Yoink Everything

Where does your art come from? Does it come from the way the leaves rustle in the wind? How the rabbit races across the field? Does it come from a conversation you overheard on the train? Or the way droplets roll down your skin as you shower? Perhaps your art was once an interesting cloud shape, or it used to be a pattern in the stars you connected.

The truth is, even if we bring it back to nature, you're observing the same things that homo Sapiens have been observing ever since other hominins have been walking the Earth, even if they have taken on a different form. Your creative lineage is so ancient, the original artist you're taking from may not even be a human.

Your Art is Part of an Ancient Lineage

You can trace the line of an artist to one who marked pigments on a cave. To someone telling stories in a series of grunts that is not quite yet a language. Someone banging on rocks in a structured manner that will one day become a beat. Every tool you use has the same heritage so old, clothing wasn't yet a concept.

Even if your art looks nothing like the cave paintings, they are related. Countless generations of works link you and those cave paintings in a way that could only make the masters of the time proud to see what has become what was to them a new tradition.

I have even put a highlight on some parts of my own lineage. If you wish to see what works inspired me, I made a post all about it! https://dextiveblog.blogspot.com/2025/04/my-inspirations.html

Learn With Imitation

If you make that connection direct, and imitate them, you may learn something. The same can be said for modern artists. Copy what they do, and you will learn the working parts behind what makes their art special and make you drawn (for lack of a better term) to the artist. Imitation is the greatest form of flattery, or so they say.

If you wish to imitate how I write blogs, I made an entire post on my process. Feel free to copy what you wish after reading for your own blog. https://dextiveblog.blogspot.com/2025/07/my-writing-process-for-blog-posts.html

Studio Ghibli's Depiction of Mundanity

Take Studio Ghibli, for instance. It doesn't take imitation to see what Miyazaki is cooking. Many of his most iconic works are about finding the fantastic in the mundane. Children playing in rural Japan may find a spirit, a family exploring an abandoned theme park may lead to a hidden world of fantasy, you may find yourself crying as you witness the slow death of two children after the firing of an atomic bomb.

That last one was even a double feature with the first when it released!

Perhaps Miyazaki is the best showcase when it comes to art coming from nature itself. Taking what the world has to offer and turn it into something that captured the imagination of billions. 

Conclusion

The point is, yoink everything. Take everything you see and make it yours. Don't hesitate to steal or to be unoriginal. It is unoriginality where your voice will develop and begin to shine.

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