Creativity, Motivation, and Inspiration

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I was wondering if anyone has any tips for stimulating creativity.

How do you get in the mood to create?

What do you do when you want to be artistic but something is holding you back?

For me, when I lack inspiration in my art I practice the mechanics of the craft. That way when the inspiration does finally come back I'll have the skills to make it real.
I also find that getting out of your comfort zone can produce some real interesting results.

I get in a creative mood by spending time alone and listening to music.

"something holds you back"
Well, there you got the answer, fear is holding you back from being yourself, let that fear go, DARE to do something!

I got a nice book by Twyla Tharp, forgot the name, good book. I have lots of books in fact, and well, there are tons of sites, drawn.ca, line art, just to mention a few.

I usually listen to Vocaloid songs! ^_^ They usually allow me to think of some ideas for novels, fanfiction, or artwork.

For the second one, I just create random things!

Here's a trick I learned in one of my drawing classes. When I've got artist's block, I find that one of the best exercises for freeing myself up is to draw or paint abstract scribbles without anything in mind. When you're done, it's like an artistic Rorschach test (especially if you use ink); sometimes you can look at what you've put on paper or canvas, and you can actually see things in the jumble of scribbles that can trigger inspiration. It's worked for me before. Also, sometimes, if you're in the mood to paint but you've got nothing fresh to work with, you can try repainting something else, either an old work you've done, or somebody else's. It gives you practice, and you might stumble across something new in the process.

Music is definitely also something that stimulates me. I find it very difficult to create without my CD player.

My family would love to have a reliable technique!

All of us here find that plodding through the tangle of hindrances to DO IT ANYWAY and / or waiting until the bird flies back to sing its song CAN work, Neither necessarily works fast.

If I am waiting I often / usually work on sometghing else. SOMETIMES I start to get bored with that and it drives me back to my primary stuff.

Once I get back from class I'll try to find the Calvin & Hobbes comic about this, it's great.

I don't really know if there's a way to turn that mood on; the closest thing I could think of is listening to a song that makes me start constructing something similar in my head.

Basically, I want to be artistic but a lot of stuff is holding me back. First, it was the software I was using, but I finally shelled out for Cubase 5 (which is incredible). Now, it's my lack of a keyboard and lack of knowledge of music theory. But hopefully I will get a keyboard around Christmas, and I've been fishing around online for music theory-related stuff. My problem is that I am not familiar enough with music to identify what pitches are what notes, so it's difficult to translate what I have in my head to the software.

EDIT: Here's the comic.

Last edited by pat2rome on 22 Sep 2010, 11:43 am, edited 1 time in total.

Best for creativity and booster for motivation toward being creative.

1% inspiration, 99% perspiration.
If you wait 'til you have the right tools, right mood and right time, by then you'll be dead.