illustration - devon smith - young women to write about

If anything can inspire a story, it's these illustrations by Devon Smith - women
riddled with melancholy, apathy, determination, suspicion, and yearning.
Devon enjoys reading old science fiction novels.  She relates to two truths that
seem common to most breeds of artist: that you must create for yourself alone,
and that a common struggle will be your audience not matching your
enthusiasm for a work.

Take a look and see if any of her illustrations prompt a story for you...

illustration - carolina raquel antich

Carolina's paintings are filled with strange children put up against stark
backgrounds, with little suggestions of context - mist, water, a forest, a
deep hole.  The scenes she creates are ripe with interesting stories, from
kids playing with battleships in a flood, to a golden family with ten
mysterious children.

Be inspired.  And write on.

on writing - wendy lesser

The great novelist (unlike the clever, tricky novelist...) does not
construct an entirely new fictional world each time he writes a novel.
He cannot choose to do that as his inferiors can because the world he
visits in his fiction has a reality for him that is not entirely of his own
willed making.

- Wendy Lesser

By Andrea Wan

illustration - jennifer davis

Monsters and dreamers and gorillas, oh my!  Have a look at the art
of Jennifer Davis.  She's known for being fond of putting animals
into human situations, starting her paintings with the eyes since they
are the "soul" and anchor of a painting, and completing much of a
piece before suddenly painting over all she'd done.  "I enjoy the
repetitive labor," she says, "finding the bravery to paint over it and
uncover something fresh." (LazyCobra)

In that way, painting may have a common thread with writing...
Repetition, starting over, multiple drafts, discoveries...

Enjoy.

illustration - aris moore

I've been reading some horror and dark fantasy short fiction lately,
and then I came across the work of Aris Moore, which struck me as
perfectly dark and subtly horrifying, its cutting, absurd mood the
same as some of the stories I've been reading.  Check it out and have
a go at some darker kinds of writing...

And if you want something to read, check out Lisa Tuttle's "Objects
in Dreams May Be Closer Than They Appear," which is very creepy
..found in the House of Fear anthology and The Year's Best Dark 
Fantasy & Horror 2012.

illustration - write me - dilka bear

Dilka Bear doesn't create stories, per se - she creates characters.
Each of these works is a dense drop of someone she's created, ready
for some storyteller to come along and expand.

Dilka Bear says she likes to portray a world without the things that
bind us.  Smiles make her nervous, which is why she doesn't include
them often; they don't often accurately reflect the world.  Have a
look and see if there's a connection between your work and hers...

illustration - johanna ost

Fantasy, if it's really convincing, can't become dated, for the simple
reason that it represents a flight into a dimension that lies beyond
the reach of time.   - Walt Disney Company

The same is true of these illustrations...

View Johanna's gallery here.

illustration - yoskay yamamoto

These works by Yamamoto seem to be a study in the magnificence
of melancholia, scenes perfect for storytellers to grab and expand
upon because they're ideal representations of middle-moments -
moments ready for the questions what happened before and what 
happens after?  Of the countless characters up for stories, these
are some of them.

illustration - aniela sobieski

Any one of these works by Aniela Sobieski would make a wonderful
short story.  A girl with a pet dinosaur, a peculiar waiting room, an
obsessive moth collector, and a mysterious aquatic humanoid with
bright red lips.  Any of these sounds good to me.

Write on.

illustration - kaspian shore

These illustrations by Kaspian Shore look to me like a series of book
covers (think of The Vampire Diaries series).  Each is a different
character, or a few characters slowly changing in this mixed up
science fiction/fantasy world.  I'm intrigued - and provoked to try
and dream up who they might be..  Hope you are too.

