Sunday, January 11, 2015

Point of Inspiration

Have I ever mentioned where I derive my inspiration, specifically? Sure, you all know by now that I like fantasy novels and video games. But which novels and games? As artists, we derive inspiration from our surroundings, either directly, as in painting a landscape, or indirectly, as in painting an emotion. I'm very directly influenced by my environment--I use it as a spring board for a sometimes spiraling out of control string of ideas.

I began reading fantasy novels when I was 11, and was completely in love with magic and dragons long before I picked up my first book. Somewhere along the line, no one ever told me about the fantastic works by J.R.R. Tolkien. I've read classic fantasy novel writers like Irene Radford, Robert Jordan, and Anne McCaffrey, I must say, once I began reading Tolkien, I've been rather obsessed. with collecting and reading all Tolkien books (and also binge reading the Wikipedia pages too).


I often work and watch old movies to keep my mind working while I create; art doesn't flow from a stale brain, right? Here are some of my LOTR-inspired batts. Fangorn Forest:


Anduin:


The Lonely Mountain:


Lothlorien:


The Road to Bree:


And I can tell you that these were originally created while re-watching the LOTR movies for the umpteenth time. :) I haven't made any Hobbit or Simarillion based batts yet, but you can bet that I will. If you are interested in any of these batts, let me know and I can work some magic to pull one off the carder when I can. Or, I'm also happy to create a new batt based on a Tolkien character.

I haven't done specific batts for my other books, but I might soon. I just finished reading book 5 in the Wheel of Time series (by Robert Jordan). I don't want to give anything away, but I have been inspired by Rand's recent dragon addition. *Wink*

I don't have much in the way of current video game inspirations, but I do have a batt set called Forest of Amalur, from the video game, Kingdoms of Amalur:


And a dyed braid called Land of Zeal, from Chrono Trigger:


And this one from the 1980s movie Labyrinth:


What are your inspirations as you create? Do you delve deep into your emotion bank, pull out your heart, and express it in fiber and yarn? Do you make whatever has been rolling around in your head for several weeks? Do you craft what your dreams make? Do you articulate the world into a single, simplified colorway? Let me know in the comments below, or on Facebook

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