process until you have a bolt of inspiration and/or a direction for your work.

Use your non-dominant hand to roughly sketch a loose series of lines. Afterwords, look at the sketch to see if you are inspired by a figure that appears, by the curve of a line, etc.

Do a Google image search for one or more artists that you admire. With the grid of their work on the screen, come up with a few words that describe what it is that you like about their work (organic, dark, textural, etc) and then use those words to create your own artwork in your own style.

Look at your own artwork, pictures in magazine, random bits of paper — but look at them upside down in order to open your eyes and mind to a different way of thinking.