Creatively challenged

Mainly a copy-paste from my DeviantArt journal.

I'm feeling creatively challenged, and have actually felt so for the longest time. I upload to my DA gallery every piece that I have finished, so you can see that I really don't draw much (sketches I mostly keep to myself, though). If you take a look at my gallery, you can see that I've mainly drawn gift art/requests of other people's characters, illustrations for other people's short stories, and then fan art. The original art in my gallery consists of my graduation project and then there's some really old drawings. So I haven't really drawn anything strictly for *me* for the longest time.

I'm proud of my graduation project, it is something I entirely thought up. But there was that *must*, that I must do it to graduate, that made me do it. When I don't have that necessity, it feels like I can come up with nothing.

I started the 100 themes challenge, but then decided to make it about fan art, too... So, that didn't help (and I really want to see fan art of those games, so I'm not taking it back).

And it's not only drawing. It's my writing, too. I LOVE to write. But the things I've written consist of the graduation project, and then my almost yearly Nanowrimos (and last year I didn't write that, either). So Nanowrimo takes the month of November. Outside of that I haven't really written anything NEW, just a few posts for this online writing group of my existing characters there, not even new ones.

I used to come up with my own stories and then draw the characters from them. Or I just came up with a character to draw out of nowhere. I don't know what's happened, I can't seem to come up with anything anymore.

It doesn't help that last October I moved here to Helsinki and I have no friends here. Of course I have my boyfriend and my sister here, and they are darlings and help much to fill my social needs, but I want some friends, dammit. Friends that draw, and who I could draw with. I have never been that social, I like to be by myself, so I don't need to have that busy a life outside my home, but I have always had one or two good friends, and then acquaintances. School helped with these things, but I'm not in school anymore.

So, briefly: Why can't I come up with anything? Where has my creativity disappeared? And HOW can I get it back? These are the things I wonder.