Finding Inspiration
As an artist, maintaining motivation and inspiration is crucial for bringing your creative visions to life. After all, your imagination and dedication is the driving force to create and manifest those beautiful ideas into reality. However, what can you do when faced with an art block, where inspiration seems elusive?
Finding the right inspiration can be challenging. Sparking creativity and new ideas that guide an artist to their next project is highly personal and different for everyone. In this blog post I will share my methods of finding inspiration and what helps me get started on a new concept. I believe there are essential steps that artists can follow to navigate the initial stages of creating and ultimately achieve a remarkable final result!
As a creature sculpture artist, I utilize various sources to create my artwork. My creative process begins with envisioning the creature I want to bring to life. I often turn to creature art books filled with magical beasts and folklore creatures. Websites like Pinterest and Artstation also serve as excellent sources to browse through other artists' work, igniting my imagination and helping me refine my vision. This process allows me to narrow down my ideas and focus on a specific creature, such as a dragon. Once I've decided on the creature, I start gathering references. Reference materials, such as images of animals with similar characteristics, are invaluable in helping me envision proper anatomy, organic shapes, textures, and color schemes. For instance, when creating a dragon, I might study reptiles, bats, and even mountain goats for inspiration on details such as scales, wings and horns.
Next, I think about the habitat in which my creature lives, how it thrives, and how it communicates with its own species. This will have a direct influence over the creature’s overall appearance. For instance, if I'm creating a dragon that resides in a cold climate, I may envision thicker skin and scales to protect against the elements. Alternatively, if the dragon needs to cover vast distances through flight, a larger wingspan may be more suitable. Considering the creature's habitat and behavior not only adds depth to the character, but it also helps me create a more immersive and coherent world for my artwork. This attention to detail allows me to craft a creature that feels like it belongs in its environment, creating a sense of believability and enhancing the overall storytelling of my artwork.
Once I've gathered enough reference and considered how my creature survives and lives, its appearance starts to take shape in my mind. I begin envisioning the shapes and textures that I could incorporate into my sculpture to bring my creature to life. Since these are magical creatures, I allow myself to experiment with colors. To choose the right colors for my creature, I often refer to the color wheel. I look for colors that naturally complement each other, using the general rule of thumb of selecting a main color and contrasting it with the color that is opposite it on the color wheel. While there is room for creative flexibility, starting with this approach provides a solid foundation. To further inspire my color choices, I explore color palettes online, or even look at nature and my surroundings. A bouquet of flowers, artistic movies like those from Studio Ghibli, or even video games can offer a wealth of color inspiration. The possibilities are endless!
Lastly, I find that sitting down and sketching a quick concept is a crucial step in my creature sculpture process. Jumping straight into sculpting in ZBrush can sometimes leave me feeling lost and unsure. Having a rough outline and silhouette to guide me helps define the shapes I want to create. I spend an hour or two just playing with different shapes and angles, allowing myself to be messy and unpolished, which makes it easy and fun! I don't strive for perfection and I don't spend hours on one design - I make multiple sketches. Usually, my first designs serve as warm-up sketches, and my concepts improve as I continue to work on them. I also make use of the references I've gathered during my research. I incorporate elements from the references into my sketches to refine my concepts. Once I have 10-20 loose concepts, I choose the ones I like the most, and gradually narrow it down to the one that stands out the most. An additional benefit is that I can save the other concepts I like for future projects, which is a great way to build a library of ideas for future inspiration.
And voila! Now I have a new creature design. Taking the time to go through these essential first steps before diving into the actual creation process has proven to be immensely helpful for me. Without proper preparation and inspiration, I risk getting stuck and unsure of what I'm trying to achieve, which often leads to abandoning the project altogether.
In conclusion, a key to creating something new is to gather ample references, build believability in your design, and carefully select complementary colors. Combining these elements and translating them into rough sketches will provide you with an abundance of inspiration and ideas that will propel your project forward at a faster pace than you can imagine. This approach will help you stay motivated and committed to seeing your vision through, allowing you to continue creating with passion and purpose.
Happy art-ing!