If you are and artist of any field (painting, photography, graphic design, animation, mixed media, anything)

Question

what themes, inspirations, muse is currently driving you to create your work, or you are exploring and researching to create work, what have you learnt about your theme inspiration muse etc in the process...... im just curious.... i find it interesting listening to what makes people create the work they do............. :)

Answer 1

smoke some of gods green and let your mind wander

Answer 2

Existential Anguish.

Coffee

Cigarettes.  

Answer 3

I am a painter and have always found the things around me, my environment, now and where i've been drive my creativity. That is what gets the brain going.

Answer 4

nostalgia

Answer 5

Most of my work is commercial in nature, so, of course, I am inspired by my client's needs and the check he writes me, in payment.

But, in the spirit of your question, the kind of work I like to do for MYSELF is cartooning and fantasy illustration.  I am inspired by my reading and in my limited attempts at writing fiction.  My influences include many of the artists who have done this kind of work in the past, including Frazetta, Vallejo, Kubert, Max, Frease and many, many more.

But I still have to credit my client's needs in providing me some direction in my work.  For many of my illustration projects, accuracy can be critical, such as in a set of Civil War illustrations I had to do.  I spent many hours researching uniforms, weapons, equipment and civilian dress of the period.  I had to gather photographic references from many sources.  Many of these I still use because the research sparked my interest in the period.  When I, later, took on another assignent for a local historical society, I had ready material and quick access to what I needed for THAT project.

My personal interest in science has also prepared me for some assignments, since, in my computer, I had already bookmarked a dozen or so sites with plenty of visual references in everything from biology, astronomy, space exploration, and other sciences.

It may sound trite, but, my inspiration is all of the world around me.  Without some grounding in the knowledge of real life, I wouldn't have a "base" from which my fantasy art springs.

I don't give out access to my current online portfolio. (I have had some images stolen in the past)  But, there is still an OLD website that I no longer maintain, with some of the type of work I had done.  Every image on the site was created by me, including the photographs on the opening page.

http://members.aol.com/VSM66

Answer 6

Pain and music

Answer 7

Classic movies. when i see those classic beauty's, it inspires me to want to paint someone who is just as beautiful