You were most likely looking at this headline, thinking of clicking on it. Then you did. And now that you’ve clicked on it – what inspired you to do so?
My name is Khalid and I’m an artist and content creator. The questions I get most often are:
“Where do you get your drawing/writing style from?,” “What do you communicate with your writing?” or “What got you into writing and drawing?”
Since these are questions I don’t usually think of myself, I’ve reflect on the answers and present them here through my personal lens.
I think the artistic side of me came alive from the many activities, travels, and endeavors that I’ve made over the years. These have given me inspiration for the stories and illustrations that I’m currently working on and share with you here. I hope you, as an artist, writer, or creative of any kind, will find something in them that resonates.
Here are 7 creative sources (in no particular order) that have worked for me and that may give you an injection of inspiration.
1. Media that reflects reality…quite accurately.
You will most likely know that this is a running trope that can be used well in your stories or art. This is where your writings reflect the positives or negatives of reality, whether it be about society today as compared to, say the early 20th century, or about how late-stage capitalism is redefining friendships today.
Both at societal and personal levels, my writing is based on a couple of things:
- Media that reflects experience: An example would be John Carpenter’s 1988 film ‘They Live’, which demonstrates consumerism playing on the minds of normal folk. And Robert A. Heinlein’s 1959 novel ‘Starship Troopers’, which tackled the issues of adolescent delinquency and cowardice – an accurate representation of the world today.
- Experience that reflects the media: This is what comes up day-to-day life with friends, or adventures across the world, both positively and negatively.
2. The People You Interact With: Friends or Enemies?
Ian Fleming, back in the 1950’s, was heavily inspired not just by his travels across the world, but also by the people he encountered. Most notably, he was influenced by a man named Erno Goldfinger, a Hungarian-English Architect whom Fleming actually disliked. Goldfinger’s easy temperament and name might have been the basis for Fleming titling his 1959 James Bond novel as ‘Goldfinger’. For obvious reasons, this didn’t sit well with Goldfinger who threatened Fleming with a lawsuit, and which Fleming counterattacked with another threat – he would name the novel Goldprick instead!
Throughout this decade, there are all kinds of people that I have talked to and learned about, and some of them have morphed into the characters I I feature in my comics. From characters with altruistic, selfless personalities to those who blatanly seek power.
3. Environments Unexplored!
I write often with a visionary in mind – someone who draws landscapes, environments, and other places, and travels as well to places where whatever environments he or she encounters will influence the worlds and settings being designed.
There are a couple of key places that have influenced the worlds I’m illustrating at the moment. One is St. Petersburg, Russia, with its diverse architecture of the mid-18th Century (designs from Italian and German contractors) that makes for a strong traditionalist setting. The second is the landscape of a snowboarding resort in Loveland, Colorado, with a rocky, canyon-like layout that depicts a snowy, alien-like world.
4. History, the Beholder of Dopamine.
In my vague way, I’m saying that nostalgia sells (strongly, given the time period), and I would go as far as saying that history itself can be a great inspirational source.
For me, history inspires me to think of what could have been different. And this is where we dive into the category of alternate history. English writer Kingsley Aimis wrote a 1976 book entitled The Alteration, which took place in Europe around the same time. The difference was that the Protestant Reformation 400 years earlier did not occur, hence Europe, in the 20th Century, is still widely Catholic, with Martin Luther having become Pope.
5. The Lesser Known Can Make a Great Impact
Some of the most well-known artists, film makers, and other creatives have often mentioned sources of inspiration that are not well known in the mainstream.
The band Metallica have always talked about how British heavy metal band Diamond Head has been a great inspiration on their music, leading fans to go discover their other bands of inspiration such as Venom and Angel Witch. I could write about what inspires my art here, as there are is a lot, but that’s a list that will take up a lot of space.
6. “Musically speaking, it’s Picture Perfect.”
It’s a pun I’ve made up. You might read it again, someday, in my comic endeavors. The year 2014 struck me with the crushing sound of cynicism, as captured by Swiss metal band Triptykon. Their album Melana Chasmata and the artwork by the iconic H. R. Giger made sure it connected with the music in one resonating fashion. That moment was when I learned that good art can make a good soundtrack. Or rather, good art can inspire you to make music that is based on it, and vice versa. Any soundtrack or album I put on Spotify is most likely to make me sketch or create something based on it.
I was greatly inspired by the soundtrack to the 2018 video game Dusk, composed by Andrew Hulshult. I felt as if this poster would reflect music as powerful as what Hulshult can provide.
7. Dead Simplicity
Dead Simplicity’s based on the title for a Doom level, “Dead Simple.”
Sometimes, for a writer, you just want to take it easy – no need to overthink what you’re coming up with. Of course, this is where a break comes in, and you relax by experiencing something easy, with a plot that requires no use of mental gymnastics. And maybe, just maybe, that itself may be creative fuel.
Doom was a 1993 game by id Software that contained a simple premise that you were immediately thrown into demons that have taken over Mars’ moon Phobos. So you go get a gun and clear them out, whether that means going to Hell and back. Twenty-three years later would see the game being rebooted in an example of easiness meeting with complexity, as the design for the environments, enemies, and lore receives an iconic makeover.
Once you take it easy in creativity, you can make ‘big’ easy, at least in terms of… well, not overthinking or becoming overly conscious about how you wish for your creative project to be done.
