I’m the first person to admit how difficult it can be to pull yourself out of a slump. As a creative thinker and a highly sensitive person, I go through a lot of ups and downs with my art. As I age I’m starting to become accustomed to this cycle and even have begun to embrace it lately, as I can now see the benefits that some down time has to offer. Even after the worst of “off” periods, I’ve been able to come up with some ideas for how to get rid of artist’s block and come right back into the ring swinging. No matter how bad I feel, or how much I want to give up, utilizing at least one of these 10 methods works every time.

10 Ways to Get Rid of Artist’s Block

1. Go Outside

This might sound vague, but it’s effective. It doesn’t matter what you do, just get outside and let the fresh air work its miracles. Try something simple like taking a walk, or sitting outside and reading a book. Better yet (and my personal favorite), go camping. Even a short camping trip is much longer than we normally stay outside for and it really sort of “resets” and stimulates your brain, getting you back to your most invigorated self.

2. Listen to Music

Again, a simple notion. But I seriously forget to listen to music sometimes, getting way too wrapped up in my own head space and negative thought processes. When I remember to put on my favorite tunes and crank up the volume, I’m instantly transported to a different space. I feel less weighed down, happier. Emotions that had been festering and brewing get released and I’m able to climb out of the pit, so to speak.

3. Find Artwork You Love Online and Create Pinterest Boards

This is something that works very well for me when I’m not only feeling uninspired, but also physically lazy. There is SO much amazing stuff out there and I really think sometimes we just need to have some chill time to surf the web and find it. Creating Pinterest boards is a great way to save and categorize it all so that you don’t just immediately forget about it. I have boards for painting, printmaking, photography, individual artists that I admire, historical artists, gallery spaces, craft ideas…you get the idea. Pinterest is a good way for me to store all of the imagery and names that my brain is too overloaded to handle. Then when I’m experiencing artist’s block, or just need a little nudge, I can scroll back over all the beautiful work I’ve saved and it gets me excited to create again.

4. Visit a Gallery or Museum

This might not be something you’re able to do on any given day, but when you do get the chance, take it. Physically putting yourself in the presence of artwork can be very inspiring. I always think of a museum as something of a sacred space. The whole building is there just to store and showcase art – what could be better? Walk around, explore, and just soak up your surroundings. Spend at least 10 full minutes with a piece that particularly speaks to you. It doesn’t have to be similar to your own work, just anything that engages you. The shift from thinking about your own work to thinking about someone else’s can be refreshing and your creativity and focus may spark as a result.

5. Keep a Sketchbook

Think of your sketchbook as your safe space. Nobody else gets to see it. It’s there just for you to move a pencil around on the paper and see what comes out. You can be as focused or as unfocused as you want. Write thoughts, doodle, create thumbnails that may or may not turn into anything, add color, paste in clippings of imagery you find interesting, anything you want! The act of doing this creates new thought processes by default, you don’t even really have to be trying. Just keep filling up those pages.

6. Take Pictures

This is something that I do quite often when I’m looking for new painting ideas. I like to walk around public gardens or go out into the woods and see what kind of interesting shots I can capture. Every picture you take is an original composition. From there the sky is the limit as to what you can do with it. Try playing around with the colors in a photo editing program, or combining multiple photos together to create a layered collage. Most of us have a phone camera with us at all times these days, so take advantage of it!

7. Do One Small Thing Outside Your Comfort Zone

It’s probably a good idea to do this from time to time just for personal growth, but I’ve found it to also be an effective method for relieving artist’s block. When we’re feeling uninspired, “blah”, or just down in the dumps, the easiest thing to do is to just keep repeating the patterns that probably put us there in the first place. Try doing something spontaneous. I’ll admit to being a little bit of a hermit, so for me this could be something as small as going for a long walk when I normally would have stuck around the house all day. Or maybe driving out to a spot I’ve never been before. Simple, but effective.

