Pre-amble: thank you to Ross Lloyd & Dave Tevenal for the inspiration to write this and create new things.

 

“I’m not inspired.” “I can’t think of anything to draw.” “I’m just not feeling it.” and on and on and on.

This is what I hear daily and have myself muttered from time to time. Excuses as to why we aren’t producing something. Why we’re sitting around fucking off on the computer, or our iPhones, or the XBox.

Do you see the pattern?

Devices designed to numb the thought process, to quell creativity, to dull imagination because its already imagined for you.

We as artists tend to sit around waiting for inspiration to strike. In the land of tattoo this generally means a paying client waiting for us to knock out a sketch so we can get to the needles and skin part of it.

Immediate monetary gratification is what we are really waiting for.

Which is okay, sometimes. But it’s extremely short sighted. It puts you in a position of always creating the same style of stuff. Just moving the pieces around, not really trying to develop anything new because it needs to be done now so there’s no time to figure out a new, a better, more interesting way.

If you have decided to make your career as an artist, then treat it as such. Put the distractions away, pick up your medium of choice, and create something. It takes effort at times, but that’s what a job is, it’s work. Shit, we are some of the few who have jobs we enjoy and can enrich our souls at the same time. Treat it with reverence, pay it back, create something.

All the images displayed are initial sketches created when I was otherwise un-inspired. You’ll see finished projects soon enough.