Hi all!
I have been struggling a lot with what I believe is creative burnout over the last few months, and I have been wondering what has caused it and what could potentially help me get back into the swing of things. After reading and becoming inspired by Jonjo Hemmen’s recent post about letting unfinished art die by releasing it to the world in hopes to move on, I suddenly realized that doing the exact same thing could be the key to getting out of the creative rut I am currently in. (His stuff is top notch, check out his portfolio here).
I seem to always have ideas for environments in the back of my mind. Occasionally those get pursued further and I create blockouts, sometimes they make it past blockout and get to about 25%-50% completion, starting to take full form. I find that I usually get to the 50% mark and then either never touch the project again or get a burst of motivation to finish the project. I think seeing the work around that 50% mark gets me excited for the final product so I go for it.
These following images are all projects I started and never finished for various reasons. Whether because it lost any meaning or core concept to me or I simply lost interest. Either way things happen. I’m not upset, i’m letting these out into the wild because I know that I learned in one way or another from all of these.
This post goes out to those projects that never made it past 50% completion.
Rest In Peace.
I present to you:
Alec’s Art Graveyard (2019 - 2020)
Swamp Project
Untitled Projects
These projects were one offs that I decided to start but gave up on due to lack of enthusiasm for the base ideas conveyed.
Relight
I tried my hand at relighting the Medieval Town pack from the marketplace. I decided not to post because I didn't feel it warranted its own post.
Beksiński is my favorite artist of all time, and upon viewing his art I have always felt that it would be an interesting experiment to try to emulate his atmospherics and lighting style digitally. These concepts failed on a fundamental level but I think someday I will still try to create artwork inspired by his. Someday.
I originally planned on finishing this project but decided against it because I feel it lacks a strong main idea that drives the rest of the story around it. I struggled to find a story to tell in this space and the more I worked on it the more shallow it seemed. I threw in the towel and decided to move on.
There are countless more projects that never made it past the blockout phase but I chose to stick with the furthest ones along in the production process.
I hope this helps others with their creative burnout as it will hopefully help mine!
RIP Projects
Thanks for reading,
Alec