If you look through it, you will realise that my blog is not your usual fashion blog – posting an outfit every day is just not me! Of course I like to feature a lot of fashion – it’s my passion! But I also want to create something more inspirational. Inspire you!
This summer I created a small art series of photographs – “The Mermaid series“. I just love the magical feel and fairy tale style. So I started creating mood boards and collected ideas for some time then ventured to the beach to find some nice locations. You can see the results of my work on my blog. I just wanted to create something different. I would like to think of my work as fine art photography.
Sometimes I get asked about what inspires me? I put together a small list of resources which I found helpful:
Photography Resources – Online
I use a lot of online resources to find inspiration and get ideas – such as:
- Google Image search
- Pinterest (easy to browse and a vast variety of images … but it’s hard to find the “unusual”).
- Stockphotography (most of the images are too polished and sterile but you will find inspiration).
- Photosharing websites such as Flickr or 500px
- Art & Photography Sales Sites such as saatchiart. Here I sometimes find arty inspirations for photos. I look at sections such as the collage artwork from saatchiart.com or the fashion section.
- Instagram –> I just recently discovered this never ending source of pictures. But it gets a bit boring at times with all these coffee cups and breakfasts (I am guilty too).
Traditional Art Resources
You don’t want to spend all of your time in front of your computer. Cuddle up in the reading corner of your house or apartment and flick through some of the traditional print material. Magazines and books are a wonderful resource.
Magazines
On the other side, don’t forget traditional fashion magazines such as Harpers Bazaar, Marie Claire and the Vogue … lots of ideas found in there. Even look at the advertising as artwork. Look beyond the advertised product. What feelings do they want to create with the image. Look even beyond the fashion magazines. Browse through your local news agency or go to the library. You will find lots of resources.
Books
There is an endless supply of coffee table books – beautiful images for about any topic you could imagine. Beautiful art – controversial topics – documentaries.
Daily life – Street Art – Thoughts – Ideas
You might walk through the street, eat out in a restaurant or visit a art museum. BANG … a big advertising … an interesting structure … a painting or a sculpture … a new colour combination.
Inspiration is everywhere. You might have an idea in the middle of the night – or just come across a quick thought. It’s easy to forget all these little brain sparks. They disappear as fast as they came.
But there is an easy solution. I know you carry around a smartphone so make use of it – install a note taking app such as Evernote and keep track of all your ideas. Make sure you take notes and snap some quick photos – or create even a photo collage. You soon will have a big collection of items and be able to come back to big list of resources which once inspired you. Make sure you keep them all in one place so that you can come back to them.
[big_text] How do you find inspiration? [/big_text]
Be original … create!
Don’t try to replicate work. It will usually just work out too be a weaker copy of the picture you saw. Get inspired by different sources and create something new. Some might argue that it all has been done already. You will discover that there is always something new.
It’s the challenge .. don’t copy … create something new!
[big_text] Let me know what you created recently and what you used as inspiration …[/big_text]