Burn out, break time and a passion fruit pattern

I woke up one morning and decided that I was both tired and bored of making patterns, for the moment anyway. I was doing so well too, with weekly challenges and then drawing after animating all day after work but then...poof! Nothing. No desire to draw anything at all.

For the first few days, I felt a bit bad about it. I had this lofty goal of creating close to a hundred patterns this year and now I find myself not feeling inspired at all.  It's become clear that I have burnt myself out and now need a reset.

Working on the computer for hours and hours, day in day out wasn't a good thing either, so instead of beating myself up about it, I spent the last few weeks reading, going through my art books, looking at comics and zoning out on the couch (without drawing while I watched) and just relaxed. I think it's really necessary to just stop and through exploring other subject matters and hobbies to feel inspired again. I ended up in a rabbit hole when I came across AMV's (anime music videos) on youtube and started binging those. Watching those videos actually made me inspired to draw again!

However, I am not inspired to draw patterns for the moment. I do get like this from time to time and need to switch up subject matters. I have no idea how other artists can draw and do the same subject matters/ style or craft for years and years without switching it up. I think that's a blogpost for another time though. I used to feel iffy about it but now I've just accepted that pivoting to draw and create things that interest me is what keeps me happy. There's a time and a place to force yourself to keep doing a job that you don't want to do....for me is when it involves a paid job. Things that are just possibilities or what I do in my own time is what I do for me. If I am fortunate enough to end up with an opportunity based on what I was working on, then great! 

I actually painted a lucky cat for myself over the last few weeks. Really enjoyable painting on a 3D object. It's good to switch it up, I think! I may end up doing more 3D stuff in the future. Painting that cat actually helped with getting out of my creative block and I might even do more!