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Every great creative mind has had a muse, and have been inspired to make beautiful artwork or ground-breaking literary works that have stood the test of time. Everyone draws sources of inspiration from somewhere, and it’s often from things they like. It is commonly said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Both imitation and inspiration have a huge impact on any works made. Creating content is simultaneously enjoyable and exhaustive. You may find yourself in a slump after finishing a large project, wondering, “what should I do now?”
The answer is simple: imitate something. One of the most effective ways to practice and develop your artistic abilities is imitation. There are many examples as to why mimicking some other work is great at helping you to grow.
Tracing artwork that you really like trains your hand to be able to follow lines and curves. Eventually, your steadiness becomes smoother and you can draw those lines all by yourself, without a need for a guide.
Making pixel art with a reference assists in defining what shapes look best and more definitive together, and allows the artist creative freedom in developing their own personal palette. This way, you can learn what colors blend together well, and what contrasts nicely. Over time, you will develop your own personal style.
Building replicas of existing structures allows you to spend more time focusing on definition, proportions, and palette, rather than getting bogged down by layout and composition. You have the ability to interpret something else, and recreate it in a way that adds your own personal touch. Whether you choose to go for an exact scale model, or a loose interpretation is ultimately your decision. You practice building something new, and can push your comfort zone.
Drawing fan art is great for allowing artists free reign of color palette and personal style without having to decide character designs. Fan fiction is similar; rather than planning character development out and creating a setting from scratch, you can work more on your skills with vocabulary, sentence structure, and plot.
Imitation tries to make art for things that you like. Inspiration tries to take parts of things that you like and make them your own.
Many original works use common mythological tales, or similar concepts for conflicts. Great art can be made with similar colors and techniques. The most important part of creating content is making it yours. You can’t take someone else’s character and make it yours. You can enjoy creating and learning from the process, but the character is still not yours: it is imitation.
Go out and be inspired. Find what you like, and invent a way to make it yours. And if you can’t come up with anything, imitate something you like. You will be inspired again in due time.
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