Well, it works for me. A lot of my images are inspired by, or at least take their titles from, songs. Now, as some of you may know, I'm a musician, which may explain some of it. But not the whole. I regard myself as a writer primarily and everything else comes after. I "write" my images - the ones I regard as "art", anyhow - and put it out there visually, unless I write it lyrically. Same with music. The music has to "say" something, either underpinning the mood of the lyrics or acting as ironic counterpoint to the subject matter. That all makes it sound terribly pretentious and cerebral, doesn't it? Most times, I strap on me Les Paul, crank up the Marshall and let it ROAR. However... There's two schools of thought when it comes to songwriting. One has it that you should have 3 chords, a Telecaster and The Truth. Great stuff, very visceral and it works very well. The other one says you should tell lies in an entertaining way. MY view is the most fun and creativity is to be found halfway between both. Which is maybe why I like to use songs as my starting point. It's the fictional element combined with my own experiences which make my most emotionally satisfying work. Doesn't even matter whether they're my own songs or someone else's; in fact, it's more fun to make an image inspired by someone else's, because chances are I've already said what I want to say in my own song. Anyhow, enough of this rambling... I suggest you should check out the lyrics of Marc Bolan in his Tyrannosaurus Rex days for some amazing imagery. Some of the writing is clumsy, schoolkid embarrassing (but he was dyslexic) but the ideas are awesome. There's a rich vein of fantasy but there's also sex, violence, horror, love, death, adventure, scenery and more stuff than you can shake a stick at (assuming you're a stick shaking sort of person). Go on, Google for "Tyrannosaurus Rex Lyrics". You know you want to. :) Another one of Sam Therapy's "Let's all be artists" posts.

lol paul i love your posts.. I guess my inspiriation is my moods. My best images seem to come when I'm feeling really down and low and I find the only way to outlet my feelings and to get them out without bothering anyone else is to do an image and outlet it that way. Always makes me feel better too. Also music inspires me and that goes with my moods too. Usually I can be feeling low listening to a song thats been put on purposely..."sad songs" lol.....and then ill imagine a pic to those lyrics and think omg thats how i feel today. I love 3 doors down music. There is a lot of their music that I can relate to. I only wish they were as famous in uk as they are in USA lol.

dang..I just wish I could afford a Les Paul..;) I just have ideas drop in from all sorts of places; songs, titles of other pics (have to get to work on one in a bit..;), just strange, pachinko-like ideas that bounce off various cranial plates in...(sorry, Monty Python's on in the background..;)

pakled - sometimes the price is higher than you expect but more than worth it... I had to get divorced to afford my Les Pauls. No regrets. As Jimi said, "That's ok, I still got my guitar". :)

I have an original Ovation round back acoustic/electric from the first build... Can't play it anymore due to arthritis, but it's tone is so sweet and clear. Guitar Center is willing to pay $3,000 for it but I can't bear to give it up. Music is always a great inspiration... BillyGoat

"3 chords, a Tele, & the truth".... Know where I can find a 3d Tele?

Yes, sometimes songs inspires me renders. And... some renders inspires me music ;) I compose too. But I do all sitting in the same place... I use the same computer for Poser and for create, arrange, edit, and record my music

I play the guitar, too, But it isn`t a famous make (or electric) :( .

hi - excuse me for butting in - I'm kind of new around these parts... but I was only thinking the other day after reading the "how old ar you" post that a lot of the artists here seem to be "old" guitarists. For me it's an Ibanez electric, a Ricky-copy bass and some obscure make of acoustic 12 string. I spent my growing up years half playing music and half doing art. Ended up mediocre in both arenas - probably explains why I ended up as an accountant:) But yeah - a lot of my inspiration comes from song titles or lines from songs, or maybe just a book/movie that I liked. Oh - and of course ripping off someone else's ideas!

I get inspired by all kinds of different things. Lately I'm low on inspiration because I've been sick and just not paying attention to things like I normally do. Usually I have a very active imagination and think in terms of pictures sometimes, which sounds strange. But I can listen to music and regardless of if there are lyrics, the song plays itself out in my head in the form of a play. So sometimes I get inspired by that. Also, when I look at pictures/images, I don't see it as a "whole" image at first. My brain kind of breaks it up into bits and pieces and I see and appreciate all those bits first, before it's assembled into a whole image. So looking at a painting, might cause me to be inspired by a tree that I see there, or a moon. Also, this is going to sound even stranger, but sometimes when I'm in bed trying to fall asleep, I "see" images/shapes/colours when my eyes are closed. Sometimes they are rather pretty and interesting, so I write down the idea on a piece of paper before I forget about it. I tend to love to do collage art, so I'm inspired by themes, or cultural aspects of images that I see. Plus the biggest factor is my mood at the time; for both art and poetry. For poetry I find that I'm only able to write when I'm sad or upset, and that when I'm happy I don't feel "inspired" to write poetry. I guess it's how I work out issues and if there are no issues to work out, there is no need for poetry, lol When I'm feeling a bit blue, it's easier for me to make "dark" or gothic-like images than it is when I'm in a good mood. You can often tell my mood by the colours I use too. Lots of bright colours usually means that I'm well and happy and have it all together. Darker colours usually mean that I'm struggling with something in life.

Like the last samurai, you could spend your entire life looking for the perfect poppy and never find it.....because they are all perfect. I never looked for inspiration from music per se - two strats, 12 string electric, 4 & 5 string basses, midi controller for virtual synths, acoustic and electronic drums - because, speaking physics, sound and lightwaves are different frequencies of the same energy spectrum. Inspiration is everywhere. I was finishing up a run the other morning thinking it would be a perfect scene to (attempt to) render. The people walking in front of me cast no shadow because the cloudy skydome had diffuse light from the low angle of the morning sun. The dew on the grass would be most difficult to reproduce. I also look to magazines for inspiration.

God is my inspiration.

Many of my inspirations come from Bob Dylan lyrics. I can rarely make them work (I'm not a good enough artist), but it's fun for a while...:-)) Especially "Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man", "Boots of Spanish Leather" and "Do You, Mr Jones" (not sure if they're the correct titles, haven't played them in years, but I remember the lyrics..), and several others, as and when they occur to me. Cheers, Diolma.