8 Ways to Help You Come up with New Ideas

March 21, 2019

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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.

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.
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.
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. :)
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.
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.
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.
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…
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!

The Brooklyn Sketchbook Project

May 20, 2018

ABOUT THE PROJECT

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Project started: August 4th, 2017

Project completed: April 28th, 2018

I have just completed The Sketchbook Project, an assignment ran by the Brooklyn Art Library in New York. This is a project that takes place worldwide by whoever wishes to join.

The requirements for The Sketchbook Project is to completely fill out the sketchbook and send it to the Brooklyn Library in New York City by March 2018 (update: the deadline was pushed to April 30th). There, it will be included in the library's permanent collection so anyone can check out and enjoy mine, or someone else's sketchbook.

The inspiration that is behind the illustrations in this sketchbook comes from food. I always come across pictures where you know someone had to have stood on their restaurant chair to get the bird's eye camera shot of their dinner spread. Viewers absolutely love food photography (as long as the food looks appetizing), so why not get involved with the trend by creating drawings and paintings of these delicious creations?

I decided to participate in this project to not only get more involved with the artist community, but also because of the concept behind it. Currently, I am an independent artist who works on personal and freelance projects out of her home; so more often than not, it can get quite lonesome being on my own. With this project, I am participating with hundreds (maybe thousands?) of other people from around the world to have a sketchbook of mine sitting on the shelf of the Brooklyn Library next to other aspiring artists.

Keep scrolling to see every spread, as well as read about the stories that inspired every page!

Feel free to subscribe to my YouTube channel to receive notifications whenever I post.

Here you can find the playlist for the time lapse videos I recorded of the project. Enjoy!

SKETCHBOOK TOUR

It took me 9 months to complete this sketchbook, which to me, is a bit long for how small the sketchbook is. At the beginning of the book, I wanted to start off with a cover page to introduce those who will be viewing this by including my name as well as an old business card in case they wanted to look at more of my work. The cheeseburger was the first thing I thought of, and I really love writing in graffiti style font, so I thought that this would be a fun way to start off the sketchbook.

This spread was dedicated to pizza. I do not have a specific favorite dish (because I can't decide!), but being from Chicago, pizza is definitely near the top of the list. We make handsdown the best pizza... okay, I may be a little biased... NYC gives us a run for our money, but I can argue that we definitely have the best deep dish pizza!

This spread was inspired by my generation, or more so... the man claiming that my generation cannot afford to buy a house because we spend too much money on avocado toast. It sounds dramatic, and hilarious when said as such, but it is actually an interesting article... give it a read.

At my day job, we host many happy hours at our office and we get to indulge in some wine and charcutterie. This kind of display has always been one of my favorites, as there are so many different colors, textures and flavors elegantly displayed.

I strongly believe that ice cream is one of the best foods ever created. There are so many different flavors to choose from and many of the combinations can be very unique. If you are ever in Chicago, you HAVE to try Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream. They are by far the best I have ever tasted.

My love for sweet treats continues in this spread with donuts and coffee! A funny story that inspired this is from my senior year of college, my roommate and I took a Pilates class to fulfill the minimum requirement to be a full-time student, and what stood between the subway stop and the classroom building was a Stan's Donuts & Coffee shop. We rewarded ourselves a few times after some intense classes.

To be completely honest with you, I cannot stand oysters. Their taste does not sit well with me as well as the texture and the way they are eating. But, I think they look really pretty! :)

Almost similar with oysters, I am not the first to suggest sushi for a meal, however when I am in the mood for it I like the classic California roll or Ahi tuna. However, the last time I had sushi was with some friends last summer at an all you can eat sushi restaurant. They way it worked was that for every piece of sushi left over, an extra $2 was added to your bill, so of course we had to eat everything that was put in front of us... I can't say that I had a desire to grab some sushi since then.

If you are from the Chicagoland area, you know exactly what Portillo's is. The tasty Chicago dogs, mouthwatering dipped Italian beef sandwiches (if you do not know what these are, you're missing out), crispy crinkle cut fries, and satisfying cake shake (yes, it has an actual slice of cake in it) are all things that I have been enjoying since my childhood.

A sip of sangria brings back so many memories, especially when I was studying in Barcelona. One particular time was back on the beach at a restaurant with one of my roommates. We each ordered a pitcher of sangria (which in our defence, was about three-ish drinks total). Upon ordering, the waiter gave us a strange look and said to us, "You know, in our country less is more." We both proceeded to commit to the pitchers and finished each of them with no problems. Might I also say that we walked out of that restaurant... not stumbled... :)

I like pancakes.

...and breakfast in general...

Even thought grilled cheese is one of the easiest things to make, my brother does a really good job of making it authentic. He hand shreds three different types of cheeses and grills it perfectly to to the crisp.

Now this is a weird guilty pleasure of mine... for a snack, I love pickles and peanut butter. I got the inspiration from somewhere, I just don't remember. But particularly I love the bread and butter slices with extra crunchy peanut butter. Give it a try before judging me. :)

Before I tried chicken and waffles, I did not understand at all why that combination would be good (says the person who loves her pickles with peanut butter). I tried it for the first time at the Chicken Shop at Soho House in Chicago. It was amazing to say the least...