My muse hates me. In fact, I think she’s mutinied and found some tropical island to take a extended vacation without me. She’s drinking Pina Coladas, lounging under the sun on some Caribbean island, and doesn’t plan on showing up to work if she can help it. Oh, she’ll occasionally send postcards with perhaps a HINT of a suggestion, but they’re few and far between, and half of them get lost in the mail.

Suffice it to say, I sometimes have a tough time coming up with ideas for new illustrations if I’m not doing something specific for a client. There are a lot of times when I just start at a blank sheet of paper hoping that I’ll get a bolt of inspiration. Unfortunately, that rarely happens, so over the years I’ve come up with some methods to help me get in the groove.

If you’re like me, hopefully some of the ideas and exercises below will help jump start your creative process!

1. Create art from an ink blob.
   Take the Rorschach test one step further. Get an old toothbrush and dunk it in india ink then use to splatter a sheet of paper. Create illustrations around the entire splatter, or use shapes created by parts of it to inspire you. This guy is already doing it - each day he turns a blob of ink into a new monster.
2. Build a collection of words you can use to jump start your imagination.
   Illustration Friday has a new word each week that participants illustrate. The results are sometimes literal, but often times they run off in unexpected directions. Those types of sites are great to participate in, but if you want more than just one a week, you need to build your own personal repository. For some reason, it works better if you aren’t the one coming up with the words, so have your friends (or if you have a blog, your readers) contribute. Write each word on a sheet of paper and stuff them in a box, or put them all in a text file for the next time you need an idea.
3. Take a line from a song and illustrate it. Be literal in your illustration, or not.
   Lots of times when we listen to music, it’s really passive. You hear the melody and maybe catch some of the chorus, but it is easy to gloss over the rest. When you start really, actively listening, you find that lyrics can have some really powerful, sometimes unusual, imagery that’s perfect to try and visualize.
4. Take spam email subject lines into art.
   Kipling West takes the subject lines from spam emails that wind up in her inbox and turns them into charming, often hilarious illustrations. Try it out with some of your spam!
5. Juxtapose everyday objects into a totally unnatural places.
   Draw your laptop in the middle of desert, your pet fish in a forest, or a plant taking root in a sneaker. Throw together the craziest combos for some surreal results.
6. Design a card for Birthdays, Christmas, Easter, or just to say thank you.
   Pick a holiday and come up with an illustration for it. Try different styles. Who knows, you may come up with something you love. Get it printed up at moo.com or zazzle.com for the next time you need to send a card!
7. Design a promotional poster for your favorite band.
   Have you seen how cool band posters can be? Use the band’s aesthetic and brand to inspire your work. After you’re done, take the band name out of the piece and swap in a word that sums up your creation. Chance are you’ll have something outstanding.
8. Create a piece of art starting with type only.
   Typography is a huge part of design, but it’s easily overlooked. Take a funny phrase you overheard today, or a short quote and do something creative with how it’s written. Add in graphic elements after you’ve done the text to create a finished piece.

To help you on your path of getting more inspired everyday, I’ve created a handy illustrated version of the tips above. Download, print and post someplace you’ll always see when you start getting stuck!

Click HERE to download as PDF, or HERE to download as a reeeeally big gif.