There are so many ways to navigate the inability to create, let me take this opportunity to tell you about my favorite one. Breathe, slow down, be silly, and shed the pressure. If you try this and it doesn’t work, don’t get discouraged, the time will come!
The first step to my “block-buster” is to sit down with google, a sketch book, pencil, and eraser. Take a second to google “random thing generator” and find a website that is easy to use. It’s okay to generate one thing at a time or several, but you will need at least three things. Keep in mind, this is no pressure, so if you don’t like the things you get, generate some more until you get something you’d like to work with. Next, think of and sketch out an idea to connect all of your things, just start with sketching rough shapes. Your things can be connected by a scene, by some hybrid nonfictional item, or however you see fit to connect them. After the general shapes of your things are sketched out and connected, look up some reference photos of each thing and make them more detailed. Remember, the object of this activity is to loosen up and just make something, doesn’t have to be your best work. Matter of fact, I’m going to do one of these right now and attach the photos...
As you can see, I started with a rough idea and shapes. I listed my objects at the top of my paper originally. As I worked on the detailing, I decided to switch to an aerial perspective. I searched many references online, including "difference in knitting needles and crochet needles" and “Hot-Wheels truck from the top." The Hot-wheels prompt yielded very little usable results, so if you think my trucks don’t look like trucks, mind ya business. This sketch took me about an hour and a half (it felt more like 20 minutes) and engaged my mind to stretch my imagination while not completely relying on it for ideas.
I hope this experiment is something that helps you find your groove again, but more than that, I hope you’ve had fun.