What to do when you need motivation or desire inspiration inorder to create.

Lack of inspiration or motivation can become a problem for an artist/designer. Not every project that we take on, be it contractual or personal, will trigger creativity. Most creative people have something that helps them to work beyond this. So, I am going to share some of my own solutions to those delimmas. Motivation can be difficult when a client's project seems asinine.


There are people who want so many things that are outside of the designer's/artist's taste. BUT! If there was an agreement between the artist/designer and the client, it MUST be carried out. Here's my solution. In order for me to get some motivation, I think about the project and how it reflects who I am as an artist/designer. I begin to remember that what ever I do, it must be outstanding, so that other potential clients will recognize my work. (sn:As an artist/designer we must realize that every project won't seem so fun, untill we make it that way.) After research and brief sketches, I begin to take on the project challenge, and plan the desired time I want to put into it before the scheduled day of completion. There are many different ways you can work on getting motivation, and many reasons to need motivation. Do what ever works for you! Then there is the need for inspiration.


Usually I need inspiration when I know that I need to practice a technique or complete a personal project (portfolio, paintings, etc.). Here's my solution. When it comes to beginning my own series of paintings , I begin to think with the mindset of a child. Children tend to create things without over thinking it. They put an image in thier minds then just go for it. I begin with doodles or just some gesture drawings. I include several mediums and colors until I figure out my desired medium or color scheme. As far as practicing a technique, I study other artists, or try out new projects from tutorials. I tend to go back to the books that I learned from or I use some of my spare time to learn from my peers and favorite artists/designers. Going back to the basics has helped me tremendously when creating.


WELP! I hope that what I've said, has helped someone. If you have some of your own solutions to finding inspiration or getting motivation, please comment!!!!!

How it all began... (lol)

Hiya!


Ok... So I'm weird. It all began when I was a little girl. LOL


I'd never known how bad my eye sight really was until I'd began wearing glasses in the 5th grade. When I left the eye doctor, it felt as if I'd been given a new pair of eyes. For a while, I was always told 'what I was looking at" or "what  was supposed to see". Little did I know, when I was not 'seeing' or 'looking at' what people told me, I'd create an image in my mind to fill in what I couldn't really make out. For all of those years my imagination was my key to seeing. LOL


MAYBE that sounds weird to you, but I'd needed glasses since kindergarten. My parents had not gotten them for me because they'd thought that I was faking bad eyesight, and wanted glasses like other kids. Yeah, sure. So, when people told me that I could see (when I really couldn't), I would make up in my mind, what I was supposed to be seeing. I beleive this is where all of my creativity derived.


For a while, after getting glasses, I began to see the world the way that everyone else saw it. All of the trees, streets and automobiles looked exactly how people described them, without my imagination taking over. But I missed my old way of seeing things. So, in order for me to create those images again, I began to draw what I wanted to see. I would close my eyes and recreate images that I once believed exist. Public buses were bigger and longer; trees had less branches; cartoon characters were partly human (etc).


I never really kept all of my drawings because I thought that they'd offend people. So, I decided that my imagination would stay a secret.


I'd met my grandfather, William T, Stephens Jr., at the age of 12. When I walked into his house, I'd realized that there were many landscape paintings hanging on the walls. I thought that he was very fond of buying art. When I asked him why he loved to buy so many paintings, he answered "I don't buy them, I paint them myself." GET OUTTA HERE!!!! My grandfather was an artist for many years and I never knew it. Of course, this made me feel so very close to him.


For a while, I would go to his house to watch him paint, or just to hang out and stare at his paintings and drawings. When highschool came around, my electives where... guess what? Art classes, duh! I would use all of the techniques that the teacher would show us, then quickly advance, because my grandfather would show me more.


After highschool, I would continue doing art. I'd paint pictures of flowers, help with murals, and draw random things for people, just for the pure joy of it. When I began college, my major was Pharmacy; then it changed into General Studies. All of my college classes were either science or history and al of my electives were art classes. This became a bore, until I made the self empowering decision to pursue art. But, what kind of art? I knew a lot about fine arts, but I knew that everything was quickly becoming centered around computers. I determined in my mind that I would try to learn as many fields of art as possible. This is when I decided to begin school for Graphic Design.


There is so much more to say about Graphic Design School, but I will save it for later... I am now a graduate, freelance Graphic Designer, and continuously pursuing more knowledge in this field.