Running out of ideas is devastating, but here are three ways that have proven to work time and time again. You never have to lack inspiration again!
As a artist you must have a place to draw inspiration from. However it’s easy to feel uninspired and confused about where to draw inspiration from. What do you search? What do you feel like creating?
In this post I’m going to share my top 3 ways I get inspired!
Photography
Not necessarily taking the photo yourself, but finding high quality photos that someone else has taken and using them as reference photos.
What do I search? I use something relevant. Like the season, I might search “winter photography” (Pinterest is a great search engine for this). Once images start to roll in I scroll until something piques my interest such as snowy mountains. Then I’ll narrow down my searches until I have something like “Aurora Borealis and Mountains”. Visual content is one of the best ways to get inspired in no time!
Feelings
It’s honestly a cliche tip but if you do it right you can come up with a masterpiece. Choose an emotion or go with how you’re feeling at this moment. Ask yourself, what do I think of when I think of (insert feeling)? Play around with some images that come to your mind when you think of that emotion. Like for me, when I think of being elated, I picture colorful balloons in the sky, kinda like the picture from UP. When I think of lonley, I picture someone alone in a penthouse, starring out of a window that spans the whole wall, over an evening time city.
Once I have that image in my head, I usually then search for multiple images and create my own unique reference image, almost identical to what I see in my head.
(side note: Music is also a very good way to form images based on feelings)
Other Artist
You can easily draw inspiration from someone else’s work. Such as, there’s a painting of a whale I saw sometime ago, and though I haven’t flushed this painting out yet, it inspired me to paint a whale of multi colors. The image I now have in my head looks nothing like the one I saw, but simply seeing someone else’s whale sparked an idea of my own.
Disclaimer: I am not encouraging the copying of someone else’s work. If you copy make sure to credit them but also, remember, originality is key!
Now, it’s not always possible to be motivated at that moment. Sometimes you just have to take a break and focus on something else then come back to your art. Always remember to have fun! Never let that aspect of your creativity die!