About The Author

Veerle is one of the fascinating minds behind Duoh!, whose love for design in all its various forms shines through. She is a graphic/Web designer hailing from a … More about Veerle

Challenge Yourself More Often By Creating Artwork Every Day

Quick Summary

Whether you’re into good ol’ drawing and painting, or quick editing in Photoshop or Illustrator, one thing’s for sure: they’re all creativity’s best friends. Some draw pictures all day, while others find their inspiration in uncommon sources in order to break out of the box. Whatever it is that you decide to do, it’s good to challenge yourself more often and get out of your comfort zone. If you don’t, you may never discover something that you love doing, or perhaps even worse, never learn a whole lot about yourself.

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Whether you’re into good ol’ drawing and painting, or quick editing in Photoshop or Illustrator, one thing’s for sure: they’re all creativity’s best friends. Some draw pictures all day, while others find their inspiration in uncommon sources in order to break out of the box. Whatever it is that you decide to do, it’s good to challenge yourself more often and get out of your comfort zone. If you don’t, you may never discover something that you love doing, or perhaps even worse, never learn a whole lot about yourself.

If your excuse are pesky blackouts or simply having no clue what to create nor where to get started, don’t fret! Even the most talented artists out there practice so much more than you’d ever imagine, and hone their skills by trying out copywork. The most important thing is to be confident and simply give it a try. For more encouragement, I’ve collected a good number of inspirational artwork that is bound to give you that spark you need to get started already!

Further Reading on SmashingMag:

ING Creatives 2017

It’s quite obvious where they got the inspiration from. Very well executed.

Image credit: Chiara Vercesi

Shop — Belgium

Hard not to love this. Just look at the shadow and light effect on the Atomium, and the subtle texture pattern in the spheres. So well done.

Image credit: Sam Chivers

Kinkaider Brewing Co. — Moscow Mule

Interesting choice of colors. It gets the adventure spirit going. Those line textures are also very well applied.

Image credit: Matt Carlson

Golden Light At Paris

Beautiful timing to get that amazing golden hour work for you. Combine that with Paris and you get this result.

Image credit: Nathalie Geffroy

Balanced Life ?

Love the hairline, handlebar and wheels. Super cool!

Image credit: Frederique Matti

Hacking — Crayonfire

An editorial illustration for DB Magazine in the US on the subject of the dangers of hackers within the hospital system. Beautiful style, colors and patterns.

Image credit: Neil Stevens

Poste Italiane

Nice perspective, and beautiful style. I love the radio.

Image credit: Andrea De Santis

La Maison À Travers Les Âges

The surreal world of Sébastien Plassard.

Image credit: Sébastien Plassard. (Large preview)

California Sunsets ?

Such a beautiful shot with a perfect fly-by by those birds. Amazing colors.

Image credit: earth

Nature Prints

A selection of recent prints created with a wildlife theme. Go see the others, too.

Image credit: Neil Stevens

Belgian Headwinds

Beautiful! However, when your legs don’t want to cooperate it can be something else.

Image credit: Matt Blease

Second Thought Poster

One of winners of Communication Arts 2017. I love the duplicity in here. Very clever!

Image credit: Magoz

Escada

Wonderful usage of vivid colors used in this fragrance brand illustration.

Image credit: Mads Berg

Illustration For GQ Magazine, Thailand

The muted colors work very well together. I’m also inspired by the simplicity of the shadows.

Image credit: Tanawat Sakdawisarak

ING Creatives Festival

The reflection in the helmet, and reflection of the light on the suit are nicely executed.

Image credit: Lena Vargas Afanasieva

ING Creatives Festival II

Much to love in here such as the custom typography, the special dog and the color palette.

Image credit: Lena Vargas Afanasieva

Mortirolo-Gavia

Simply gorgeous!

Image credit: Jered Gruber

Design In Alert

Still from an illustrated animation. The finished video of Festival Bienal is quite nice.

