A new mood board for you! I often keep a mood board in my studio, snippets of images, ideas, things I love. Of course my mood is affected by music, things I can see and touch in my environment, and all of this influences my art and work which I tackle daily.
Mood boards have been around for many, many moons in artistic outlets. I often hear designers, artists, producers, and generally many creatives talk about utilizing them to inspire and uplift their current projects. I personally like to pick a theme word to influence the board but also use colors and textures as the jumping off point. Literature and movies are often wonderful starting points for enhancing inspiration. Sometimes a simple image I’ve seen or taken starts me thinking about that subject and the ideas begin to steamroll. I tend to keep scraps of everything and it’s often a big chore to weed through once my studio is full to the brim. Remember though…“How do you eat an elephant?” (haha)
So…this week’s mood board was created and inspired by the glorious movie La La Land. Oh my I loved it so much! The music, the story, the dancing, the classic look at a genre I’ve loved since I was small. I adored it. The color scheme was beautiful and the production design was inspiring. Of course, being an artist, I had to include some supplies to fit the theme. Can’t help it.
I love to curate lists of all kinds. Long ago when I had an Etsy shop I frequented, I loved curating their treasuries and finding nuggets of goodness to gather together. It’s like making a spotify set list or mix tape. It’s whatever you like and it’s personal and fun and the creativity can really flow. Ideally, mood boards are more tactile than digital, so don’t forget to go old school and tear out those magazine clippings, save those ticket stubs, and fabric samples. I have a physical inspiration board I utilize in my studio and find it’s an ever-changing scrapbook of memory, inspiration, and emotion.
Sometimes as artists we tend to get in a rut of inspiration. How do we continue to find it in our lives and make it a point to tackle creativity as a habit? A mood board is a great tool to utilize and I encourage you to begin the practice of doing so. Pinterest is a great digital mood board….I’m over there and have many public and even some private boards for my own use. If you’re a fashion lover, Polyvore is another fun way to curate you love. Don’t forget Tumblr and Instagram though I think the latter is less mood board and more traditional sharing. I had a Tumblr account at one point that’s grossly neglected, though some prefer it. It really depends on your method of saving/keeping snips and ideas and each has its own pros and cons.
Be creative in your methods of finding inspiration. Inspiration doesn’t have to come from one source! A song lyric, snippet of a poem, the tick of a clock, the way my cat purrs on my chest…these are all inspiring. If you are a painter, don’t forget to look outside the world of painting and fine art to see new ways of gathering passion and insight into your work.
I would love to hear your thoughts on mood board creation. Are you in the practice of curating the things that inspire?
xoxo
Bethany
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I am more in the habit of taking pictures than making a mood board…. often I’ll write down my inspirations and ideas in my sketchbook with thumbnail images. I guess my sketchbook is my equivalent of a mood board, 🙂