INSPIRATION
- erisartwork
- Oct 9
- 6 min read
People sometimes ask me where I get my ideas and inspiration and I suppose the answer is that, while they can come from anywhere, it’s mainly as a result of connections to the things that interest me and the observations I have made. I then use these ideas in my work or let the work be inspired by the idea. And while these influences can be put into different categories I find the truth is that most of them can fit into all of them because Nature, Fantasy and our own imagination aren’t that different after all.
Once you get an idea I find it really helpful to keep a little sketch book which you can use for practice and reference or to take a photo on your mobile. Then you can work on them later while you’re drinking a cup of tea. Always try and get the idea down if you can because it won't take long for you to start forgetting it.
NATURE
I think nature is amazing! It’s endlessly inventive and full of weird and wonderful things. In fact I believe there are very few inventions that man has made that nature hasn’t already come up with first. A chaff flare dispenser on a fighter jet used as a decoy against enemy missiles has it’s counterpart in the deep sea where a fish discards packets of bioluminescence as a decoy for predators. Rattle Snakes in the desert can see heat, some animals and fish can generate electricity and there is a spider that swings a blob of glue on a silk thread like a bolas to catch lunch.
I have found too that when you take a look at things close up they can be so intricately detailed and carefully designed that you can’t help but feel that there is some greater intelligence behind them. Insects have veins in their wings that resemble twisted stained glass windows, minerals such as Bismuth (synthetic) have colours that seamlessly blend into each other and a structure that looks like the architecture of some complicated ancient temple.
But it also works when you make things larger. Fantasy landscapes could be formed by rocks and minerals that have been increased in size. Cubic Fluorite crystals look like futuristic buildings using an alien geometry, Tourmaline crystals resemble fantasy towers, slender Quartz crystals resemble tree trunks and Desert Rose (gypsum) looks like a rock formation on a distant planet.
Moss and Lichen on the trunk of a tree can be turned horizontally and then looks like a forest. Insects and other creepy crawlies when exaggerated start to look like monsters and demons.
Nature is also great for seeing how colours work with each other or combine to form amazing pattens. Butterflies, Flowers, Fungi, Feathers, Fur are all great examples.
SCI-FI / FANTASY
Science Fiction and Fantasy take the real world and ask the question ‘what if?’ which is perfect for an active imagination. So when I see things in nature I ask myself what it would be like if mushrooms were the size of trees, the sky was a different colour, people had the features of animals or trees were big enough to have a community living on them . Then you can make them come to life as an artist.
Fortunately there are plenty of films, T.V. shows, console games, books and comics that ask the same question. Quite a lot of my inspiration comes form the PS4 where whole worlds have been brought to life and people have spent hours upon hours working on the finest details and expanding concepts which I am sure goes unnoticed most of the time (which is such a shame). I make the effort when I can to take a break from saving the world to explore the environment and see what they have done and how I might be able to use some of that in my artwork. It’s not always easy when you are sitting on a hillside studying the shapes of the mountains and all the different kinds of trees when a dragon is trying to land on your head. Or taking time to look at an art-deco style poster on a wall advertising some imaginary product when you’re being attacked by a psychotic cleaning droid. (those brushes aren’t supposed to go there...)
MYTHOLOGY / FOLKLORE / LEGENDS
I’ve always been interested in mythology and folklore. It's as if someone posed the ‘what if?’ question in ancient times and they believed the answer. Imagination had no limits because there was no science or reason to get in the way. A lot of the old stories make for great subjects. The Greek myths inspired my to do a series of pictures featuring women combined with nature so I’ve done a Dryad, a Gorgon and a Kelpie (that’s half done - she's currently just a piece of seaweed).
I’ve also been inspired by the folk tale of the Green Man, who is a kind of woodland spirit, and wondered if there was a Green Woman and if so, what that would look like. So I’ve set out to draw a series based on the seasons where the Green Man is an old man surrounded by leaves and the Green Woman is a young woman surrounded by flowers. I’ve also drawn a Swan-may and plan to do a version of Blodeuwedd, who’s part woman and part owl, from Welsh folklore (she was a piece of work). Celtic mythology and their beautiful knot-work decoration has inspired an animal and a tree calendar (using the ancient Ogham alphabet). It was also the inspiration behind a set of Wintery / Christmas themed pictures. And a big project in the future is to draw Yggdrasil, the Norse tree of the world.
ARCHITECTURE / HISTORY
Old towns, cities, villages and buildings like churches and temples have a lot of character and are often the result of ruined structures or buildings built upon themselves with layers added to them over the centuries. They feel like they could slip into a fantasy setting without any trouble and are probably what most fantasy buildings are based on.
With a lot of the old buildings the architecture seems to have no aesthetic limitations as though the builder just built whatever the hell he wanted or more likely, built what he was able to depending on the materials he had. In my town of Ashburton, Devon, some of the buildings date back to the English Civil War and some have features as far back as the Norman era. In fact some buildings don’t even have a straight line. Some have religious symbols and others have tiny sculptures taken from nature.
Liechtenstein Castle is a good example of an old building that looks like it belongs in a fairy tale and I believe it was the basis of the Disney Castle. I’ve used plenty of old villages and buildings as inspiration for my artwork and model scenery.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE - AI
If nature and your own imagination aren’t enough for ideas then these days we also have AI. It’s not perfect and doesn’t always seem to obey logic or reality (pictures of people with 3 legs and one arm etc.) but it can come up with images that are totally bizarre and stuff you hadn’t thought of. Which is probably a good thing because some of it can be very weird. AI can produce something that looks almost real and that can sometimes mean that the whole art process is bypassed. But it can also be used to bring ideas to life if you have a rough sketch or idea to life and you don’t know where to start.
FINAL THOUGHTS
My biggest tip for getting inspired is to pause every now and then and take a closer look at our surroundings. Look at things close up and see how they are made or look at the pattens and the colours and the shapes. Or maybe take what you see and imagine it in another setting. See if anything leaps out at you. Let your mind come up with stuff, make it’s own connections and appreciate the complexity that goes into everything around you. And if you need to, grab your sketch book (or a piece of paper) and make some rough notes so you don’t forget what the amazing idea was. Most of all, have fun letting your imagination run wild!
Disclaimer - Some of the images I have used are not mine and I have no idea who took them or if they are freely available stock images so the credit for those goes to someone else. If I have used an image that I should not have then let me know and I will remove it. Sorry if that's caused any problems.
Comments