8. Keep a Clean and Organized Work Space

When in doubt, clean. It can’t hurt. I have trouble thinking clearly if my environment is too cluttered. Taking time to thoroughly clean and organize your work space can have multiple advantages. First, it gives you a task to focus on, which can help you snap out of a funk. It also reminds you what tools you have at your disposal, and where they are. My art supplies usually end up all over the place until I have no idea where anything actually is when I need it. Occasional organization is crucial, however unpleasant and tedious the idea might seem. Try combining the second idea on this list with this one and pump up the jams while you clean. 🙂

9. Look Back Through Your Older Work/Notes/Sketches

This one works wonder for me. I keep a sketchbook at all times, so they tend to pile up. Sometimes I’ll find an old one, flip through it, and think, “OH YEAH! I completely forgot about this awesome project that I wanted to do!” The idea was there the whole time, it just got lost in the shuffle. Maybe you were headed in a certain direction once, got distracted, and studying some of your older notes triggers that original thought process. Remind yourself of how far you’ve come and it will inspire you to keep pushing forward.

10. Take Care of Your Body

This is something that can be easy to slack off on when we’re not feeling great. Not sleeping enough and not eating well are guaranteed ways to keep your mind cloudy. Work through negativity by exercising and fueling your body with real food, and, possibly most importantly for artist’s block – SLEEP. Some days it just ain’t gonna happen, let’s be honest. It’s entirely possible that no matter how many methods we try, the creative juices remain stubbornly solidified. At this point just get a good night’s rest and give your brain a break. I’m continually amazed at how different a new day can feel. After a good sleep, and with that first cup of coffee the next morning, your next idea might just pop up out of nowhere.

 

Certainly these are not the only methods that can be used to help get rid of artist’s block, but these are what usually work for me. These practices not only apply to artists of all types, but really anybody looking to get back to a clear head space so they can get back to being productive. What ways have you found work to increase creativity? I would love to hear about them!

If you’ve ever had anything custom framed before, you probably already know how expensive it can be. I know a lot of people are apprehensive about starting the process because of the cost. In custom framing there is a broad spectrum of price points, which is determined by several factors. If you understand these variables, it will be much easier to keep the cost down to an area you are comfortable with. So stay with me, because I’m going to go into specific detail about how to save money on framing with 10 tips that I’ve picked up over the last decade as a framing professional.

My Top 10 Tips for How to Save Money on Framing

1. Use Ready Made Frames

Using a ready made frame will almost always be less expensive than ordering a custom one. Most frame shops carry a selection of pre-built frames for you to choose from. If your artwork doesn’t fit exactly into a ready made size, you can add a mat to fill in the extra space. They vary in price, but the advantage to using ready made frames is that you can see the price ahead of time, rather than falling in love with a frame during the custom selection process only to be crushed at the end when you realize it’s way out of your price range.

2. Use an Old Frame You Already Have

Even better than buying a ready made, why not look around your house and see if you have any old frames that could be repurposed for your current project? I have customers bring in their own frames all the time. Sometimes they’re not in the best shape, but I always offer to touch up the finish or reglue corners – whatever it needs. You’d be surprised how good an old frame can end up looking after a little TLC!

3. Understand Frame Quality and Decide on Your Priorities

The biggest variable in custom framing is usually the frame itself. They range in price starting around $5 to nearly $100 (per linear foot.) That is a BIG difference. Take the photo above as an example. The frame on the right is a sturdy wood composite frame with a smooth espresso finish, priced at $12 per foot. The frame on the left is a solid walnut with an ebony stain finish and a gorgeous curve on the backside, priced at $63.50 per foot. That’s a difference of $345 for an 11 x 14 frame. Certainly the frame on the left is of superior quality, but not everyone is in a position to afford something so luxurious.

If you’re looking to save money (which, let’s be real, most of us are) simply give the designer a rough idea of your budget before you get too far into the process. Decide what is important to you in a frame and what you can live without.

Things that drive up the price of a custom frame include:

• Size. In general, the bigger the frame, the more expensive it is.
• Finish. Finishes can get extremely elaborate with custom frames. Some are hand-painted to give an artistic feel, some are golf-leafed, some have a beeswax finish, some use exotic wood overlays, etc. Anything beyond a basic flat finish adds to the cost.
• Type of wood. The higher the quality of the wood on the inside of the frame, the more expensive it will be. The higher priced frames usually have a decent wood on the inside, even if it’s covered over with a surface design. The lower priced frames use various types of wood composites.

4. Keep it as Small as Possible

Everything in custom framing is priced according to size. The smaller you are able to keep the finished size of your piece, the more you’ll be able to keep the price down. This isn’t always possible, but some examples of ways you could reduce size may include trimming down unnecessary borders, skipping a mat, or folding up a jersey to a smaller display size.

