Have you found yourself in an inspirational rut and can’t seem to figure out what your next masterpiece will look like? I’ve been there, I think we all have at some point, so why not try these tricks I use to help get those creative juices flowing again!
- Look through your sketchbooks. Maybe one of those old ideas you had can be revisited or you might find something you meant to get back to and forgot about.
- Do some research. Pick some pieces by some of your favorite artists and analyze what you do and don’t like about each piece. Apply some of that new found knowledge to your next work.
- Take a break. When you over think you stress, and when you stress your best ideas are more likely to hide in the closet rather than jump out on the page. Some good ideas for what to do during your break might be: Meditate or spend some time daydreaming, watch a movie you loved as a kid, or put on some good music and jam out for a while.
- Participate in a challenge. Some great ones to check out are conceptart.orgs weekly challenges, imagineFX, or check out my monthly art challenge right here! It’s fun, the idea is already provided, and you might meet some cool people in the process.
- Scribble. That’s right, remember those little doodles in the margins of your school notebooks? Well break out your pen and do some random little squiggles, see what you can make each one into. One of the benefits of this method is that working at this smaller scale allows you to do a bunch of them in a short amount of time and not get bogged down by all the details.
- Revisit a favorite book. Books are great for allowing you to create mental images of what’s happening. Think back to some memorable scenes from your book of choice and draw from that. Sometimes I try to do my own cover design for some of my favorite books.
- Go outside. Nature can be very inspirational. Take a walk and see what you see. Is that a giant cloud dragon? Or an old man’s face in the tree bark? Let your imagination run wild for bit. Seasons are a big inspiration for me, what kind of ideas can you get from flowers in spring or the winter holidays?
- Look up random song titles. This one works better if you don’t actually know the song but either way some of those interesting word combinations can inspire truly unique pieces.
- Take a trip down memory lane. A magazine you lost under your bed or maybe an old necklace, trinket, or box of old photos can spark feelings or visuals you can draw from.
- Don’t wait til it’s perfect! I can’t stress this one enough. If you have an idea and your thinking “Yeah, but it’s not REALLY good” do it anyway. A lot of times your idea can develop and change while you’re working on it. Even if it turns out like crap, guess what? No one has to see it. The best part is, when it’s done you can chalk it up to good practice and maybe learn something you can apply to your next piece.
I hope some of these tips helped you in your search for that illusive muse. If any of these tips helped you or if you have some more ideas on how to help inspiration strike I’d love to know!
Thanks for reading
-Christine Lane-