My Inspiration Books

Hi everyone!

Today I wanted to share with you my inspiration books! The idea for these books evolved with time. When I was little, I loved to take magazines, cut the pictures that I liked best and paste them in my notebooks. I liked to keep physical memories of what I loved. When I learned about Pinterest, I was so excited! I love Pinterest a lot and have different boards for my interests.

One day I came across a magazine about art. I decided to get a membership. I would get this magazine in the mail; I would read it and then I didn’t know what to do with it. This magazine inspired me so much, but I didn’t want to throw it away when I was done because it had so much inspiration in it.

Around that time, I had an empty spiral sketchbook. This sketchbook was not sturdy enough for water media and it was just sitting on my shelf. I decided to decorate the front with tissue paper, cut the pictures that I liked best from my magazine and paste them inside the book. And so my Inspiration Book was born.  

Over the years I continued to get magazines in my mail and now the book has become three. The other books that I have started are from Archer and Olive which are bigger notebooks. I love these books so much as they are filled with inspiration. Now though I also get a traveling magazine that I also use for inspiration.

It is so fun to cut up the magazines and paste the pictures in a way that they fit inside my books. It’s like fitting a puzzle. It is therapeutic but also useful as I can use these pictures to create my own in my sketchbooks.

 I love creating, but I also love collecting my favorite things in books that I can later turn to for inspiration.

I have also printed Pinterest pictures and pasted them in my book so that they can fit in the spaces that are empty. I make sure that when I recreate these pictures in my sketchbook, that I am not profiting by them as not all artists have consented to their use.

So I encourage you to try it. Make your own Inspiration book. Cut and paste what you like. Then turn back and look through it. When you don’t know what to paint you can always use it as your inspiration.

Your artist friend,

-Luamy