A Method for Deciding What to Draw

I can remember being younger and always having the urge to draw but never knowing WHAT I wanted to draw. This can be frustrating, especially when you’re first starting out and you have that strong motivation to create something. So how do you figure out WHAT to draw or paint or create?

Here’s what I did.

I recently became more active on Pinterest and to my surprise I found it to be super helpful for narrowing down my interests. If you don’t know how Pinterest works, it’s basically a place where you can search images or articles, and save them to boards you create.

Categorize Your Interests

So for example, I have boards for Painting Ideas for portraits, anatomy, watercolors and so on. Color Inspiration board for saving color schemes and harmonies I find appealing. And other things I find interesting in general - which may help to give some kind of meaning to my art and life.

So I spent some time searching for things I was naturally interested in, and modeled my board categories off of those things. So your boards will most likely be completely different than mine, depending on what your interested in.

Be Very Picky

Be sure to save only the things that you REALLY like, and try to determine WHY you like them. Is it for the color, composition, subject or some other reason? Keep the color interests separated from the compositional interests, and so forth. By doing this, you’ll have a clearer picture of what you like later on.

So after a few hours of pinning things over multiple days, I felt not only inspired but I could now see certain patterns developing. For instance, with my color inspirations, I could see that I was attracted mostly to warm colors, neutrals, greys, and warm / cool combinations.

By saving only inspirations that truly moved me in some way, I could see what kind of subject matter that appealed to me - like the last light of day or certain architecture, and so on.

Analyze Your Inspirations

This information is very useful to have because I felt that I could now incorporate these trends and knowledge of myself and what I like into my work. I can use my general interests to add meaning to my art and give it a sense of purpose.

For the colors and subject matter, I can better understand the mood I’m trying to create and better communicate that through the use of colors which I enjoy.

Distraction Becomes Advantage

So rather than being distracted by social media, I try to use it to my advantage and save images I like when I come across them. This helps to further gain an understanding of myself and my art.

And really, this method can be applied to Instagram and other social media platforms which allow you to save images and categorize them. And it can be applied to any kind of art you create, whether it’s drawing, painting, sculpture, writing, or any other art form.

Give it a try and let me know what you think.

What are some methods that you have used to determine what to create? Post down below in the comments.