Be moved.  Onward and upward.

illustration - amanda blake

This little piece from Amanda Blake is amazing - and all because of
its title: 15 people holding on to that which will determine their fate.
Wow.  Had to share.  Hopefully that gets your storytelling gears going..

illustration - megan kimber

I would describe Megan as a master of visual personality.  Take
the first image, for example - each character has a specific posture,
expression, and visual leaning that fantastically communicate her
personality.  And no two are alike.  There are characters here
already, waiting for words, for histories, for paths to travel down.
Amazing.

illustration - kristin kwan

Kristin's imagination and illustrative skill combine to create
wonders such as these.  Characters, snapshots of surreal situations,
moments that leave the onlooker yearning for more.  In her own
 words, "When I was two and a half I drew my first picture, a
(rather snarled) robin; and my paintings are still filled with birds,
and other beasts too, who act out little dramas and mysterious
tableaus."  Mysterious tableaus.  Love it.  Have a look...

illustration - jennifer healy

When I see Jennifer's work, I'm reminded of the art often
accompanying short fiction on tor.com.  These could easily be
paired with some serious fantasy and SF stories with striking
female protagonists or villains.  Her work certainly inspires
me to write those kind of stories...

illustration - cendrine rovini

These works by Rovini are simply breathtaking.  Of her artistry
she says, "This is not a whim, I merely need this, I need to express
those things I have in me and floating around me, trying to make
them visible a little more."  Her main sources of inspiration are the
characters already in her head, who she has a hard time claiming
creatorship for.  When she has an idea, she's impatient to begin the
work, and can't wait for all to be in order so she can begin.  She
says, "I just follow the lines and colors arriving under my hands
directly from this space of my soul."  (Via Ana Pina)

Gaze into the fire, into the clouds, and as soon as the inner voices
begin to speak... surrender to them. Don't ask first whether it's
permitted, or would please your teachers or father or some god.
You will ruin yourself if you do that.   - Hermann Hesse

illustration - jenny meilihove

I love these by Jenny Meilihove.  There's nothing explicitly
magical in them, but its there, somewhere in the eccentricity.
A creepy child stuck in the middle of a rug, another playing
the accordion.  The anticipation of a wind-up toy, a peculiar
way of dressing.  There are stories here.

illustration - tatka

Tatka's work is very much about the wonder secreted and
reserved for those on the fringes, for those who go off on
their own and find some special part of the world that few
others know about.  I love the bits of stories she puts before
us and am immediately provoked into daydreaming about
their ends and beginnings.

I learned about the sacred art of self decoration with the
monarch butterflies perched atop my head, lightning bugs
as my night jewelry, and emerald-green frogs as bracelets.
- Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Women Who Run With the Wolves

illustration - kristin vestgard

Kristin's work is full of melancholy atmosphere, some misty
fantasy meant for lavish words.  Her characters come from
ice, ivy, flowers, wind, and stars.  I love, love, love these
people, whoever they are.  The mood reminds me of the stories
of Elizabeth Hand.  A quote to illustrate:

[Her face] was gray.  Not a living gray, like hair or fur, but a
dull, mottled color, the gray of dead bark or granite.
And not just her face but her hands and arms: everything I could
see of her that had been skin, now seemed cold and dead as the
heap of fireplace rocks downstairs.  Her clothes drooped as
though tossed on a boulder, her hair stiffened like strands of
reindeer moss.  Even her eyes dulled to black smears, save for a
pinpoint of light in each, as though a drop of water had been
caught in the hollow of a stone.

- Elizabeth Hand, Errantry, "Winter's Wife"

illustration - hsiao-ron cheng

Cheng has only been in freelance illustration for a year, but her
work seems far beyond that.  She is inspired by childhood
memories mixed with dreams mixed with things she sees each
day.  Many of her pieces come from a conversation she had
with a little girl who drew big heads and scars and said, "They
all get hurt because their heads are too big so they bump
together...  Tiny people live here, the big head is their room."
Those few phrases turned into great stories in digital paint.

She starts a project with a sketch, then layers on mood, and
details one at a time.  She starts with small things, small
stories and connects them together to create a work of art.
She says she spends lots of work time just staring, removing
little flaws...   Sounds a lot like writing.

illustration - liz wikstrom

Liz doesn't have too large a body of work yet, but what she
has produced, I love.  I immediately jump to wondering on
the stories to match these images...  Will the bear harm that
man?  What makes the cat's eyes sparkle with mad glee?
What kind of sorceress is she and what will she ask for?
I look forward to see what else she comes up with.

The light was coming from two bears at the edge of the trees,
holding torches.  They were big, three-hundred-pounders,
standing about five feet tall.  Wallace Jr. and his father had
seen them and were standing perfectly still.  It's best not to
alarm bears.  - Terry Bisson, "Bears Discover Fire"