My Favourite Art Inspiration Websites

The internet is full of great ways to get inspired to create. 

A quick Google image search can provide some ideas but because the order in which stuff appears is decide by popularity - not quality - you can end up looking at some pretty crappy stuff. 

So I've compiled a short list (in no particular order) of my own personal faves for inspiring creativity.

#01 First of all I'll promote my own art DeviantArt webpage - using my pseudonym 'Shapula' - is located here for anyone interested in having a gander!

  
#02 Escape From Illustration Island http://escapefromillustrationisland.com is full of so much stuff that your head will probably explode and you could die. Seriously. Well, ok, maybe not die...but you could get so creatively excited that your hair might turn blue. Especially visit the Resource Library http://escapefromillustrationisland.com/resources/ link and be prepared to never leave your computer screen again....until your hair goes blue of course.


#03 ConceptArtWorld http://conceptartworld.com has concept art. Well, what else did you expect?!


#04 VisualNews http://www.visualnews.com is another site similar to EmptyKingdom.com. It features lots of inspiration and ideas to make your brain warm up and feel all snuggly. Or it can make your brain melt.

 
#05 This guy's website, AlexHays.com http://alexhays.com/loomis/ provides links to freely download pdf books by acclaimed artist Andrew Loomis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Loomis Loomis may have written these books back in the day - some of the writing style and models drawn may seem dated and quaint - but he was bloody brilliant and inspiring.... and these are probably the best practical drawing and illustration books ever written. Read these books and you'll immediately get better at art.

 
#06 GurneyJourney http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/ is Dinotopia creator James Gurney's great website  is full of inspiration and advice.


#07 EmptyKingdom http://www.emptykingdom.com/ is a great website showcasing all forms of visual art from film to photography, painting to sculpture. I like choosing a random page and then clicking on the image links on the side which take you to cool places on the site.

 
#08 PetaPixel http://www.petapixel.com always has cool and inspiring ideas and the latest photographic news.

 
#09 CoverBrowser http://www.coverbrowser.com/ is a site that allows you to view hundreds of thousands of book and comic covers throughout the years.

 
#10 In-Public http://www.in-public.com/ is a site for public nudity....only kidding. It's great site for street photography. The galleries are inspiring - and especially so because it's all everyday, regular stuff captured with a twist.


#11 Sweet-Station http://sweet-station.com/blog/ is a site similar to EmptyKingdom. It has lots of cool stuff.  

#12 TodaysInspiration.com TodaysInspiration http://todaysinspiration.blogspot.com/ does exactly what it says on the tin - inspiring images and sketches. It can take a while to load all the images though.

I'll continue to add more links when I can and feel free to recommend any other sites you think I should check out too.

- Shane

Inspirational Cinematic Photography Examples

Often a still image can convey a greater story than most feature length movies, creating a mood that goes far beyond what is a solitary frame.

On doing a Google search for ‘cinematic photography’ I was disappointed with what popped up: mostly some Flickr photo’s cropped top and bottom with a black bar.

I also got some tutorials on turning a photograph into something ‘more cinematic looking’ – which basically involved upping the contrast and saturation and adding the obligatory horizontal black bars.

I’m sorry, but this is not cinematic.

Cinematic (to me at least) is not simply taking random snaps and re-formatting/messing about with curves!

Cinematic involves making a picture that tells a story that goes beyond the act of photographing a single moment in time.

Cinematic photography is making an image that creates in the viewer an experience that makes you start to piece together a storyline that exists before and after that initial frozen moment in time.

With that idea in mind, here is a brief list of just a few cinematic photographers that I like (in no particular order).

Click on each name to see a tiny thumbnail sample image of their brilliant work and make sure to look them up on Google to view more of their photographs.

*Gregory Crewdson:

*Alex Prager:

*Phillip DiLorca Corsica:

*Christophe Dessaigne

*Laurie Bartley:

*Astrid Kruse Jensen:

*Trent Park:

*Eric Ogden:

*David Solomons:

*Anders Bergh:

*Bharat Sikka:

*BJ Formento:

*Clark Vandergrift:

*Jean Yves Lemoigne:

*Julia Fullerton Batten:

*Keith Davis Young:

*Melanie Pullen:

*Ryan Schude:

*Sarah Ann Loreth:

*Sean Marc Lee:

*Stewart Isbell:

*William Eggleston:

The thing to notice when you check out these images is how none of them feature those dreaded horizontal black bars!

Do you know of any other cinematic photographers that you’d like to share?

Get in touch or leave a comment on the blog.

-Shane