5. Skip the Mat

Speaking of skipping the mat, this one deserves its own category. Matting is another big variable in framing. Any decent frame shop should be using acid free, archival mats, which are costly. They are also hand cut to very specific sizes on large, expensive equipment by skilled workers. All of this means more money. Eliminating the mat will take a big chunk out of your total, so it’s something to consider. Although matting serves both aesthetic and archival purposes, it’s not always necessary for every piece. Movie posters, for example, often look just fine with a frame right to the edge and no mat.

6. Skip the Spacers

In lieu of a mat (which serves the archival purpose of keeping the glass from directly touching the artwork) framers use thin strips of plastic around the inside edge of the frame called spacers. They are cut to fit exactly inside your frame, and a thin paper is pulled away from one side so they become self-adhesive and stick to the glass. Your artwork then lays on top of the spacers, preventing it from ever being able to get stuck to the glass. They don’t cost as much as a mat, but they still cost extra money. If you’re on a tight budget or don’t plan to ever take the piece out of the frame, I would say just skip them.

7. Do Your Own Fitting

This might not be a feasible option for everyone, but it is an option. A fitting is the labor charge for the framer to clean and assemble your piece. It varies according to size, which makes sense. If you think about it, cleaning and assembling a 4 foot by 4 foot framing project is a heck of a whole lot more work than doing a 4 inch by 4 inch project. So tread lightly with this one. Framers are very well set up to do this kind of labor. They make sure every fingerprint is cleaned from the inside and outside of the glass, every speck of dust is blown out, every tiny detail is perfected during this stage. They also have the proper tools and supplies to secure the artwork inside the frame, and finish off the back with a craft paper dust cover and hanging hardware.

That being said, maybe you’re set up well enough to do this yourself at home, in which case you’d be able to save yourself another good chunk off the total bill. Just something else to keep in mind.

8. Dry Mount Canvases Instead of Stretching Them

This tip is getting pretty specific, but I think it applies to a lot of people and hardly anybody knows about it. If you have an unstretched canvas that needs to be framed, having it dry mounted instead of stretched will save a LOT of money. It’s far more work for someone to custom cut and build stretcher bars and stretch your canvas than it is to adhere it down to foam core in a heat press.

I once did a large order for a woman opening up a restaurant in town. She had dozens of extra large canvas prints that she needed framed, but the combined cost of stretching AND framing was out of the question for her budget. We opted instead to simply dry mount the prints onto foamcare and frame them without glass, as you would a stretched canvas. This, combined with a discount, saved her literally thousands of dollars.

*Side tip – Remember to always ask if they have any discounts available! Even if you don’t have a bulk order, most frame shops are more than willing to work with you on the price, within reason. 

Dry mounting works well for canvas prints, or for tattered canvases that are in such bad shape that stretching may not even be an option. I do NOT recommend it for valuable, original paintings, as dry mounting does decrease the resale value and is not the traditional, proper way to display a canvas.

To learn how to stretch your OWN canvas, check out my article here.

9. PlakIt

PlakIt is a trademarked name, and it’s one of the very few services that we send out to have done. You can see sort of how it works in the picture above. They take your picture and mount it onto a wood composite board, with a beveled edge in the color of your choice. The surface is then covered with a protective laminate. The back has a notch for hanging, or you can ask the framer to add more secure hanging hardware before you take it home.

Ask your framer is they offer PlakIt, or a similar service. It’s not technically framing, but it does protect the surface of your picture effectively and allows you to hang it on the wall without fear of warping. It is also far less expensive than any framing option.

10. Leave the Back of Your Frame Accessible to Swap Out Pictures

Lastly, my number 10 tip to save money on framing is to leave the back of the frame accessible so that you can continue to use the same frame but change the picture inside from time to time. Normally in custom framing the back of the frame is sealed with paper. It prevents dust and moisture from getting in, and also gives the back a nice finished look. Alternatively, you could skip the paper and have the framer use turn button hardware that you can loosen and tighten to get in and out of the frame. I probably do this the most often for parents who plan to swap out photos of their kids over the years.

And that is it! My best advice for how to stay within your budget and make the custom framing process a viable option. Do any of you have any ideas of your own for how to save money on framing? I would love to hear them! Any questions about any of the topics I’ve gone over? Please leave them below, and I will be more than happy to answer them for you.