what makes you inspired? [in your work?]?

Question

what's make you think oustide of the box? how to keep or improve your creativity[in the arts, comics, architechture and advertising?]
i'm out of ideas. me and my friends in an art school have experience constant nagging of our professors and we are now making our thesis. we stressed out and run out of ideas. please help us out. thanks. arigato. =p
n_n.
you will also help future art students as well.

Answer 1

I'll put on Madonna's "Material Girl" if I need inspiration with my professional work. It wakes me up.

In your case (art work and nagging professors,right?!),well,
get creative and sing it together...

Answer 2

Hmmm, I find inspiration everywhere. This little ball of dirt we live on can be very inspiring if you let it. Just look around you. I know there's a bunch of crap going on right now but you can find inspiration through anything both positive and negative. We live in the information age. People have never had the amount of knowledge at their fingertips as they do now. If you dig far enough you can find an inspiring story, idea, or image even out of the darkest situations (Believe me the darkest situations can be very inspiring.)

But that's only one possibility. If you think about it, what some of us call lack of inspiration is nothing more than we can't think of what to do next. I like to make notes if something hits me so I can use it later. Sometimes our lack of inspiration comes from "trying" to force something out and our brain siezes so we come up with nothing. Then we mope aroung and get ticked off because we can't come up with anything new. In that case I give up trying and stop thinking about it. Usually, within a day something comes to mind sometimes a week. It can be the smallest thing; just a fragment of thought that I rework into a full blown piece. In other words don't look for it let it come to you.

Sometimes, I let my emotions just run wild and let work come from it. I had a crap day at work so I'll take it out on paper. (I'd probably be instituionalized for some of my stuff.) It may not be the best stuff I'll do but it's still at least working. Not everything has to be a masterpiece. Even if you just put the idea into a sketchbook it may not be what you want now but later you may be able to use it.

The problem is artists usually lock themselves into one kind of art when there are tone of ways to express yourself. Try other things as well, try writing or sculpture, anything. You'll be surprised at how ideas can cross over from one thing to the next. Even if you don't finish the thing you started it may jumpstart what you really do.

A single person can be inspiring as well. It can be your "muse" I guess. Maybe it's their actions, something they said, how you feel about them. whatever.

It can also hit you at the most inconvenient times as well. In the shower (That's where John Mellencamp wrote "Hurt so Good"), driving, sometimes while haveing sex (It's happened, and deffinatly not the time to do anything about it either!) and it's usually these times when you can't find a pen or can't use one either. Why does it hit during these times? Because we're not thinking about it. (Which goes back to what I was saying earlier.)

This is something you will always run into if you create any kind of art. The biggest thing I can suggest would be as frustrating as it can be try not to let it get to you. If you let it get to you too bad you'll only make things worse. I'm sure nagging professors don't help either.

There will be times you have to turn to the uninspired. If you want to do this commecially you have to do what the people want and at times you just "go through the motions". You take what they want do the best you can with it and just deal with the outcome. On a personal level it can be the biggest piece of crap you'e ever put out but if the customers happy with it that's all that matters. At the commercial level though you have to look at it differently. You're doing a job not the great masterpiece you wish you were. Don't get me wrong sometimes commercial work can be challenging and fun and some of the stuff can also insire your masterpiece.

Ideas can come from a song or a piece of music that just grabs you and makes you feel something. That feeling can sometimes be translated into an image. Same with things you read.

This is what I meant when I said I find it everywhere.

Sorry about the long answer but it's not a simple question.

Hope this helps

Answer 3

When I run out of inspiration I go to the local art museum and look at work done by others or I go to the park with a sketchbook and a picnic lunch and simply enjoy the beauty around me , or sometimes it helps to brainstorm in a group of fellow artists. AND occasionally a group of us simply get together and do something really silly to relieve tension and get the creative juices flowing again.

Answer 4

Free-Thinking

Answer 5

just don't think. forcing an idea won't work. let it come naturally and believe that it will. that or smoke a fat blunt - you're in art school after all

Answer 6

what makes me inspires in my work , First, i love my job Cox if you don't love it your bored, 2irdly, depends on your status in life if you are a single mom like me and you want to give your Daugherty all the best in life, your inspire to work ! 3irdly, if you want want to have a beautiful life having a financial stable, lastly if you enjoying your supporitng your family!

Answer 7

simplify, think about the simple, small day to day pleasures you take for granted and expound on those.

For me, it is things such as frolicking in the park with my dog, riding my horse, watching the moon and stars, smelling fresh air....

Answer 8

I don't know if you have children and grand children inspire me to draw...
I watch them play and do their home work and it inspires me to draw them....