Lucid Dreaming for Artistic Inspiration

So I have a question...

I am an Artist, and I have constantly taken Inspiration for a lot of my paintings from my dreams in one form of another. I find Lucid Dreams to be a quite exceptional tool when it comes to my craft. (I am primarily a Fantasy/Sci Fi illustrator) It can be incredibly helpful for me to be able to fully immerse myself in a world that I am trying to create on "canvas". Lucid dreams put me right in the center of this world I am trying to create! And while there are sometimes difficulties in bringing back certain details to the waking world (thanks a lot fading dream memories), I still find it to be both exhilarating and helpful.

Does anyone else use LD's for this purpose? I have talked to a lot of other artists out there, and while I have met some that do take inspiration from their dreams occasionally, I have yet to meet anyone who uses Lucid Dreaming as a tool like I do. This boggles my mind :) There HAS to be others out there who use Lucid Dreams to help with their art! (Be it painting/music/writing...whatever)

Would love to hear everyone's viewpoint on this. Especially if you yourself utilize it! Thanks so much :)

I haven't yet but at some point I am going to work doing something related to dreaming if not directly related. I want to illustrate my dreams and hope that may one day provide inspiration for a film. I don't have anything else I am really into so there isn't something I feel I can use it for, more like get some some use of out of it.

Thats awesome Robert! I think lucid dreaming would be a huge help in trying to come up with film ideas/inspiration. If you ever do illustrate some of your dreams I'd love to see them. I have a dream sketchbook that I keep by my bed and I couldnt live without it. They are usually quick little doodles that are messy as heck cause I do them right when I wake up, but they tend to help me retain details from my dreams that come to me when I go back and try to really paint what I dreamed.

i wish I knew how to draw well because I would love to draw my dreams and more specifically the people in them. I will lose the image of the person from My memory over time but if It's fresh I can remember and imagine the detail. I'm sure as one gets more proficient in drawing it becomes easier to hold onto that memory and easier to sketch something out real quick that looks like what you experienced and then add more detail later to bring it to life... Also I would think that drawing would make dreams more vivid because attention to detail is big part of it ( well at leat with some styles... I like realism )

Would you say that is accurate?

I would say that is accurate. People are one of the hardest things to draw anyways, and trying to bring a face out of the dreamworld is even MORE difficult. Being able to draw well is certainly going to help you out there. The more detail you get in the initial drawing, the easier its going to be when you want to refine it , for sure.

For me, my early morning sketch is almost like a memory cue. As long as I get the basic idea of the dream down(regardless of how well drawn it is) and I remember what is going on, it makes it easier to pull the details out of the dream when I look at the sketch I did at a later date. I find that sketching my dreams is actually BETTER than writing them down in some cases. Especially if it is the visual elements I am trying to specifically remember. Not sure if that would be the same with trying to remember faces tho. I think its like anything, however. The more you practice, the better you get!

Not sure if being able to draw well actually would increase the vividness of dreams . I think artistic people do tend to look at the world through a different lens in some cases, and you might be able to make an argument that it affects the quality of dreams. That is an interesting question :)

Yes.
Definitely a tool to enhance creativity. I'm not experienced yet, but the absolute reason why I study lucid dream is to use the power of the subcouscious as a fresh tool for creativity, it's said that the subconscious can create new concepts by combining others ones, a inedit process for an inedit result.
Check in the "Artist' Corner" section, few people painted things from dreamworld. I rode in Daniel Love' book that a jazzman (don't remember the name) was asking to dream characters to perform a new song for him. Or a painter could visit a museum and see the next painting.
One time I heard a very complex and beutiful symphony, but impossible the remind it because I don't have the tools in waking like to hear and compose music in this way. I think that with practice and belief, it is possible to work between waking life and dreamworld.
Personally I'm into music, I'm not experienced yet in lucid dreaming, but it is my goal in life, to create music from my dreams.

It is certainly possible to bring music back from your dreams! I think I read an article somewhere that Paul McCartney dreamed the song "Yesterday". Lemme see if I can find it....Paul McCartney: Favourite Beatles' Song Came To Me In A Dream | Gigwise

Very interesting indeed :) I am confident that you will gain the skills you need to do just the same thing. Thanks for responding!

Yea I'm like you too I'm much more visual... a picture tells a thousand words after all. I might even be interested in making it comic like because it would have to be a series of pictures after all... unless I wanted to make it like a movie poster and have the different elements of the dream sporadically placed throughout one picture. You could easily make graphic novels out dreams... easily.

I remember I heard a song playing at the end of a Lucid dream and the dream scene faded out but the song remained... If I was so inclined I could have easily kept the melody and other instrument patterns in my head and wrote it or used some beat making program to jot down the idea really quick. I'm sure if one had the goal of hearing music in their dream then it would come much more frequently and I'm sure you can dictate what type of songs play that are more your style. Keep at it man it will definitely happen for you.