Image credit: Felipe Vargas

100 Years Of La Rinascente

Love the elegance in this design style.

Image credit: Simone Massoni. (Large preview)

The Thirty-Nine Steps

The suspense is all over this illustration for the novel The Thirty-Nine Steps. Makes me want to read it.

Image credit: Giordano Poloni

Countryside Cycling Prints

Inspired by those long countryside curved roads. Love how the colors are applied.

Image credit: Neil Stevens

Manhattan — Muti

Love the amount of detail and simplicity with the 1 line weight and the minimal use of color.

Image credit: Muti

Foggy Sunrise

Wonderful landscape and atmosphere with fog, foreground and one red poppy!

Image credit: Pascal Schirmer

Racing Post

So many things to discover in this beautiful piece. Made me smile. I really love the busyness here. So well executed.

Image credit: Steve Scott. (Large preview)

Radio Flyer 100th Anniversary Poster

Great poster. Love the impressive impact. Read about the design process.

Image credit: Brian Miller

Geometry In Architecture

Great geometry and wonderful reflection of the sky.

Image credit: nihilisten

Countryside Cycling Prints II

Inspired by those long countryside curves. You feel the speed in this one. Available as a poster.

Image credit: Neil Stevens

Seasalt Rain Branding

Part of a selection of characters which personified the incredibly functional yet stylish Rain collection. See the other characters, too.

Image credit: Foxcub Studio

Letterforms And Calligraphy

Lovely mix of colors and beautiful custom typography.

Image credit: Matteo Goi

Colorful Boxes

Playing with color, shapes and shadow. That’s what you’ll see in this series called Colorful Boxes. Absolutely love the very bright colors in this one.

Image credit: Andreas Levers

Antelope Canyon

Amazing capture! It’s Antelope Canyon in Arizona. It looks so surreal, just like paint strokes.

Image credit: Earth

Desert Landscape Study

The 45 degrees lines made the final work looks really unique. Look at the shadow and light effect on the cactus. So well done.

Image credit: Matt Carlson

Mountain Roads

Views like this are the reward for all the suffering to get there.

Image credit: desvre

The History Of The Book

Opening illustration for an article about the history of the book. Beautiful style and details! The hair is nicely done.

Image credit: Goncalo Viana

Seaside

Inspiring color combinations.

Image credit: Matt Carlson

Usbek & Rica #22

Great shadows and gradients, and lovely soft style.

Image credit: Florent Hauchard

Pavillon Gazon

Great unity. Love the cute detail of the dog running away.

Image credit: Fago Studio. (Large preview)

Mostly Mozart

Perfect example on what you can achieve when using negative space.

Image credit: Malika Favre

Mexican Dude

Gotta love the cacti as well as the colors here — obviously.

Image credit: Anano Miminoshvili

Designing For Growth

An illustration for Etsy for their medium blog about designing for growth.

Image credit: Naomi Wilkinson

Information Overload

Dealing well with flood of information. Very well translated.

Image credit: Tim Boelaars

Train Safety, Mind The Gap

Nicely done Mind The Gap train safety poster.

Image credit: Robert Frank Hunter

Under Construction

Beautiful color palette in this one. The reflections on the windows are nicely done.

Image credit: Dmitrij

Trail Bliss

Never stop exploring! Fantastic action shot with superb light.

Image credit: Sandi Bertoncelj

Airstream

Pretty sweet texture work and great color choices.

Image credit: Muti

Bons Baisers de Lemon Bay

Admiring the simplicity of this style.

Image credit: Virginie Morgand

Segment

Not your everyday color palette. I really like the idea of leaving color out. Beautiful design style.

Image credit: Jones & Co

McLaren Poster Illustration

Always a pleasure to introduce some new work from Mads. Love how he played with perspective in this one.

Image credit: Mads Berg

Jazz

That clarinet player is just perfect. I love how his finger draws your eye up to the piano player with that matched fine line.

Image credit: Andy Selimov