How to Stay Inspired Without Social Media

Every artist has been there, searching for reference images or inspiration only to end up hours later with 62 pins, 40-something reels, and still no idea what to draw. While social media platforms like Pinterest and Instagram are common tools for finding inspiration and references, they may also be responsible for killing your creative process.

As an artist who’s started her studio time with the intention of painting and ended up scrolling for hours, only to end up feeling like I’d rather not even try, I knew I needed a change. But like you, I wasn’t sure where to start. That is, until recently, when I placed a time limit on my socials and learned I already had the tools I needed to create freely without the scroll.

Creatives have a tendency to take photos of everything (I know I do), from a pattern you liked on a door, to a mug you saw in a store, to the way the sky looked on your way home. Take a quick scroll through your camera roll, and I guarantee you will find something that you meant to draw but never did. These photos you’ve taken, no matter how long ago, provide you with your own database to choose from, and the best part of this database is the more photos you take, the more it grows.

This ties into developing a habit of learning to notice the world around you, which is a great skill when it comes to being an artist ( I wrote a post on that here). Once you start taking your own reference images, you’ll notice your curiosity and enjoyment for painting and life becomes a lot grander. You’ll find new subjects and interesting color palettes that give you even more of a personal style, giving your art more of an opportunity to stand out.

Another way to gather references and inspiration is asking close friends and family for pictures of their travels or things that interest them; this is a great way to get photos from different perspectives that are not widely available on the internet. Your art will look more like an extension of you and may even be easier for your audience to identify.

Aside from your camera roll, your local library is also a great resource; think photo books based on your painting niche, graphic novels, and other art books that provide a variety of inspiration and references. I looked at books a lot in the beginning stages of the pull to be off socials; books provide less of a distraction and add more feeling to your creative process. Plus, you get the experience of physically going to pick up or browse shelves and can get more niche-catered references.

All these methods are useful because they allow you to think for yourself, provide a clearer mind, and allow for originality. To be an artist is to create from your soul, and the dazed and confused feeling you get after spending the time you were supposed to be using to create doom scrolling is not a coincidence.

After spending many years painting myself and looking at other artist and their creative process, I now realize why so many of them used photos they had taken themselves. The more time and effort you put into your craft, the more rewarding, fun, and alive it feels.

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