First of all, how long have you been studying/practicing art seriously (by serious, I mean prolonged, focused learning and practicing, at least a couple of hours or more each session, and at least 12+ hours a week if you have a full-time job/school, and at least 28+ hours a week if you don’t).
I’m asking because one of the most common problems I’ve noticed while teaching art, is how grossly the students underestimate the amount of time, energy, passion, discipline, and tenacity it takes to become a good artist. Many start to get impatient after filling up a couple of sketchbooks, and seem to think doing a few dozens of drawings of something is enough to master it. They have no idea that it takes thousands of failed drawings/paintings and years of continuous study/practice to become a competent artist. So if you are just starting out and haven’t really done any serious artistic development, then just be patient and stick with it.
As for hitting a wall in your artistic development, you have understand that improving at any endeavor is not a straight ascending line on a graph where you steadily become better at a consistent rate. In reality, the graph will look far more erratic, with long periods of flat lines (no apparent progress) and then sudden steep climbs for a short period, then flat line again for a while, and so on. It takes a certain amount of accumulated insights and experience for a person to suddenly hit a point of revelation and then jump forward, and then he has to take the time to accumulate the next level of insights and experience before the next revelation hits.
Regarding working out of your head, this is related to the first part I mentioned. If you haven’t gained enough knowledge, experience, and skill, then of course it’s going to be hard for you to work out of your head. But since there’s no link to your portfolio, I can’t really tell what level you’re currently at. If you provide a link to your work or post some images, it’ll help me assess your current level and give you advice on what you should be working on.
If you don’t know what you want to do with your artwork, then you need to take the time and think seriously about why you want to be an artist in the first place. Too many people are simply in love with the idea of being an artist instead of actually loving the process of creating art. Also, too many people confuse their love for other people’s art as the love they feel for their own artistic endeavor. You have to make sure you actually love creating your own art, and the process of doing it, including how hard it can be and how frustrated and helpless it can make you feel. Be sure that you want to do art for the right reasons.
Also, think about what you want to express with your art as a human being, not just a mindless artist who just want to make pretty pictures. Do you have emotions you want to express? Do you have stories you want to tell? Do you have sociopolitical dispositions you want to convey? Are there moods you want to portray? Think about what fascinates you, what makes you sad, angry, happy, what poignant memories you have from your own life experiences, scenes from books you love, your nightmares, your daydreaming fantasies, the various “what if” questions you’ve ever asked yourself. Those are all great sources of inspiration for ideas to use in your artworks.
These are just some of the things I have my students think about in the first week of the workshop I teach here at CGSociety (it’s linked below in my signature). If you take some time and really think about what I mentioned seriously, you’ll discover many things that you have overlooked or haven’t explored yet about yourself and your hidden creative vision. There’s so much more beyond this basic stuff, but I think it’s enough to get you started.
