The Magic of Idea Books: Start Gathering Your Creative Inspirations
Ewa Rosa, illustellar | Find Bliss in Making Art
Watch this class and thousands more
Watch this class and thousands more
Lessons in This Class
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1.
Introduction
3:02
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2.
Class Project
0:50
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3.
Looking for Creative Ideas
2:08
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4.
Capturing Your Creative Ideas
1:26
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5.
Filling Your Idea Book
4:21
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6.
Using Your Idea Book
1:53
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7.
Final Tips
2:01
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About This Class
Are you stuck in a creative rut, and you're looking for inspiration? What if you could add just one truly magical tool to your arsenal to deepen your creative practice and get rid of artist’s block once and for all?
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Looking for inspiration can be daunting. Scrolling through Pinterest or Instagram in search of new ideas may seem like a good solution. However, feeding yourself with images that others created makes it that much harder for you to try and come up with something original and uniquely yours. What is more, you can get easily discouraged by all the talent out there, and it can dampen your spirit even more.
 Luckily, there is a way for you to cultivate your own ideas and get access to an endless source of inspiration. In this class, I’ll show you how to do it!Â
I started my first idea book over twenty years ago, and I’ve been keeping one ever since. So what is an idea book? Well, it’s a treasure trove containing all your great ideas and inspirations, gathered in one place, so you can access them easily whenever you start working on a new project.
Snippets of dreams, overheard conversations, fragments of books, and beautiful plants you see during a nature walk. All these things can feed your imagination and become a unique source of inspiration for your art, filtered through the lens of your own experience and sensitivity. You just have to tune into the world around you, observe it with curiosity, and record all the gems you see, hear, feel and smell.
Collected over the weeks, months, and years, these bits of inspiration turn into a vast repository of amazing ideas you can make into reality one by one.
The more you use your idea book and add to it, the more you get to know yourself as an artist. It can help you to maintain a consistent creative practice, develop your style and artistic voice, and simply derive more joy from making art.
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This class is for all the creatives out there. Whether you are an illustrator, a writer, a photographer, or a crafter, you will find immense value in gathering your inspirations consistently.
 We’ll talk about looking for ideas, capturing them as they come to you, and transferring them into one safe place. I will show you how to fill your idea book and how to use it.
By the end of this class, you will have all the knowledge you need to create your own idea book that will serve you for years to come. So start gathering your precious ideas today, and have inspiration at your fingertips anytime you need it!
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MORE INSPIRATION
You want to create art consistently, but you don't have much time on your hands? Watch:Â "Pocket-Sized Creativity: Make Time for Art Despite a Busy Schedule"
You plan to gather pattern inspirations in your idea book? Check out my class:Â "Patterns Everywhere: Finding Fresh Embellishing Ideas for Your Projects."
Did you like the wave patterns you've seen in my idea book and would love to learn how to draw some of them? Jump into my class:Â "Slow Drawing, Slow Living: Get in the Flow with Ocean Doodles."
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ABOUT YOUR TEACHER
Hi, my name is Ewa Rosa, and I'm an illustrator and embroidery artist based in Warsaw, Poland.
Feel free to check my Profile here on Skillshare!
You can also visit my website here.
WANT TO SHARE YOUR WORK WITH ME?
Post it on Instagram and tag me @illustellar
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Meet Your Teacher
Hi there! My name is Ewa Rosa, and I'm an illustrator and embroidery artist in love with all things nature.
I love combining organic elements with geometry and I draw inspiration from the underwater world, plant life, cosmos, and Japanese patterns.
I've always been incorporating tons of details and intricate patterns into my drawings and lately, this practice translated to my embroidery, which consists of hundreds of french knots and other elaborate details.
This repetitive act of embellishing my art with copious dots, circles, lines, and dashes is something that helps me destress and curb my anxiety.
I adore watercolors, and I like to explore them in a fun, messy way, that probably would give tra... See full profile
Hands-on Class Project
Class Project: Start Gathering Your Precious Ideas Today!
Your project for today will be to pick a journal or a sketchbook you want to use as a creative idea book, take a photo of it, and upload it to the gallery.
A creative idea book is a very personal thing, so I don't expect you to share the content of your first spreads unless you want to. My main goal here is to encourage you to start it, even if you feel like you don't have much to jot down in the beginning, even if you have just one idea! This is not a contest, and it's not a race! Remember that creativity is a lifelong journey. You're doing this for yourself, and you don't have to rush it, so you might just as well start today and take baby steps to grow your art practice.
Step 1: Choose your journal or sketchbook
Now that's the most challenging task ;) If you're addicted to buying pretty journals like me, you probably have heaps of them (and you avoid using them because you don't want to ruin them, lol). Try to pick a journal that really speaks to you, with a cover you love, because you will be looking at it often!
Step 2: Embellish the cover (optional)
If you’re not a journal freak like me, maybe you have some plain sketchbooks or journals at hand. If so, you can decorate the cover of your chosen notebook. But don’t feel pressured to do that! I want you to start gathering your ideas ASAP, so don’t procrastinate on a cover for the next three months ;)
Step 3: Take a photo of your idea book
This is by far the easiest step of all! If you want to brag about your idea book on Instagram as well, you can create a pretty flatlay and make your photo look beautiful and artistic. But again, you don’t have to! You can just take out your phone, snap a quick pic of your journal and upload it to the Class Project Gallery. Why am I asking you for it? Well, first of all, I could just look at pretty journals all day long ;) But most importantly, I want you to take the smallest possible action and commit to starting your idea book. There are tons of unique, creative ideas swirling and hiding in your head, and I don't want them to go to waste!
Step 4: Write a few words about your idea book
I'm not asking for a Ph.D. thesis! I'm simply curious about what kind of creative ideas you will gather there. Do you like to draw, embroider, sew or cook? Maybe you are working on developing your art career, and you will be capturing ideas for your portfolio pieces. Or perhaps you are a surface pattern designer and will collect pattern ideas there? I would love to know!
Really, one sentence will do!
Example: “Hi, I’m Joey Tribbiani, I love to eat, and I will be gathering ideas for pizza toppings in my creative idea book."
LAST TIP
I know it’s hard to develop a new habit, so after you choose your journal, keep it on your desk in a visible place, so you won’t forget to use it! ;)
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