My Top 6 Sources Of Creative Inspiration

Art Tips

Apr 5

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Coming up with new drawing ideas all the time can be really difficult so I thought it would be nice to share with you how I avoid art block with my six favourite sources of creative inspiration.

After spending almost every day drawing for a full year I became pretty familiar with what I could rely on for inspiration, and I want to share those things with you for moments when you just need a little help with ideas. You can also download my printable prompt list later in this blog that you can use to help jump start some creative ideas.

I also have a video version of this post over on my YouTube channel if you’d prefer to watch:

So let’s take a look at my favourite sources of inspiration:

1 - Look at the world around you

I’m a nature lover so going for walks outside is my number one source of creative inspiration because there is always something to see. I enjoy finding interesting shapes and textures and am always surprised by the variety of plants there are when I look closely and pay attention, and I try to introduce some of these shapes in my own illustrations.

If you can’t get outside though you can also find inspiration around your home by looking at the everyday things around you from a different perspective. For a simple creative exercise pick out a few items you like the colour of and try and illustrate something inspired by those colours.

2- Browse art books and Pinterest

I have a selection of art books that I really like and they never fail to give me a boost of creative motivation. I’ll sit down somewhere sunny or cosy and flip through the pages without any pressure of drawing myself, and just admire the work of other creatives like how they’ve used colours together or how they create atmosphere or how they’ve told a story with their character design.

Character Design Quarterly is wonderful for character design inspiration and features so many beautiful art styles. It’s actually a magazine so there are lots of editions to collect!

Flora & Fauna is full of lovely nature inspired designs and I really like it for seeing all of the different ways of drawing plants.

The Art Of DreamWorks Animation features loads of visual development art from Dreamworks movies so it really has a bit of everything from developed scenes to character sketches and it is gigantic.

If you don’t have any art books of your own then be sure to check out your local library to see if they have anything you could borrow, or you could look at children’s picture books section.

Pinterest is also an amazing resource for inspiration and I’m sure a lot of you already use it. I have boards with art that I like, and also boards of beautiful places, cottages, and cute animals. These boards have saved me so many times when I’m about to give up on having ideas for the day, I have a quick browse through my boards or through new pins and I almost always see something that inspires a story or a simple scene.

3 - Join art challenges

I’ve said this before but joining art challenges within a community like Instagram is a really great way to be inspired. Find a challenge that has a prompt list or do a ‘Draw This In Your Style’ challenge and you’ll be able to focus less on what to draw and more on how you want to draw it. You’ll get to see all the creative ways other artists have participated in the same challenge and I always just find it so motivating to be part of a community of like-minded people.

4 - Admire other artists

Take a look through some other art accounts online and admire what they’re doing. You don’t ever want to copy another artist but it’s nice to be aware of what it is you like about their art, and maybe you can take one aspect of something they’ve drawn and use that as inspiration for your own art. There have been lots of times when I’ve been admiring the way other artists use colour palettes, or draw characters, or introduce lighting in their illustrations and it’s inspired me to learn to improve those parts of my own illustrations.

5 - Do other creative things!

If you’re looking for inspiration for drawing then sometimes the best thing to do is to get away from the sketchbook or the tablet, and do something else that’s creative. You could do any craft you like but I personally really like to bake because it’s hands on, you can make something colourful and messy and then you get to eat it at the end!

It’s also really fun to throw away all of your creative expectations and do some really loose, messy, experimental art on scrap paper that you’re not precious about, and take away all the pressure of drawing a finished illustration in that nice sketchbook you have.

I like to get out some traditional art supplies like paints and pens and slap them down on paper in loose forms. Paints are great because if you don’t try and control them they’ll take on a life of their own and go where they want to, so I use those first to put down a base layer and when it’s dry I come back in with marker pens to layer in some finer lines, still trying to be loose with it and think as little as possible. In general I’m trying to follow the form and direction of the paint to guide my marks, and the only thing I’ve thought about controlling is the colour palette and the tonal contrast - making sure I have some really light and really dark bits. I have so much fun doing this activity and always feel so creatively refreshed afterwards.

6 - Use a prompt list

I usually do this exercise in my head but I thought it would be fun to create a physical version so that you can use it too. It’s the kind of thing we used to do in school as a storytelling prompt, and the aim is to generate the idea for an illustration by writing a list of prompts in different categories and then randomly picking an idea from each list.

You can make your own prompt list if you like but if you’d like to use the one I’ve made you can download it here (it’s free to download or if you’d like to buy me a cup of tea you can pay what you like for it!).

I’ve written down a list of character types, a list of environment themes, a list of accessories and a list of friends. I've printed them out, cut them up and popped them all in separate little bowls. When I’m ready to draw I’ll take one prompt from each jar and use that to create my illustration, sticking to it as much or as little as I like.

If I’m feeling like a challenge I’ll make sure I work something out that involves all four things, but if I’m being more relaxed with it and the prompts inspire something else - that’s fine too! There is no right or wrong way to do this exercise, have fun with it and draw whatever you like. Check out the YouTube video with this post to see me doing some sketches.