Overcoming the fear of the blank page

POV: You bought a new, quite expensive sketchbook.

Ah YES! New sketchbook! Look at that binding, those thick luxurious pages... Let's fill that first page with the most gorgeous piece of art I've ever made in my entire life!

This is it. This is the page I'll be looking at for months now and it's gonna be perfect. It's gonna be so good... This is great...

Awesome... I feel awesome. I feel awful. Crap. I have to nail this. This HAS to be perfect.

Nope. I'll start the sketchbook tomorrow. This is too hard.

Does this sound familiar? The fear of the blank page.

It can be like stage fright, even if there is no one watching. That page can either be the cause of total anxiety because of art block or just overwhelm because the endless possibilities. I know I've definitely had a good cry about this, and even worse; I've given up before I've even started!

I would like to share some tips and tricks to overcome the fear, and to draw the heck outta that page:

• Do a quick drawing warmup before you start.

• Don't start on the first page, just pick any page.
  

• Change your environment, for example: light a candle, put on your favorite feel good music, tidy around you before you start.
  

• Be ok with making ugly art and turn off your inner critic. (Easier said than done, I know.) One thing to try is to imagine your critic as a light switch, and to simply turn it off!
  

• Keep an “ugly sketchbook”. In other words, a less expensive and less precious sketchbook that you totally dedicate to low/no pressure art making. Explore new styles, doodle away!
  

• Focus on the process of creating, not the end result.

• Just start! One, two, three, GO!

Does the fear of the blank page makes you unable to figure out what to draw? I've got a lesson on how to never run out of ideas in my online course. If you wanna learn more, check it out here.

If you find yourself getting frustrated, there is a simple solution: just keep going. Don't fret that first stroke on the empty canvas or the white of that paper. If a drawing or painting ends up going in a direction you don't like, learn from it and move on. Know that whatever you are working towards is more valuable than your current state.

Don't let fear keep you from making art! Be kind to yourself, you've got this!