Do you create based on a message or idea you want to share? Do you choose a color scheme and go from there? Do you make are based on the media you want to use? I'm interested in the thought process that you use to create art.

 Since you first posted this, I've been toying with how to reply without getting long and verbose.

"Do you create based on a message or idea you want to share?" 

I create based on a message/idea that I want to explore. And I'm never sure, beforehand, either what the question is or what the answer will be. To complicate matters even more, every piece is part of a series that (perhaps) exists only in my mind. (That's why I am so slow!)

"Do you choose a color scheme and go from there? Do you make are based on the media you want to use?"  

Color and media choices are my way of setting limitations within which I can explore the idea. And being sensitive to how the use of those choices might change or amplify the idea means that the "question" might change.  Even when I've made something for an assignment based on color or a particular technique, later on reflection, I see how it connects with one of the "series of ideas" in my mind.

This is as far as I'm taking this for now. Does this help with your request?

Pat 

 Hmmm, after reflecting on my "answer", I think I think too much. Must be a result of living alone and talking to myself. No wonder I'm slow.

Pat 

Hi Heather and Pat!

How do I create?  Sometimes I'm inspired by a song I hear - a few words that just spark an idea, or I will see something (a bird, a person, an event).  Sometimes I just want to make something that can be used by someone else to spark their imagination (like my needle felting ships) - or just to delight.  For my ships I DO choose a color scheme, but for my other art, I just start putting things together and see what color scheme wants to emerge from it.

Blessings~

Hallo!

 
Depends: for an illustration it starts with the words - I'll usually free associate then leave it alone for a while, and an idea will usually present itself  - then it's just a case of deciding which media would work best. If that doesn't work I will flick through old magazines tearing out anything which seems usefull, then arrange the pieces into collages which work like sketches - this usually works.

 I do a lot of experimenting with media - sometimes this results in a finished piece because an idea will present itself as I'm working - this is the playtime!

 
Sometimes I just doodle around in my sketchbook and it turns into an idea which either becomes a finished piece or forms the basis for a finished piece. Or I might flick through old sketchbooks and get inspired

 
Sometimes I just think oh I want to make ... and just do it. Alberto and the Crow (in my gallery, Hatchings) was one of those that turned out well (IMO) - essentially this is just exploring an idea.

And sometimes I look at what other people are doing and decide to try it too!

Hope that's of some use to you,

Sarah
 

Now that I have a little more time to post, I'll share how I create too. Usually I start by choosing colors and the media I'll use. Then I decide on the form of what I intend to create. I'll play with the colors and do some painting if its a collage or some other painted item.  Once I get a background completed I'll search the painting for what it is that may be ready to spring forth from the "page". Then I'll add to it based on that. If its beading or jewelry I'll just jump right in and start making.

If its for a swap or challenge that has a theme, I'll do some free flow writing to see what thoughts and ideas I come up with and go from there.

A lot of what I do is experiment with different media and techniques I read about. I call my results samples. I'll save the samples until they've "aged". That is, until I use them as elements in some creation. For example, I just finished using some painted tyvek samples I've has laying around for a couple years. I made beads with it for a swap. "I will use no sample before its time." (like the Gallo wines ad, I think? "We will sell no wine before its time").

Thanks everyone who has shared, its interesting to get into someone else's head to see how they create.

Heather

I find that quotes are a really good jumping board to get my creative juices flowing. I often create after remembering a dream too, it helps me realize the hidden meaning of my dream and it helps to seal in the dream so it doesn't slip away in the morning light.   I've often created using a color scheme, but only if challenged (as in a swap forum or a yahoo group challenge).  I like to use vibrant colours, different mediums and rubber stamps. Creating is such an extension of myself I've never really thought about how I go about it, I just DO IT! 

I start the creative process from the idea/emotion/message I want to convey.  From that, if there's something I've been hanging out to use or a fabric/paper/keepsake I've collected because it relates to the idea I'm working with, I begin physically from there :)

Sometimes, if I just want to create something - anything - I'll start from the materials first but this is rare. 

 A word, a photo, a color, a memory, news and stories can trigger my creative juices.

CREATION: It has to do with my origins, identity and experiences in life. 

I create from there also, I mean from nothing, from fragments, from secrecy, things without recollection.

GOYA 

I always seem to start with restlessness.  Restlessness drives me to art, because immersing myself in a process soothes my restless soul.  I cannot direct myself by saying, "OK, now I am going to do some art".  I just have to put myself in the chair and give my hands permission to move.  Get out of my head and into a more intuitive place.  Start picking up things, whether its paper or fabric, glue, nails, pots, flowers...just get out of my head and follow an intuition.  It will either take me to my computer (working on my collage cookbook, or creative writing/blogging) or to my studio (ATC's or my quilting), or to the mutt room (art journaling/collage).  I just let my spirit take over and get out of my organizational, planning, mind. 

 But it usually starts with an emotion or restlessness which I want or need to respond to. 

I paint and or stamp and or embellish a many, many background sheets. When I want to create I will pick a sheet and then rove through my endless empemera collection looking for items that "gel" with the background. I often collect way more than I need, but that's how I get started. I love reading everyone's approaches - what a good question!

This is a good question, bspimas!  After thinking about it for awhile, I haven't come to one definite thing that inspires me all of the time.  Mostly, it is something I've read - a quote, story, saying, or poem and when it touches me, I am inspired to create something from it.  The other day, a young student at the college I work at said, "You're kind of out in the middle of nothing" meaning that my office, being in the basement, was secluded and away from the rest of the college 'world'.  I wrote down this little gem right away and am sure that it will be something that will act as the fuel for an art piece.

Other times, it is a childhood memory that triggers a work...sometimes even a series of works!  Lately, I find that I'm interested in pursuing more personal works and delving into how to approach them artistically - whether it be sculpture, fabric, altered art, collage - to convey the message I want.

- chameleon

I create by feeling. It doesn't make a difference whether I'm doing something as a gift for someone, making invitations to my next party or just creating to pass the time. It all starts with a feeling. Same with color schemes, designs and media that I use. My writing is the same way also. Whatever I create, starts in my heart.

 What a cool discussion this is!

Reading it, I realize that I create when something outside me speaks to something inside me, or when the inside speaks to the outside.  Some encounter precipitates creation.

I think of one day when the wind was blowing in the eaves of the house and the sound seemed so full of meaning and importance that I left my work and ran to the piano to imitate what I'd heard.  That turned into a song about trusting life.  I felt powerfully that I'd "collaborated" with the world - and especially with the wind! - in making the song, and I think that's my favorite feeling as a creator, that sense of cooperation.

KateSinging (and listening to the wind) 

My style is very representational and my work almost always is about a message/idea.  I don't do a lot of advance planning and I don't make sketches.  I just sort of dig in and the piece tells me what it wants to look like.  Sounds crazy, I know.  But it works for me.