It is often that artists are faced with the challenge of beginning. There you sit, equipped with all of the right supplies, the correct lighting, the perfect posture to start that project, and you’ve got nothing. Zip. No idea where to go next.

As with many other feats of creativity, those first words on the page, the first marks on the paper or those initial brush strokes on the canvas are often the most difficult to create. How many times have you sat staring at a blank white abyss, wondering how on earth you’ll fill this space with something worthwhile?

It has happened to me far too frequently.

One thing I’ve discovered over the years, which any art instructor would tell you, is that just doing SOMETHING is more valuable than creating that perfect mark. Even if you have no idea what your brush will do, what kinds of lines you’ll draw or what shape that clay will take, getting your hands dirty is the most important step.

Even brainstorming can be daunting. I’ll have these grand ideas for some prolific painting, but when I sit down to map out the details, I am again lost. Just getting something, anything, down on paper – a shape, a mark, a smudge – is a great start in and of itself.

Remember in middle school when the teacher would write one word on the board, and you had to use free-association to create a list of any other words that came to mind? Genius. Next time you find yourself in a creative rut, try applying that concept to a sketchbook. Pick an object in the room, or some random thing from your imagination, and just draw it. Outline it, shade it, scratch it out, draw it bigger – whatever. Just draw. Find shapes within that drawing, and morph it into something else. Cover the page in seemingly mindless doodles until you bleed into the next page. This simple exercise, which could take only a few minutes, can get your mind working, your hands moving and your eyes seeing – really seeing. The importance of seeing is another story altogether…

Back to doing. A lot of this process includes inevitable “mistakes,” though that word carries such negative connotation. Mistakes are such a crucial part of the creative process, and they should not be discouraging by any means. Mistakes can create new ideas on their own. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve begun a painting with one idea in mind, and it transforms into something completely different because of a simple slip of the brush.

Make mistakes. Screw it all up. Paint over it. Erase it. Blend it. Just keep working through it. You’ll be amazed at how many of those little mistakes end up becoming happy accidents.