3.1 ART THINKING EXERCISE:

CREATING AN INSPIRATION MAP

In this section I’d like us to explore, unpack and examine our own personal visual interests. Our art is usually about something, even if we aren’t that good at articulating what. In this exercise we start to think about the areas we are interested in and what our art could be about. We are gathering clues and fragments of ideas to help us think a little about the things that interest us.

An inspiration map is a fancy way of saying a brain dump of unformed ideas onto one page. We’re going to ask ourselves a simple question and capture all the small and large thoughts, fragments of thoughts and whispers that come up. We’re going to write, think and note take and capture our tiny curiosities in one place.

What would you like to explore in your sketchbook?

We are going to answer WHAT WOULD I LIKE TO EXPLORE IN MY SKETCHBOOK? Start on a large piece of paper and write IDEAS/INSPIRATION in the centre. Then dig deep and write literally anything that comes to mind, trying to be as specific as possible.

It is wonderful that we all have a rather complex and unique set of interests, preoccupations, curiosities and sensibilities. The things that give me sustenance and fill up my creative well will be so different from yours. In this exercise we try to unpick them a little. Here are a few prompts to start the ball rolling:

• What subject matters am I drawn to?

• Thinking about my own art making what have I found interesting?

• What are my interests more generally?

• What objects and themes am I intrigued by?

• How would I like my art to feel?

• What images appeal to me?

• What kind of art do I enjoy looking at?

• What kind of places do I like to visit?

• What do I like to read about or research?

• What do I take photographs of?

• What do I collect?

Create your own inspiration map, making a note of anything you can think of on one page, doing this on one page allows you to see connections, and look at all your ideas in the round at any point when you are stuck or want to think about what next. This is an exercise I frequently revisit, re do and add to. I find it a useful and quick way to capture and articulate the things that interest me. When I am looking for inspiration of what to explore in my sketchbook I refer back to it and it always gives me some sort of starting point. I then use some or all of the approaches we will explore together to develop that starting point into a series of pages in my sketchbook.