Avenues of Inspiring the Creative Mind

Feeling Creative?

The biggest advice I could give any beginning creative is to Start!

1. If you're on a budget - use number 2 pencils on paper. For a zero investment
2. Have a little bit of cash to spare - Get some crayons and paper-the wax in a crayon can be softened to move easier with a little bit of heat, experiment with different paper, different types of crayon with different textures and flow.
3. Invest in your creativity - I am a little bias but three tubes of oil paint-red, yellow, blue and white to allow for tinting-you have all the colors you need and you will learn about mixing colors. Ideally,  you would use a palette pad but paper, a scrap of cardboard will do fine in a pinch.
4. Soft Pastels - there are all different levels of cost here but they are easy to use, clean up pretty easily and you can start being creative immediately.
   
5. Let me know which tool you chose and get creative

Where to discover inspiration for our creativity

There are several levels of inspiration and creativity. Each have their own advantages and disadvantages. 

Visual Cues

The first and simplest way I am inspired is in the moment. Although I don’t often paint Plein air, this is the kind of inspiration that lends itself to painting from life. 

You are inspired with a place or object. You paint from life or from a photograph, in this process you can simplify the image you see, exaggerate certain aspects you need to convey or attempt ultra realism. 

The small details are captured often without my knowledge. Subconsciously I often interpret the scene with many intangible elements that are rendered with varying degrees of detail depending on intent or even level of concentration. 

A Concept from Memory or an Idea from Visual Recall

 The next inspiration is that which does exist, only not necessarily in one place. Different pieces of many different scenes are assembled to capture an feeling. This process is usually a snapshot in the mind that adds multiple images. 

I will use photos for details but much of the details are often absent, the subtle nuances of the scene can often be overlooked in this kind of painting but often this allows for the viewer to see what the artist intends without the extraneous details distracting. 

Surreal Imaging

 The next concept is from a feeling or imagined place. I see places in dreams. Not all of the image is often discerned in the initial view. This particular image can take years to develop. 

This kind of painting can sits on the easel half done for several periods of work and often the idea never makes it past a sketch. All three ways I paint have positives and negatives and just like writing, sometimes I can paint one way and other times I can’t even paint from life. 

Creativity is a very mystical thing for me, it’s the intangible feelings and aspects that are most rewarding for me as an artist.