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Growing up as someone who loved to draw, paint, and basically do anything that involved creating something, I was always amazed and mesmerized by a sketchbook that had been completely filled from cover to cover with a new idea on every single spread. I loved flipping through the pages that had been wrinkled from the paint strokes and ink marks that filled every single page.

Today I am still working on my sketchbook habits to make it an every day ritual because my sketchbook is usually where bigger ideas start. Lately, I have found myself hesitating to put my pencil on the paper and just start sketching whatever comes to mind.

This list isn’t a prompt list, but it is more of a general outline of different things that I have found helpful to me to generate new ideas. I have been working on getting into a daily habit to not only feel good mentally and physically, but also to help creativity flow a little more naturally.

1. Get healthy. I know, we’re not talking about running a marathon here, we are talking about coming up with new ideas. When I am in a good routine of working out and eating healthy, I find that my head is clearer and I feel better (both mentally and physically) which helps me think more freely and come up with ideas that I may not have come up with when I was neglecting my health.

2. Travel. A lot of artists that I know of bring along a sketchbook to document their travels. I tried to get in the habit of this, but for the past two trips it has not worked out for me because I never find the time to do it. I am usually focused on shooting photographs, out exploring, or enjoying the company of who I am with. Maybe if I travel more by myself I would find more time to sketch. Something I do instead is summarize what I did during the day in the notes app on my phone so I can refer back to them whenever I want. This helps me gather my thoughts and think about how I can create something out of what I experienced that day.

3. Have a cramming session of writing down whatever comes to mind and put all of those prompts into a jar. When you hit a creative block, pick out one of those prompts (or multiple) and create what you interpret from those prompts. If you need some help coming up with things to write down, check out my ‘An Endless List of Drawing Prompts to Fill your Sketchbook’ blog post. :)

4. Look through the saved photos on your phone. Who doesn’t take photos on their phones now a days? There are more moments that we capture on our phones from day to day than we may even realize. If I ever hit a creative road block, I will scroll through my photos and choose something that sticks out to me.

5. Go to a museum. Not to be mistaken with recreating something you see at the museum, but I remember always feeling inspired when I walked around new exhibits. A small detail that you see in a piece can spark an idea for a bigger project.

6. Scroll through social media. This is an obvious one. If I ever run into a block where I can’t come up with an idea but I still want to practice sketching or painting, I will find a photo on Instagram or Pinterest that someone posted (ex. a lifestyle picture of a woman sitting on a stoop) and draw that in my own interpretation. I won’t necessarily post this because it wasn’t an idea that I originally came up with but it helps me practice my skills.

7. Take classes on Skillshare. Skillshare is such a great tool for anyone looking to develop their skills under the creative umbrella, in business, technology, or lifestyle. There are thousands of free classes you can access, or you can pay for a membership to have access to every single class. Whenever I am feeling stuck on creativity or finding it hard to get motivated to create, Skillshare is an easy way to get myself going. (This totally sounds like a sponsorship, but it 100% is not. I just love Skillshare!). Sometimes I feel as though I could have saved my money on tuition and dedicated my education to learning what I need to on Skillshare and YouTube. Which leads me to my next point…

8. Watch YouTube videos. I can’t tell you enough how much I owe a lot of my creative knowledge and skills to YouTube. Yes, you can go down a rabbit hole of watching videos of dogs who can talk or someone doing ASMR, but the majority of the time where I am either trying to learn something or I just want to find a video that will get me thinking, I will go to YouTube.

I hope this list of things that you can do to wake up the creative side of your brain helps! If you have anything else to add to this list that you do to generate new ideas, please feel free to share in the comments!

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