One of the best things you can do is to look at art. When it comes to visual images, it's pretty much all been done before. Anything you find interesting can be an inspiration. Looking at the old masters is never a bad choice, of course, but they're not the only source of inspiration. Take a movie or old TV show you really like and have on video, play it back with no sound and one finger on the PAUSE button. Keep your eyes peeled for scenes that are compositionally interesting or that particualrly grab your attention, then freeze them and look at how they were put together. A movie is nothing more than thousands of still images, and in a well-made movie nearly every one will be compositionally interesting. If you want to get "deep" there's always "The Zen of Seeing" by Frederick Franck. Seeing, after all is the foundation of all visual art. Then there's always the good old golden ratio - the mathematical realtionship that supposedly underlies much of the most aesthetically pleasing art and design. However some people feel it's not all it's cracked up to be. - Jimdoria ~@>@

• Jimdoria  ~@>@