From the article: How to Find Painting Ideas
What do you think is the most useful thing or place for generating ideas for paintings? Where do you get your best ideas from, and how do you generate ideas when you're running dry? Share Your Painting Ideas
Ideas from All Over
- I walk and I talk to gallery owners a lot. I read art history, the master artists and occasionally look at their great works. I also copy paintings by the master artists, in my own style and medium. I search the public libraries state wide data bases and request the text on artist technique, for the mediums I like to work in. I read these text greatly absorbing all the information that appeals to me. I apply what appeals to me. This proceeds to give me direction , inspiration and a unique style of working in my chosen medium. I sit and walk in nature and down by the sea. I observe people and animals in nature. I go to art galleries where the artist actually do work. I watch artists and art shows on the TV. I look through art galleries on the internet. I visit the state art gallery at least once a week. I look through house and garden magazines for inspiration and colors. I proceed to draw and paint as much as i need to, for my own satisfaction, and for personal knowledge.
- —Guest marie crimi
Infinite Painting Ideas
- I get my ideas from the world around me, and from my imagination and what I feel about a subject. There is an infinite number of things to paint and I never run out of ideas.
- —Guest Anne
Best Painting Ideas
- 1. Fast sketches of shapes in charcoal, as many as fast as I can. 2. From where the paint leads me. Look for where rhythms appear. Improvise. 3. Other paintings. Trace bits and pieces of a painting I have done. Mix them up. Transfer with carbon transfer paper. 4. Get a sketchbook and try to capture the shapes I see just as I am falling asleep. Warning, these will be messy (as it is probably dark) and the shapes will change as you draw them. 5. Looking, always looking at other work. Not to copy, but to stimulate your visual thinking and discernment. I try to go to about 10 or 20 openings a month.
- —edsmiley
Emotion as Subject Matter...
- I would liken some of the most powerful paintings that I have done to songwriting. Similar to soulful singer, who you know means what they're saying. Some of my art has been the visual equivelent of the blues. Like good blues music there's a haunting passion locked in. There is more power in emotion than technical expertise. So, if what you're after is to make people say things the first time they see one of your pieces. Scoop into your chest, remove your heart, throw it at a canvas, and see what kind of mark it makes (figuratively of course). While doing so, be sure not to focus on the appearance of the work, but the emotion you are working from. You might be shocked... Think of it as someone who is in a terrible hurry when they write something. They know what they're writing, but the way it looks is the last thing on their mind. Allow yourself to be so preoccupied with the emotion, whatever the emotion may be. There is more beauty in honesty and truth, than aesthetics.
- —Guest Korey Smith
Ideas for Paintings
- Old photograph albums are a rich source of ideas for paintings. One of my favorite paintings is done from an old black and white photo of my mom-in-law in the flapper era. My painting has her in a red outfit and it turned out very much to my liking. I'm now using that album for ideas just to practice using watercolor for painting figures, places and other.
- —Guest shrl/papaya
Everywhere!
- I get my best painting ideas from the world around me. Landscapes, still life, portraits and life studies; I get inspiration from anything and everything I see (sometimes less than wonderful). It's what you see, not just what you look at.
- —jumpsystems
Source of Best Ideas: Dreams
- Believe it or not, I think I consistently get my best ideas from my own dreams. However, not all of them turn out just as I had dreamed them. Some are better than others. The part I like best is when in my dream I practice the techniques and color selections and types of brushes and how I can use them. It works for me just like practicing when I am awake. Is anyone else fortunate to have this work for them too?
- —madlilviking
Everywhere
- I schedule in regular plein air painting. As of right now studio time is difficult to do for me - too many distractions with family, school and business. As I'm driving or walking shadows and the pattern of light catches my eye. To minimize the frustration of not being able to paint everything that catches my eye in the way that I see it I take a lot of photos. Of course, they don't always look like what I see. I also do variations of a theme and may do several paintings of an idea. The ideas may come from a dream, everyday life, something someone says or I see. A view finder or camera helps make a frame to evaluate a potential picture. I also have friends who paint and the way they see things also inspire me. I have one friend who paints from her mind and her paintings are always very interesting. Her paintings may be considered "outsider art" since she is untrained but they're very interesting and colorful. I paint freely to balance the other structured left brain parts of my life.
- —newskgw
Painting Ideas
- I get most of my ideas from photos, magazine pictures, internet pictures, anything that catches my eye and I think I could paint it.
- —Guest Renate
Natural World
- Everything and everyone is a likely subject for painting. I live in Tucson, Arizona, so there are endless opportunities in the natural world here to paint. I have a very good camera, and I give it a lively workout almost every day. Some photos never get used, some I use only a small part of, and some photos become a future painting. I have painted for 20 years or so and have never had a lack of subjects (wildlife, cactuses, plants of all kinds, mountains, beautiful skies and sunrises and sunsets, people, rocks, whatever). I love it, and it's the very thing that drives me to get up in the morning.
- —Guest Ray Brown
Painting ideas
- I am inspired by bright colours and nature. Whenever I see some good colour combination in textiles, furniture or accessories, I get good ideas for painting.
- —Guest Rizwana Mundewadi
Inspiration from nature, environment
- I get inspired from nature and things around me. I say a big round moon and later in a class painting on a black tile, I painted a partial moon. I like trees also. They change a lot. We have sunflowers that come up in our rose garden. So I painted a sunflower on my other tile.
- —Guest Linda Scholl
Photos at the right time
- I'm not a professional photographer or artist, but I do take a lot of my own project pictures with a digital camera. Most people do not frame things correctly giving the painting the perspective needed. Such as height, distance from the subject, and obscuring certain unnecessary objects in the scenery. I recently did a painting of a landmark in my hometown. The landmark itself was very uninteresting as a subject matter itself. Then one day I was driving by it and much to my delight there was a bunch of vintage automobiles parked in front of it and I said to myself that's it. I went right home and got my camera and took my own pictures. The finished product was just what I was looking for, it now had subject matter. Remember if it doesn't seem very interesting to you, it probably won't seem that way to anyone else.
- —Guest Ron Thomas
Nature
- I find inspiration in nature. A sunset, a flower, the river, my kitten, my horse, the mountains, and by observing shapes, colors, and textures in nature. I just have to paint what I see and feel.
- —cccorman
My best painting ideas come from....
- Nature, travel and gardening shows on television. I run off shots I like onto a dvd for study later. Any show can have an inspirational shot...animal, history, even a full-length movie.
- —Guest Judy C.
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