Inspiration for your art

can come from a range of places, but often artists can find it difficult to find a singular muse or consistent source of inspiration. In this post we will discuss ways to cultivate inspirational environments, digital tools for inspiration, and explore other ways to find inspiration for your art!

How do I find inspiration for my art?

To find inspiration for your art, work to cultivate an inspiring environment, collect images, books, or other media that stands out to you, and go to places that inspire you. Starting with an outline of your goals as an artist (what you want to create or how you want to make people feel) consider your base inspirations for your art, what motivates you to create? Maybe you just want to express yourself, or you want to paint vast landscapes to help connect people with nature, or maybe you adore the film noir genre and have a desire to create your own films. Start with your why, and cultivate spaces to reflect that dream, in your home, digitally, and out in the world.

Just as a note, what inspires you does not always have to look like the art you want to make but can be something that makes you feel creative, imaginative, or puts you in a meditative or musing mood. Next, we’ll talk about collecting these pieces of inspiration and cultivating inspirational environments in your life.

Environment

Having a space that helps you to stay inspired will look different from person to person. Whether you have a home or an apartment, work to create a small studio space to work at regularly. For example, if you are a painter or a writer, set up a small work desk dedicated to your craft. Add books or biographies about artists that inspire you, pin up images or paintings that remind you of your work (or your actual work), and keep a clear space on the desk for you to go back to and work when inspiration hits. Use colors that you hope to feature in your work or totems that hold a special interest to you and your creativity (I have a Frida Kahlo painting hanging above my painting station).

Having a creative and deliberate environment to do your work in is essential for free-flowing inspiration and getting your work done. With your different totems, images, and a purposeful space to create, you’ll find inspiration comes naturally and with ease. If you don’t have room to cultivate a creative and inspirational space, our next tip will cover digital and multimedia tools you can use to find inspiration for your art!

Media

Another source of inspiration you can use for your art includes media and digital resources. In this post we will primarily discuss two sources of inspiration in particular, Pinterest and Canva. But first, let’s cover a few other sources you can use for inspiration.

Literature and cinema can be great resources when looking for inspiration. Personally, I feel the most inspired after watching a beautiful French or Spanish film. Seek out movies, T.V shows, books and poetry, and other forms of content like YouTube videos to focus on when your well is dry. You can use main characters, themes, or imagery to spark new creative action, to find a muse, or to simply get back into a creative mood.

Movies about your craft may be especially helpful, as watching others overcome obstacles and achieve what we hope to achieve reminds us that it is possible. As a painter, I love the Frida movie. Watching her turn her pain and experiences into beautiful artwork always pushes me to create. Seek out aesthetics that match what you hope to emulate in your work and keep those in your back pocket for regular use and musing.

“Color is my day-long obsession, joy and torment.” – Claude Monet

Digital resources

Pinterest & Canva are my go-to spaces for inspiration and collages. If I ever feel uninspired or the desire for a new muse, I’ll spend some time on Pinterest. There, you can create specific boards for creative inspiration and reference back at any time. You can group together colors, aesthetics, themes, or anything else to help you visualize your creative thoughts or desires on your Pinterest. If this doesn’t quite do it for me, I’ll go ahead and make a collage of a few ideas on Canva to see these ideas grouped together. Adding color swatches, quotes, and specific imagery to these collages helps me to really see what I’m trying to express and always brings to me a sort of “ah ha!” moment.

This can also be great for cultivating a muse or character creation. Using images that resemble how your muse looks or feels, their interests or habits, even their environment, these details can help to bring them to life and give you a regular space to return to for inspiration.

Outings

The last way to find inspiration for your art is to plan creative outings and to spend time in nature. Don’t just go to the most popular museum in your area, seek out the weird, the seemingly simple, and specific art collections in your area. Taking time to attend creative events like festivals or meetups to be around people who are interested in what you are doing is essential for your drive and inspiration. This can be a great way to make new connections, to see what other artists are doing, and how other work may be similar or very different from your own work.

And, of course, spend time in nature. Nature can be both complex and deceivingly simple, but some of the greatest artists have found their muse in nature itself. Simply viewing nature for inspiration is one option, but it can also be great to clear your mind and help free up mental space for inspiration to strike. You can use your time in nature to silently mediate and you may just find that getting into a state of flow and thoughtfulness is just what you need.

Conclusion

Whether you are a new artist or a full-time creator, having different sources of inspiration are essential for your creative process and progress. These tools can help to keep us in a state of musing, imagination, and creativity essential for our creative projects and the output that comes from our efforts. Check out our next post on creating a home art studio and let us know below what you do to stay inspired and active!