Ever find yourself needing the inspiration to create an image, but you just can muster up any from anywhere. It happens to all us all, don’t worry. Recently I had to create an image for Dark realm Collectives latest Artpack, urban nightmares. I searched and searched for inspiration, but it didn’t seem to come. This can happen because of many factors. Tiredness, working too much, feeling down. Any of these plus much more. Sometimes the Muse just doesn’t want to come, sit on your lap and stroke……..your face! Godammit people get your minds out of the gutter haha. As the deadline drew closer, I knew I had to create something, so I used one of my inspiration kickstart techniques and came up with the above image. What is an inspiration Kickstarter technique……it’s one of my go-to tricks if no images concepts are popping into my head.
Technique 1: Music
This the technique that I used to create the above image. What I do is make some time to either go somewhere quiet (you don’t want to be having conversations) for a walk or put my headphones on in bed and listen to my music on Spotify playlists. The trick to this is just freeing up your thoughts and letting your imagination take you away with the music. Sounds like a steaming load of crap, I know. But if you are a creative like me, which I guess you are. Your mind should start to visualize images. Music is a good trigger for emotion, and emotion stirs the mind.
Recently I have been listening to a lot of Synthwave. It is music that is very 80s inspired. The album artwork is always very cool; the colors are usually 80s neon (see where I’m going with this). As I was listening to the music, I thought wouldn’t it be cool to create a horror image that wasn’t the traditional spooky lamplight scenario. What if it was an 80s neon-infused scene in a dark alleyway. The image gradually built up from there. So lay down, close your eyes and put on your favorite music playlist and just imagine!
Technique 2: Movies
Again this seems pretty obvious. But just as music stimulates the brain and emotions, so do visuals. One of the best ways to do this quickly is to go on youtube and watch movie trailers. A trailer is usually very short and packs all the best visuals into three minutes. They also have epic music overlayed, so you are getting the full whack. Just browse trailers from past, present, and future for 15 minutes, and I guarantee you will be overloaded with inspiration! Another trick while watching a movie is to do screen grabs every time you see an inspiring composition of a scene and save them to a folder to look back through when you are looking for ideas.
Technique 3: Pinterest
Pinterest is one of my go-to websites to get inspired. If you have used it before as soon as you log in you will be hit with a selection of images chosen for your likes and interests. Seriously as soon as I log in, BAM! I’m hit with a mood board of images all catered to my interests…. unless your child has been on your account and you are staring at photos of paw patrol. Damn you little spawn of Satan!!! Damn you to heeeeellllllll!!!!!!!! Hahaha. If you don’t see anything inspiring on the welcome page……just type something you are interested in, into the bar at the top, and it will pull up many images related to that term/word.
And that is my top 3 Inspiration Kickstarter techniques. Obvious, maybe. But I’m pretty sure there will be many people who don’t utilize these tricks enough to pull inspiration wherever they need it.
