The right mood for the right drawing

Whether you're doing commissions, working, homework or drawing for yourself you'll always find yourself one time or another having to draw something you're not in the mood to draw. For example you might have to draw a bad guy but at that moment your in a jolly mood and can't get into the groove of drawing something evil. You try but you fail to think up an evil pose or perhaps the clothing they are wearing and when you try they just don't look evil or ominous enough. When this happens to me I turn to music as the solution. If I really want to draw something well, I have to really feel what I want that character/monster to feel. I actually have playlists in itunes and pandora for the right moods. They are usually categorized like so: Emo, Happy, Sexy, Evil/angry/badass, sci fi and relaxing. This is going to be a bit embarrassing (for some parts) but I'm going to share examples of what I listen to. 

Starting off with "Emo" or emotional. Now emo isn't always something sad but can be something with just a lot feeling, perhaps a women looking out in the wind with a look of longing. Or maybe lovers reuniting after an epic battle, any of these can be put into the emo category. Lately I've been listening to a lot of Lindsey Stirling and Escala for this category. Their music is filled with lots of feels. But I find a lot of anime songs fit in this category also.

Next up is happy! Any art that is filled with joyous happy feeling. Anything from frolicking in the grass, happy couples, best friends together etc. all counts. Lately Ellie Goulding has been dominating this playlist. 

For sexy I usually go with upbeat party-ish music. I have a lot for this playlist it varies from Lady Gaga to Katy B. 

Evil/angry/badass I generally always go with jrock or rock but for badass I go with some hip hop.

This goes more along the lines of "badass" haha. 

Sci fi is probably not hard to guess what I'd choose but I go with techo. Daft punk, skrillex (if i'm in the mood), and trance. 

Last but not least, relaxing music. If I want to be very relaxed I'll listen to classical music but otherwise this playlist consists of fischerspooner, owl city, kate Nash etc.

Those are samples of what I listen to. I hope this helps someone who has artists block or someone who's in a pickle and just can't get into the right drawing mood! It's a good idea to create "mood" playlists or set up some stations on pandora. 

Have fun and keep drawing! Cheers!