As an artist, you can attest to how great it is when ideas are flowing into your head incessantly. Unfortunately, this is not a daily occurrence as some days you’ll experience a creative block or find that you are not in the mood to create or paint. And funnily enough, this often happens when you are in the middle of an important project.
Learning to tap your inspiration is every professional creator’s dream, as it’s the key to staying productive and creating new, unique, and stunning art pieces. Are you a new painter looking for inspiration for your first pieces? Read on and discover ways to unlock your potential.
15 Ways You Can Get Inspiration As A Newbie Painter
If you are new to painting, you might find yourself in a pickle as you may get stuck or not have anything to paint most of the time. When this happens, don’t panic. The following tips will motivate and inspire you to start creating. But first, you must understand the seven principles of art overview, which include color, form, line, value, shape, space, and texture.
1. Your Own Life
Your own life can be your main source of inspiration, as the lives of many great artists such as George Condo have been for them. For instance, if you have kids, you must love them, and as such, you will enjoy painting them. They will also have fun sitting down and having you paint them. This will be a great time to strengthen your bonds, and the result is that they will have a priceless piece of art painted by you.
2. Take a Nature Walk
There is so much in our environment that can trigger your creative juices. So when you are feeling low on ideas, don’t wallow in your bed. Wake up, shower, wear your sports shoes, and take a walk. You can decide to go for a hike or take a stroll in a nearby park, lake or ocean shores, or forest. As we all know, nature helps refresh our minds.
You will be amazed by the amount of art in your surrounding. So take note of everything from colors, shapes, textures, flowers, minerals, and the landscape. It would be best to bring a camera along to capture some images and videos of the things that captivate your mind. And they will help you once you get home and decide to get creative.
3. Looking at Other People’s Art
Even in art school, students are taught to use other people’s creations. So when you find yourself stuck, don’t be afraid to visit your favorite museum for inspiration.
Looking at your favorite artists’ work helps you learn and expand your reasoning as you can see things from a different perspective. You can read their interviews on what inspires them and keeps them motivated to keep creating.
4. Watching Movies
Movies can also be a great source of inspiration as they keep you entertained and provide you with visual nourishments. As such, try and scout for movies with interesting themes. They also help your brain relax from too much overthinking.
Some love music, such as classical music, as it helps them relax and keep their creativity flowing. Most painters attest to using music to broaden their intuition and deep feeling, which are channeled into the painting. You can also read interviews about how composers deal with their daily struggles, such as writer’s block or lack of inspiration, and find points you can apply in your life.
5. Sketching Continuously
Aim to paint every day, even when you are down and have no inspiration; take your drawing book and start sketching. This will help you create a habit that will be hard to break. This will make you look forward to that time of the day you’ve set aside for painting as it helps you tap into yourself. And you will notice that a new and unique piece of art comes into life in the middle of your sketching.
6. Journaling
Journaling is not always about writing what you are grateful for. You can use your journaling time to create a list of the things you want to work on. Write creative prompts.
7. Neat Workspace
Ensure that your workspace is neat and not overcrowded or dirty. This is because a camped space tends to hamper your creativity and may be why you lack inspiration.
So, ensure that your painting studio is clean and neat by having shelves where you can place your painting accessories. You should also have a storage space to place your finished work. And ensure that it has enough natural light as it helps spark your creativity and makes the room seem bigger.
8. Learn from Your Mistakes
What prevents creatives from finding inspiration is not embracing their mistakes. Instead, many tend to wallow in self-pity, not realizing they are wasting valuable time. So if you make a mistake while painting, don’t discard your canvas; try and get creative and incorporate it into your piece; you never know, it might turn out to be the most iconic piece of art.
Being your first time painting, don’t start with fear or doubts, as they may hamper your creativity and hold you back from exploring beyond your creative boundaries. You’ll only get your best work once you get out of your comfort zone, which means embracing your mistakes and breaking past creative boundaries.
9. Take Time Away from the Internet
We know that the Internet has answers to almost any query, but don’t over-rely on the internet when you don’t have motivation. This is because, like social media, you’ll go down a rabbit hole and find yourself spending countless hours.
And the results are overwhelming as you will get many ideas that choosing what to focus on becomes challenging. Instead, focus on one idea and execute it.
10. Copy Some of Your Old Art
If you have no inspiration, take out your portfolio and revisit your old works of art. This will help you appreciate the distance you’ve come and how much your skills have improved. This can be inspiring.
You can take further action and rework your old artworks by updating them using your current skills. Some artists have made quite a fortune by fine-tuning their old works. In the process, they develop new ideas that they can incorporate or apply to new paintings.
11. Focus on What You Love
When you focus on the things you love, you’ll never lack inspiration. So if you are low on ideas, get back to doing the things you love, those that touch your heart and arouse your curiosity. This will make you feel alive, thus opening up your mind to new ideas. You can note notes in your sketchbook to avoid forgetting.
12. Just Paint
New painters often tend to fall into the hole of overanalyzing everything down to every mark or stroke they make on the canvas, leading to doubts and feeling that it’s not good enough. However, when you are creating, you should let yourself go and let your fingers do the talking. Don’t overthink anything, and work intuitively.
This is the best feeling as it lets you let go of all expectations and create. As a new painter, you must learn to listen to your inner voice as it’s the voice of creativity and inspiration.
13. Make Money with Your Paintings
Money is an excellent motivation. Many artists spend years before selling an art piece, while others sell on their first try. So, making art pieces that capture people’s attention would be great, as you are assured of making a sale.
So, when creating, keep your target audience in mind, identify your niche, and above all, brush up on your skills.
14. Network Within the Art Community
Although artists love to create in isolation, joining an artists club or attending artist meets and gallery openings in your areas would be great. This is because you will get little to no motivation or inspiration if you stay cooped up in your studio.
Having conversations with other creatives will stimulate your brain and give you new ideas to work on.
15. Reading
Low on inspiration? Don’t worry; reading essays, interviews, or books written by other artists on how they overcome lack of motivation and creativity will help you work through yours. You can also read inspirational quotes written by other famous artists.
Final Thoughts
You are all fired up to start your first painting, but on setting your canvas and taking out your brushes and paints, you have no idea what to work on. Or you are overwhelmed by all the ideas you’ve gotten from the internet. Start your painting journey with these artistic inspirations for your first piece. Good luck!
