Why should you use an inspiration board?

Do you ever have time to be creative, you sit down, all of your supplies around you and then nothing? Nothing comes out. Either you don’t know where to start or how to pick up where you left off. Maybe you are a little scared of the blank page in front of you. Or you are afraid of “ruining” something you have already done.

I know all of these dilemmas because I have experienced them all. My creative time was always limited when my son was younger. I would be happy to have a few minutes to work in my journal or a canvas. Then I would just find myself staring at my table, time ticking away. Each time that would happen, I would become more discouraged. I got to a point where I didn’t want to set time aside for my creativity because it was so frustrating.

I was looking through a magazine one day and there was an article with a tour of an artist’s studio. Although it was a beautiful space, the one thing I marveled at was her inspiration board. It took up a huge section of a wall and had all of these photos, scraps of fabric, bits and pieces. In the article she talked about how she collected things that inspired her and put them on that wall. Then as she was working, she could look to the wall for inspiration when she was stuck. That idea really stuck with me.

Now I don’t have a huge wall I can use (at least not yet), so I had to figure out a solution. I use lots of online references, mostly on Pinterest, so I create a digital inspiration board that I print out. I change my inspiration board every month or two so I can rotate in new inspirations I have found. Here is my most recent inspiration board.

I tend to collect inspiration within color stories. Here you can see I am largely influenced by fall colors. I also like to collect color combinations I want to try. For example, the orange flowers set against a blue background. Some of this may directly inspire my art, other bits may inspire me but be unrecognizable. The main goal is to have a place to start.

So if I sat down and was feel uninspired, here is what I may do. In my art journal, I would paint a page light blue and when dry, start adding circles in shades of orange. Or I may paint alternating stripes in orange and pink. This may become part of the background or it may completely disappear under future layers, but it is a starting point. I think most of us struggle the most with the starting point.

Have you used an inspiration board before? Are you inspired to try one now?

For more inspiration, check out my Pinterest board.