I don’t know about you, but I know that when I start to get overloaded or burnt out, my studio work is the first thing to suffer. I don’t sit and sketch or create, I just feel too overwhelmed. But art is my outlet and my battery recharge, so why wouldn’t I want to do it? 

Unfortunately, I am actually asking, I don’t have a solution here. 

The biggest thing I can think of, is when I am tired and my brain is worn out, it is that much harder to shut out the nay-saying voice in my head. “What if you mess it up?”, “You’ll get all of those paints out and just waste your time.” Anything like that. I put a lot of pressure on my illustrations to make sure that they come out right, and maybe battling those demons is just not what I am interested in in that moment. 

How do I deal with it? I keep a variety of creative things at the ready. If I want to write, I have the blog posts. If I want to draw, there’s so many tools on hand. I know that creating with my hands is how I get into my zone, so I make it easy to ease into that by having just colouring supplies and a colouring book on hand. Maybe doing a few little colour spaces will help me to get into a rhythm, or maybe I will just colour a full page that day. These are ideas for if, in your overwhelmed brain, you are worried about getting rusty or losing a studio rhythm or groove. 

Sometimes you also just need a break. I watch a movie, read a book, just let the studio sit for a minute. The studio will be there for you when you are ready.