“Where does inspiration come from?”

a collage of papers in neutral colours with different images from magazines creating a vignette

As an artist, you’ve likely been asked countless times, “Where does your inspiration come from?” It’s one of those questions that, no matter how often it’s asked, still feels difficult to answer in a simple sentence. But why do people ask this? What are they truly curious about, and how can we as artists provide meaningful responses?

For many people, the creative process seems mysterious. Art can feel magical or extraordinary to those who don’t create regularly, making them wonder how artists continually produce original work. The question about inspiration often comes from a place of genuine curiosity, a desire to peek behind the curtain and understand the mind of the creator. It’s a way of connecting with the artist and perhaps hoping to find a hint of that creativity within themselves.

Art is often personal and deeply subjective. When someone asks about inspiration, they’re trying to find a relatable entry point into your world. They might be searching for a story, an experience, or an image that ties your art to something familiar in their own lives. When you answer the question, you bridge that gap between the personal and universal.

Inspiration doesn’t always come from grand, extraordinary places; often, it’s found in the ordinary objects around us. The textures, shapes, and even stories behind common items can spark new ideas. Look around your house. At the objects you’ve gathered through the years from travel, walks … What’s on your walls?

Your inspiration can also come from photographs: your own or images in magazines that you like. It can be the subject matter, the colour, the shape, line or textures that catch your attention. With the onset of digital cameras and the camera on our phones, we tend to take hundreds of images because, why not? They don’t need to be developed anymore. They are there instantly. So go ahead, take photos! Loads of them. And then to make it easier to find, create Albums in your phone and gather all the images by subject matter.

I have to confess that I am old-fashioned. So “Idea Books” or “Swipe Files” as Austin Kleon calls them are my thing. What is that, you may ask? It’s simply taking a sketchbook and sticking images in it that catch your attention: it can be work from other people, images in magazines, your own photos … I wrote about it a while ago when I was organizing my studio (I’m still at it – with the idea books, I mean) and you can read all about it here.

I have lots of these idea books and I love them. All about them. Creating them, thinking about them and most of them, going through them. I even organize them in categories: Architecture, Texture, Trees, Landscapes, etc. I have a couple that are the “special” ones: where I keep images that I think might inspire work – they are glued to the sketchbook with space to write thoughts, draw thumbnails, add more to the pages as times goes by.

Something else I’ve done with images from magazines is to create collages. I like to do them by colour, but you could also do it by subject matter: flowers, chairs, pots, glasses, bottles, etc. They are loads of fun to make. You get to sit on the couch with a magazine or stack of magazines and a cup of tea and leisurely turn pages while tearing or cutting images that you find interesting. I create a pile of these. Second step is to separate them roughly by colour: reds in one pile, greens over there, blues on the other side … I get my sketchbook out and start to place them in some sort of order. I tend to make stories and create little vignettes of images that I like. Move them from here to there and back again. Maybe this one over? MMMhhhhh … Once I’m happy with their placement, out comes the glue stick and the papers get glued on.

You may have seem some before as I wrote about creating these collages on a blog called “On cutting papers and creating stories.”

So why am I writing about it again? And repeating myself? Because to me, it bears repeating. Every creative project starts with inspiration. It could come from nature, a piece of vintage fabric, a pattern, or even everyday objects. I’m sharing because it seems that diving into different ways to gather inspiration might open a path to find your own way of gathering inspiration. And that in turn, will help you understand what you like and how you like to work.

So to answer the initial question: “Where does inspiration come from?” – E.V.E.R.Y.W.H.E.R.E! Art – yours or others’ – travel, culture, images, something you read that resonates with you. A piece of fabric. A texture or a colour. A crack on the sidewalk. The leaf of a tree. A flower. The sun shining through the lace curtains that creates a pattern on the floor. Shall I continue?

To be clear, sometimes inspiration feels elusive. Being an artist and creating isn’t always about waiting for the muse to appear. There’s a reality to creative work that involves pushing through creative blocks, experimenting with different ideas, or simply working through an idea until it begins to take shape.

So here’s my question to you. What inspires you? Leave a comment below. I’d like to hear your thoughts.

Until I write again, keep getting inspired by the small everyday stuff happening around you.

Ana

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2 Comments

  1. Bark
    Colour patterns in nature that migrate from one colour to another or between many colours
    – textures of things
    -sunlight on texture
    -clouds that you can “pull off the sky”
    -rock textures and colours
    (Thanks for your articles. :) I like you.) :)

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