How to find inspiration to make art

One of the most popular topics that is discussed frequently in the art community is finding inspiration to make art. I’ve heard a lot of questions regarding this topic, such as how do you always come up with ideas? Or how come you never run out of things to draw or concepts to paint?

The truth is we’re not always 100% inspired & motivated to make art. It's a struggle many of us face, especially for those just starting their creative journey. It can be overwhelming to stare at a blank page, unsure of where to begin—trust me, I’ve been there.

So today I’ll be sharing with you where exactly I get my ideas and how I constantly never run out of them. Without any furthermore , here are my favourite places to find inspiration:

1. Social Media: Instagram and TikTok

The internet can be such a great tool to find ideas if used the right way. I find a lot of reference pictures on Instagram or take screenshots and pictures that I like on TikTok. Those are my most used socials and they’re pretty great. Just be careful to not fall into the habit of finding ideas and then doom scrolling for hours and wasting time - I’m guilty of doing that myself, I’ve done it many times so I decided to put limitations on the time spent on those apps to be more efficient with my time-.

Here are some reference pictures vs my drawings

2. Pinterest

I would say this is the most popular one for artists. Pinterest is more of a search engine because than a social media platform, people go on this app to find solutions and ideas. 99% of my artwork is by using references from Pinterest. There’s so much that I can find from ideas in fashion to makeup to ideas of paintings to recreate and so much more.

You can type anything and pretty much find million pins for it.

I love combining two references into one piece of artwork. This is how I come up with my original art and I always come up with incredible results!

Here are two reference photos combined to come up with this beautiful painting.

3. Fashion and Makeup

You can absolutely find these on all of the platforms I mentioned but I mainly find these from looking through websites I want to buy clothes and makeup from like Amazon, Etsy, Ardene, Sephora, etc.

Fun fact growing up my dream was to become a fashion designer, I went through high school telling everyone that’s what I was doing only for things not to turn out that way. So drawing favourite outfits and fashion items kind of fulfil that dream that I had since I was little.

I also love drawing makeup looks especially eye makeup. Recently I’ve been loving R.E.M Beauty and so it gave me some ideas for illustrations.

A picture of a jacket that I liked but I couldn’t buy it so I drew it, it’s one of my favourite fashion illustrations that I’ve done so far.

4. Books and Poems

A lot of times I read a quote in a book or a line in a poem and it sparks an idea in my head. I started reading books again after high school and I’m trying to get back at it again because it’s such a fun activity it brings me so much and you learn a lot from reading.

Books sometimes feel like a friend and comfort you in different ways. I read different genres that I come up with ideas from all the time. Doesn’t have to be just art books, fiction, memoirs and even self-help can spark some ideas you never know until you try.

Click here to see the list of my favourite books that inspire me

5. TV shows and movies

As someone who consumes lots of media, this is one of the advantages of watching series all weekends, getting ideas to make great art!

One of the most popular ways is making fan art, which I used to make lots of them a few years ago.I don’t make them as much anymore, but I think they’re still fun and I enjoy looking at them and seeing how artists draw characters in their styles!

I love taking ideas like fashion, a cinematic scene, or a beautiful building, there’s so much to draw inspiration from and interpret it in different ways.

My comfort show Emily in Paris inspired mento make this fan art because of the unique fashion styles shown in it, it was too good to not draw it.

Other ways:

These are some ways that I haven’t used much but I heard other artists use to get inspiration to make their work:

• Music, listening to your favourite song and painting the feeling or lyrics you’re inspired by is very common for a lot of artists.

• Going to art galleries and museums, you get to see a variety of art pieces and get introduced to different styles and techniques.

• Going on walks in nature, touching grass and connecting with Mother Nature is good not just for getting ideas but also for your physical and mental health

• Take your own reference photos! I’ve seen artists do this and I haven’t done it myself because I live in a small city with not much to take photos of, I’m also not an expert photographer but I want to try it because I think it’s nice to paint what you see in real life differently and creatively.

That wraps it all for me today! Overall you can take inspiration and ideas by anything and everything around. I also believe staying curious and looking into new places and projects will help you get inspired.

Let me know if I missed something and if you have other places that you get inspiration from

Bye for now & stay creative,

Sara ♡