Inspirations for Drawing

One of the main issues I encountered with my drawing experience is the lack of original ideas.

I picked up drawing at a young age after being inspired by some of my fathers work. I was determined to reach his level and practiced frequently. However it started to become boring to me and I eventually traded my pencil for a controller. After years of not doing anything, I had a sudden urge one day to try and draw something realistic. I sat down and read through a drawing book and began producing some work comparable to my fathers. Now that I had a spark I decided to get back into drawing again. However this passion didn't last long and I soon found myself in the same position I was in years ago. I had acquired some new techniques but I just couldn't progress further. This was about 4 or 5 years ago.

Just recently I was assigned a two projects for two different classes which required me to sketch ideas out that would later be produced on the computer. Here I was confronted with this curse, this eternal artist block. If I was to ever move forward in my career then I needed to take care of this dry spell some how.

So I went online and asked around for some opinions. To my surprise the solution was quite simple: just draw. After have been stuck in my car today for about 30 mins with only a sketch book and a led pencil I can tell you this much: it works. At first I was reluctant as I started using some drawing exercising I found while doing my research. However after a few minutes I began to see form in my random array of shapes, something that I wanted to pull out. And sure enough after 30 minutes of sketching I came up with this. I feel more confident in my skills now and can't wait to see what I'll think of next just out of shapes.

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Feel like this is you? Well here are some tips I collected during my research that I feel helped me out of this slump:

•  Drawing and sketching random crap is a good way to explore your own creative insight. it feels good to get ideas out of your head and onto paper every now and then--even the written ones, so you can draw them later.
• Using reference photos is a plus. it's a really good idea to borrow idea's in small forms (not complete ones) in order to better understand a concept for yourself.
•  Listen to music. Take inspiration from the lyrics, the beat, whatever strikes at you. Half of everything I draw is inspired by music.
  
• Tell a story. If you can come up with a story, you can translate it into a piece. This sort of depends on how much of a visual learner you are.
• et your art be your diary. Whatever you're feeling, draw it. If you have trouble translating your feelings to paper, think metaphorically. Pour your heart into a piece, and you've completely stepped up your game. Emotion is sometimes difficult to master, but well worth it.
• Take a walk. Just take the time to experience the beauty of nature. Notice the shapes, the colors, the harmony of everything.
• Be childlike. Remember when your teacher told you that puppies weren't purple? Forget that. Forget everything you've ever learned about...well, everything. Forget that green is green (it's probably turquoise or yellow) or that whatever color green really is it has to be that color. Forget the symbols of things and observe them for what they really are. Know the rules, then break them.
• Turn something in to something completely different. A range hood can look like a vacuum hose nozzle. A water bottle can look like a light house. Stretch your creativity by looking at an object and thinking of other uses for it. Even better, do what they did on Pappyland: draw weird squiggles and try to turn them into something else, sort of like what Oberon was saying.
• Draw a lot, I mean really, really a lot and do it using as much as varied references as possible; even if they were just trivial elements of a picture or a small item in the whole drawing. Bend and customize these elements to your liking and experiment with them, eventually you'll start creating something new out of them and it will be evident more and more as you draw.
• draw random shapes and then draw things inside the shapes. Whether that means more shapes or just stick figures, who knows.