Me and Creative Inspiration… (Part 1)
…or how I wish I learned to stop worrying and just draw already!
I suppose since this is a guest post I should say hi before I delve in… Hi!
What? OK, a bit more of an introduction then, my name is Adam Howie, although I often go by the nickname Kimded online, and I am, for better or worse, an artist. John has been kind enough to give me some space on his blog to blether about my art and my inspiration/motivation behind it. In many ways this is not a “how to be inspired” or “how to be creative” post, there are way better courses, blogs, and the like out there for that, this is just a guy trying to explain what goes on in his head. Hopefully this will be at the very least interesting, and perhaps helpful to some. This of course means that I’ve been trying to figure out how best to do write this, and since I am a preacher’s son, it shall be a three point blog post.
But before I begin… well it’s a bit late for that but anyway, probably good to set out what I think about being creative and its place in our lives. I firmly believe that humanity is a creative species; we have an innate drive to create and appreciate created things. This desire takes many forms, painting, music, architecture, engineering, science, relationships, and so much more. An odd list to be sure but in each of these there is found, when it is at its highest zenith, creativity, and creation. So I see art as only being a part of the larger act of creativity we can do, but it’s the one I shall be focusing on here. So yeah, a brief exploration of creative inspiration and me…
Finding Me… I mean, Inspiration
So, where do I find inspiration? Well the short answer is that, for me, inspiration is everywhere. Some of my art work is inspired by scripture verses, songs, lyrics, scientific theories, and quotes. A lot of it comes from various places and stews and simmers in my mind and then one thing with suddenly cause the various thoughts and ideas to coalesce into a distinct idea.
For me there is also a kind of tangential inspiration, those things that fuel these creative nexuses but not directly. Mainly this comes from looking at other people’s artworks and allowing their style, their use of colour, technique, and even what they have used to represent the ideas they are trying to convey to influence me and create new links in my mind. Also music is a great fuel for the creative fires for me; I almost always have music on when I am painting. I suppose in some ways it’s a noise that keeps my brain from running off to wildly or jumping around too much, as it has want to do. Even writing this I find myself jumping between writing, surfing, tweeting, and other things… just the way what counts as my mind works I guess.
I have been going to various art courses since deciding (perhaps foolishly) to try and make a living being an artist, these courses have been great for fuelling the background to inspiration as well as giving ideas for jump starting the creative process. One thing that I have found key is always having a pen or pencil and a sketchbook with me. If I get an idea almost no matter when or where (within reason of course) I try and do a quick sketch or even just jot down some notes. Of course I still need to do this more and develop the habit of sketching things I see for reference of later inspiration.
Click here for Part 2
