Towards the eternal creative cycle:

Draw inspiration from the world around you and from other artists, and keep creating.

When you’re lacking inspiration or motivation, go back to the master artists of the past and suck out their wisdom and integrate it into yourself. Also, expose yourself to new forms of visual inspiration outside of your field. For example, I’m getting more visual motivation and inspiration from studying Japanese woodblock cuts (Hokusai and Hiroshige) and also from calligraphy.

The simple goal is to always be artistically productive. If you’re not actively making new art work, actively study and find inspiration from artists of the past!

And the great optimistic thought:

No matter what… you’ll never run out of visual inspiration.

Even if I live to be 130 years old, I won’t have enough time to study all the great artists! So delight in the idea that the future is good … more time and more opportunities for you to discover and rediscover great artists from the past! But let us not forget:

The end game and purpose is making your own artwork, not just masturbating to the artists of the past!

ERIC