Where do artist get their ideas? Well the answer to that is everywhere.

Research on the internet the following subjects that artist use for their work.

World Events

Myths and Legends

Religious Ideas

Nature

People and Places

Personal Events

Create your own Art Idea list, research five topics from each of the subtitles above, put them on your Idea list. Add to your Idea list events from your life that you might be able to use for subject matter in your own art creations.

examples: washing the dog, beach trip, bicycle ride, skateboard wipeout, I dropped all my pennies, headphones, water towers. Just list things at random to use for later. As you begin to journal you will write down things as they happen to use for subjects in the future. It is fun and it prevents artist block, that moment when you are required to create a project but can’t think of anything to do! You will be glad you created this list. Add some of your best entries to our comments to help others.

Artists use art to communicate without words. American artist Grant Wood uses symbolism to make a statement in his work American Gothic Look at the work and write in your journal what you see, read the details of the work. Does it change your perception of the painting? American Gothic is one of the most well known pieces of art in America. It has been parodied countless times. Using a page in your journal, pretend you are Grant Wood, make a daily diary entry on how you feel about people using your work to create their own parody? How would he feel? He might want to discuss it with Leonardo de Vinci, what great work did he do that was used in a similar way?

Look at current event headlines for today, You may use Internet news or USA Today, pick a headline read the story for the event then create a Graphite and watercolor pencil project that represents your event. Make sure you are not recreating a photo from the story, you are creating your own visual interpretation of the event. This drawing project may take several days of work. Overlap some of your objects to create the illusion of depth. Fill your page.