Artist's block- when you're just not feelin it.

[Godslayer]

A blockage in the creative tract. Right brain shutdown.  You try to force it at first. Shake it off, get an idea, scribble something and go- it doesn't work. Keep scribbling. Think, come on. Everything looks terrible. THINK. The eye of the brainstorm. It was there before, and you're sure its going to come again, but why leave now? Why has the brain forsaken you?

I sure as hell don't know. All I know is it's severely lame. Consolation, inspiration, share your instances of artist's block, what did you do? Are you blissfully free of it? Etc.

 I'm out of gas, can anyone help me find the station?

[AdamAtomic]

This is from another forum, but I think most of it applies:

Adam's Sources of Inspiration (these are not claims to quality, just stuff that gets my head spinning):

Movies/TV Shows:
Nausicaa
Jurassic Park
Porco Rosso
Enemy of the State
Predator
Die Hard
Incredibles
FLCL

Video Games:
Final Fantasy Tactics
All Treasure Games
Vagrant Story
Metal Gear Solid
Advance Wars
Castlevania
Chrono Trigger
Cave Story
Viewtiful Joe
Katamari Damacy
Shadow of the Colossus
Megaman ZX (i'm ending here, this list is about to get crazy long)


Books:
Dune
Ender's Game
Jurassic Park
Starship Troopers
Forever War
Flight (graphic novel collections)

Web-Based Artists:
Kazu Kibuishi
Bengal
Sparth
Prometheus
Soren & Zemi (Lego modelers)

Music:
Gladiator soundtrack
FFT soundtrack
CarboHydroM's punk rock game music covers
Cave Story soundtrack
SquareSoft SNES soundtracks (Secret of Mana, Chronotrigger, etc)
Streets of Rage 2 soundtrack
Ikaruga soundtrack


Now, all that said, you really can't force it. And going and buying a bunch of comics or movies is NOT going to make you more creative (i promise!!). In all honesty you have to kind of cultivate a willingness and appreciation for doing nothing - let your subconscious do some of the work for you. Steven King calls it "the boys in the basement". They're a lot better at creating stuff than you are, trust me! If you are bored and would like to do SOMETHING, do something to hone your techniques; SDKs from polycount, model trades with other artists (each make a model and UV map it, then trade and texture each other's work), anything that doesn't require a TON of creativity but will allow you to practice texturing or UV mapping or whatever. Do that so you are keeping your skills fresh and practicing, but then make sure you take some time off everyday to give your brain a break and let the boys in the basement pull their share.

One thing I did last year was made a rule that I would only model 2 hours a day, but I'd have to make a complete, textured, new model every weekday. I did that for a month straight, and it was an incredible experience. You very quickly figure out how to come up with something new under a schedule, you'll learn awesome UV mapping and texturing tricks too.

Good luck man!

[Feron]

I find chosing a random song name from my itunes and getting inspiration from it is good.  Often lyrics will inspire you too.

[.TakaM]

just listening to my music usually gets me going.. but since I live in new zealand its a 10 minute bike off into the country with lots of cool landscape and level design

[Faktablad]

From my experience, most of being creative is just being comfortable and awake.  Just as an odd thing, I find I'm more creative when I'm warm. 

And yeah, music is excellent, but it has to be good music, usually not processed, commercial crap.  Stuff you can really get into.  I'd suggest listening to a song and truly getting into it, then after it's over, draw how it made you feel.  As such, abstract is a great way to break the creative ice. 

May I also suggest working with restrictions?

[Skull]

Ha.. I had the same thing going on not too long ago- Couldn't really think of anything, and If I did it came out all wrong, and with me being a poor artist anyway.. Well..

I just sort of 'grew' out of it, like a rash.