Seriously...as of this moment my head is full of air...silence....nothing. I'm attempting to work on a short film of my own and am having an extreme case of writer's block.
I'm posting this not to ask for ideas but rather to inquire about everyone's methods for how they generate their own.
Do your ideas come to you in a dream? Do you see a message in your cereal? Do you visit a fortune teller? What?
I appreciate anyone willing to reveal their tactics used to acquire inspiration. If you're unwilling or unable, I will be satisfied if you expose any RPG addiction you have (or have had) so I can justify my obsession with Dragon Age.
Thank you in advance.
Hey Kori,
ReplyDeleteGreat question. I'm also at a loss for ideas lately, but I'll lend you my tactics anyhow.
Back when I was doing angsty paintings in high school, inspiration for all my work use to come from music. I'd find a song that captured the particular mood I was going for in a piece, close my eyes, and listen to it on repeat. Evventually an image would just come to me, and I'd jot that down and refine it til it was something worth working with.
I'm also currently reading/doing the excercises in the well known "artists block removing" book, "The Artist's Way" by Sheila Cameron. Supposedly if you do this book all the way through, you will get unblocked... even though its new agey, al lot of people (including Nelson) endorse it. One thing you're supposed to do is write three pages of stream of consciousness writing every morning to start your day. I've been doing this for about two weeks now and for one, am at least having an easier time sorting thoughts out and remembering fucked up dreams.
Good luck! hope that helps.
-s
Gracias, Sarah. I'm going to look into this book.
ReplyDeleteHey Kori-
ReplyDeleteOne more thing that might also help is getting out of your own "sphere." Example: today I took a (funemployed) walk over to the Met, sketchbook in hand, and plopped down in the Chinese Garden in the Asian Wing (Astor Court.) I decided to just let my mind wander and draw whatever came to mind, un-edited. I got a couple of sketches from that that I might post on here now.
So a change of scenery helps too :D
-s
Personally, I just watch YouTube.
ReplyDeletehere's what I do!
ReplyDeletemake a mixtape.
go for a walk or run.
Bake a pie & watch a good movie.
do some research.
one other thing, sometimes if I'm really stuck or uncreative I will try to do "sleep drawings," where I keep a pen in my hand and just keep doodling whatever I see in my mind until I fall asleep for the night. Don't worry about what the pictures look like (as your eyes will be closed), just make sure you keep drawing and concentrate on the images that you see. In the morning, you might just be able to make out some of the shapes you saw in your head. I've found that literally drawing until you pass out also helps me dream longer and helps me to retain my dreams longer. Plus when you wake up, there's already paper there to record whatever you saw.
or just make the mixtape.
Similar to Neary's "Sleep Drawings" I like to go on my PC and in sketchbook pro I'll close my eyes and let my arm make large gestures and the result is usually a pretty nice squiggled line.
ReplyDeleteFrom there I turn the squiggle into..something..anything...doesn't matter really , only thing that matters is that i'm drawing and having fun exploring what this line can become.
Music really inspires me. I'll go through moods with music and I like Pandora.com because I can listen to new songs/artists and have it still sound similar.
Some songs really get great ideas into my head and I get fairly excited about them.
Earthbound is something I want to get addicted to again. Also I love how quirky and weird it is...it's inspiring as well.
Thanks so much you guys!
ReplyDeleteI'm just seeing this now, what a swell question!! when im too much in my head everything sucks, so going for a run always helps.
ReplyDeleteBut besides that, I like to go back, way back, to the things that got me pumped up about art in the first place. For me that would be: animals, Quentin Blake, photography (Wee Gee, Diane Arbus, Ralph Eugene Meatyard...), edward gorey, signage, colors, faces, typography, scientific diagrams, fifties illustration, and (girly alert!) horse books by Margerite Henry.
That's where I find the things that guided me back then, and its amazing how excited those things still get me.