Muses

[Fairy]

muse¹

/myo͞oz/ noun: Muse; plural noun: Muses

(in Greek and Roman mythology) each of nine goddesses, the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, who preside over the arts and sciences.

a woman, or a force personified as a woman, who is the source of inspiration for a creative artist.

synonyms: inspiration, creative influence, stimulus; formal afflatus

"the poet's muse"​

muse²

/myooz/ noun
1350–1400; Middle English Muse < Middle French < Latin Mūsa < Greek Moûsa

1. Classical Mythology

a. any of a number of sister goddesses, originally given as Aoede (song), Melete (meditation), and Mneme (memory), but latterly and more commonly as the nine daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne who presided over various arts: Calliope (epic poetry), Clio (history), Erato (lyric poetry), Euterpe (music), Melpomene (tragedy), Polyhymnia (religious music), Terpsichore (dance), Thalia (comedy), and Urania (astronomy); identified by the Romans with the Camenae.
b. any goddess presiding over a particular art.​

2. (sometimes lowercase) the goddess or the power regarded as inspiring a poet, artist, thinker, or the like.

3. (lowercase) the genius or powers characteristic of a poet.​

source​

Read the above passages and consider their meaning. Artistic meaning can be interpreted from anything, be it nature or industry, goddesses or demons. What are some of your muses? Do you employ the use of metaphysical (or otherwise) guidance to inspire your work? If so, what are they? What in your life lends to your creative inclinations? Discuss!

Feel free to post whatever it is that inspires you, be it a song, a picture of your dog, or something cool you found on the internet. If it's a muse to you, share it!

 

[Kokenovem]

Well, it depends about the work, but normally my muse is the music, trailer music, soundtracks or chillout...
I really enjoy some youtube's music channels with cool music to work: TheSoundYouNeed, Majestic...

 

[derozio]

It honestly wouldn't be wrong to call Signomi, Gav, you, Loki and Pokey my muses. You all have inspired me to work harder towards improving myself in whichever medium I've tried my hand at. It isn't just your words of encouragement, though (although that's a huge part as well!), but the fact that just looking at your works make me go "wow. These are people I know. Some of them I've even seen grow right before my eyes as the years passed by. I ought to try and work harder. Just like they did!". I'm being completely honest.

And this may ~kind of~ catch you all off-guard, but a driving force towards me trying to improve my traditional art in general is erotic manga. Yes, you heard that right. I've read quite a few of those around the net and the art in some of them simply had me mesmerized. I just love how they're able to draw characters and make them look so damn sexy. I want to be able to draw something like that someday. Something that'd be able to make people go "Holy crap, that girl character looks so damn hot".

...yeah, that's ridiculous. But I'm just being honest here. XD; Ero-manga does have some ridiculously good art if you look around for it. :v That, and there's the manga art in general. There are works of art like Vagabond, Berserk, Breaker, Oyasumi Punpun and a lot of other series where the attention to detail to every damn thing - be it characters, backgrounds or just panel organization - everything is so perfect. I can't help but stare at good artwork in manga for minutes on end at times - you all know that feeling of being completely mesmerized by something and not being able to take your eyes off from it, right? That's what I'm talking about. That's something I want to be able to achieve myself - I want other people to be mesmerized by my artwork. It is a dream which will take a good amount of years. Maybe 10. Maybe 20. Who knows? But I'm ready to work towards that goal.

Oh, and manga being a large influence doesn't really mean I'm gonna be drawing and practicing only manga art/japanese style art. My goal is to become great at art in general - to be able to draw realistic, comic book style, manga style, fantasy stuff - anything and everything. Which kinda means I look at various stuff online and not just jap style stuff. deviantart is mostly where I find good stuff. For manga and anime art, it is mostly going through stuff at danbooru/gelbooru (nsfw sites), zerochan, pixiv and a few other sites. Of course, though, the larger number of sites that I have as sources for anime/manga art suggests my inclination towards it - which is true. I'd say it is 70% japanese style art and 30% all the other kind that fascinates and serves as inspiration to me in general.

That's it, I guess? I'll edit this post later if anything else comes to my mind.

 

[Universe]

My muse is pretty simple actually... characters. The same ones in which I recreate through art, see in my day-to-day life, and experience. Characters were the driving force behind my start in art many years ago, and that drive has not diminished even slightly throughout the years.. only grown. I have always been fascinated by characters. How different they are from one another in design, in personality, in life. It always brings me into a curious state where I ask myself, "What would it be like to see through their eyes?", "How can I display my love and enjoyment of this character? How should I show my appreciation towards them?", "What would it be like to be them?". These are questions that are never absent when I'm working on art.

I'd spend hours upon hours drawing my favorite characters in notebooks as a child... until my fingers became sore and I couldn't move them anymore, or until I fell asleep right ontop of my work space. I was just so inspired by them, their adventures, their personalities... their flaws, their troubles, their plus sides. Because of all this, I ended up creating my very own character for the first time. It snowballed after that, and now I have an uncountable amount of characters.

I've been designing and creating characters for as long as I can remember, now... and recreating ones that I already love. The characters themselves are referred to in a community I come from as a 'muse'. Because you were inspired to portray that character, to put yourself in their shoes, to live their life for a short while. They are your driving force in everything you do relating to them - roleplay, art, the works.

It's because of characters that I even bothered to pick up that pencil years ago... it's because of them that I bought a tablet to begin digital art.. and the whole reason I still draw to this day. Characters, whether they are my own or another's, are precious to me.

For all that they are, for all that they aren't... they will always be my muse.