Break Out of a Creative Deep Freeze: 6 Creative Prompts for Inspiration

We’ve all been there. Bone-chilling winter temperatures descend. Snow turns wide sidewalks into single-file pathways. When you’re outside, it’s too cold to even think. Without putting too fine a point on it, the vibes are off. Possibly even way off. At first, the solution probably seems simple: get cozy inside and get to work. But what happens when our creative muscles freeze along with the air? Sometimes inspiration just isn’t striking.

Even the most brilliant artists get stuck sometimes: When Picasso hit a creative wall, he’d switch artistic mediums. When Frida Kahlo was in a bus accident, she turned her focus to herself, building a makeshift studio around the bed she was confined to so that she could keep making. Van Gogh just kept working until he broke through his own mental roadblocks.

This winter, we encourage you to take a cue from Van Gogh (keep both your ears, though) and dive headfirst into a project that’ll spark your creativity and change the way you think about your practice. Here are six tips for getting out of your head and into the zone.

1. Try a New Creative Hobby to Overcome Creative Block

Is your thing drawing? Try writing a story. Love to write? Consider making a wild left turn and learning to draw. Engaging with new creative activities, especially ones you have no experience with will jumpstart the artistic part of your brain. Learning how to make something you’ve never made before is a great experience. And who knows, maybe whatever new project you pick will indirectly solve the problem that got you stuck in the first place.

2. Use Creative Constraints to Break Out of a Creative Rut

Sometimes what feels like a creative block is actually just our overwhelmed brains not knowing what to do next. Develop some constraints for yourself that’ll help you break out of well-worn creative patterns: Allow yourself to use only two colored pencils instead of the whole rainbow. Make a self-portrait collage using only images from magazines published the year you were born. Write a story without a single adverb. Complete an entire painting in under two hours. When the time’s up, your painting is done. 

3. Create for a Specific Person to Spark Inspiration

Start a new project from scratch. It doesn’t have to be overly ambitious, but it should be a technique  you’ve used before. Now, imagine you’re making it for a specific person. How would you go about it if your audience was a fourth grade classroom? What would you do if you were presenting creative work to the residents of a retirement home? A professor who has seen it all? How does a certain personality type change your process? 

4. Revisit an Old Technique to Refresh Your Creativity

Maybe you’re becoming a bit of a Procreate, well…pro. Or maybe you’ve painted so many watercolor landscapes that you can make them in your sleep. There’s nothing like shaking up your expertise by using a tried-and-true technique on a new medium. All you Procreate wizards, take the skills you’ve learned there and apply them to pen and paper illustration. Watercolor masters: give your screen  a try—see how you can translate your understanding of gradient colors and textures to a digital canvas.

5. Keep a Creative Journal to Generate New Ideas

Jot down your ideas, inspirations, and observations in whatever form feels most direct to you. Make a collage that represents an experience you had that day, do a series of illustrated vignettes, revisit the lunch meeting you just had through poetry. By trying different forms, you’ll be able to observe in real time how the medium helps make the message.

6. Start a Long-Term Creative Project for Someone Else

Here’s the plan: think of an important person in your life. Is there a gift you could make for them that they’d really appreciate? Is it beautifully handmade marbled dishcloths? A sweater you meticulously embroider? A letterpress collection of your writing with a sewn binding? Whatever it might be, reframe your relationship to art and the time you spend on it by working diligently and slowly on one larger project made with someone else in mind. You’ll get a creative boost and they’ll receive a gift that shows how much they’re appreciated.

Why a Focused Creative Practice Helps Break Blocks

Even the most seasoned creatives hit a wall sometimes. By trying new activities, leaning into constraints, and giving yourself room to explore both old and new techniques, you can rebuild momentum and find inspiration again. Creativity thrives on movement—even the tiniest steps count—so keep making, experimenting, and showing up for yourself.