Multiple Interest

[Zearthus]

Just finished reading a book called steal like an artist, and there is one interesting point about having multiple passions instead of discarding.

In your case, how has multiple interest contribute to one art piece for you? Unless of course, you have no multiple hobbies/interest.

[Jeso]

I have a ton of hobbies, but mainly its just music and Tennis, sometimes it sucks to have to stop doing those for the sake of improving art. But.. I havent gotten to that point where i actually let those hobbies influence my art. I have many ideas tho.. that have been inspired by those hobbies, and hopefully I do them eventually. :)

[StardustLarva]

I have a number of other interests aside from drawing and painting, though one of the more prominent ones is a number of facets of biology and nature, particularly entomology (which I'm sure no one would guess looking at me, haha). I find a lot of stuff in the natural world has influenced my work, both conceptually as well as aesthetically.

[Zearthus]

@Jeso
Oh, maybe you could lets say capture the emotion you feel during those activities and transform it into a scenery or character design depending what you do.

@StardustLarva
That sounds like a sweet combination! Never heard of entomology until now, so intriguing.

[Mylqin]

I prefer the more lenient hobbies because art is such a Goliath, just thinking of going in depth in another subject is earth shattering to me. Most of the hobbies I had I dipped my toes into, like I used to like voice acting and I don't even know what the fundamentals of that is.

Inspiration wise I like learning of historical weapons, i'm no history buff just a layman with above average knowledge of such a thing, this taught me that movies... aren't really that accurate and how silly the sward clashing is and how easy it would be to parry such a thing. It also taught me how ridiculous most fantasy weapons we create are.

Casual hobbies like watching movies and playing videogames really taught me a lot as well, you watch a late dreamworks movie you can see the mood lighting and figure out such compositions, I learned a lot about armor and design by playing darksouls as well. As for my latest hobby which is language learning, I do not see how it will help in art just yet, perhaps I will find a program in another language which will inspire me.

[Farvus]

Some of my passions contribute more to my art while others less.

Tabletop RPGs - this hobby probably affected my art the most. A lot of my first pieces were inspired by Warhammer FRP. I developed my worldbuilding and storytelling skills through role playing games. I can even risk to say that worldbuilding and storytelling is even bigger drive for me when it comes to drawing than making some cool looking pieces. They can end up looking average but I have the most fun if there's some greater story behind illustration.

Architecture - This is something I studied and it strongly affects how I draw. I tend to favor graphical shapes, straight lines and strong use of perspective even if I don't think about it. Also a lot of my art centers around architecture or urban areas.

Airsoft - this is a dying hobby as I don't have much time for this lately. After few months of playing this I think somehow I got a better feel for painting a militaristic scenes with soldiers doing stuff (running, shooting, patrolling).

Swimming - my latest sci-fi project is a bit inspired by diving in swimming pools.

[smrr]

Woah nice, this is an interesting topic n_n

Also, you guys have really fun hobbies!

Hobbies aside from art?

Vidya games easily.
Mostly games that allow you to generate you own character and customise them, e.g. GTA 5, Skyrim, Mass Effect m- that kind of thing. Once they've been made, I tend to give them a backstory. It's a fun thing my bro and I do while we play.
So why they have a certain tattoo, hairstyle, drive a certain car, use certain weapons, etc etc. Super role-playey.

Then there's a game that I played a couple of times with some old friends called "GURPS", very similar to DnD, only the universes you create aren't only stuck in one time period... anyway, really got my imagination going. A couple of other friends play DnD, but I've never played that.

I also used to rollerblade a lot as a kid/teen. Which = a super influence of mine.
I wanna pick it up again but atm I'm too afraid of breaking my arm if I do lol.
I just haven't tried incorporating it into any of my art yet because I've been wanting to do it justice... and that's not the case yet with my stiff figures.
I s'pose the anime "Air Gear" enhanced my love for rollerblading, as the flowiness and comedy of that series still inspires me to this day.

Also as a kid I did a bunch of stupid shit with friends like pranks - if you can call that a hobby lol. So I s'pose being a muck up has influenced my work as well. And humour. Gotta have that humour.

Hmmmm... that's all I can think of atm, might edit this post later if I have the time.

[KurtJeremy]

Hmmmm priorities have changed this past few years for me,
So far its onky been art. But I realized how much I like films and the directig aspects of it.also been realy interested in philosophy and been trying to sneak in a read or two apart from arting.

[meat]

I have a hobby of collecting fancy origami papers and scanning them. I use those patterns on some digital pieces I've illustrated. Does that count? The pile of origami paper keeps growing because I don't know what to do with those expensive, nice papers. It's a waste to make them all into paper cranes - the only origami thing I know how to make.

[Lodratio]

I think with art especially, doing something outside of grinding away at the technical aspects of it is important. There needs to be a counterbalance of some sort, or you'll be good at art but you won't know what to do with your skill. Being a great painter and having no good reason to paint is almost as bad as having great ideas that you aren't able to execute, though at least you'll be able to find a job.

So yeah, pursuing multiple interests is definitely a good idea, and as long as you do things while keeping art in mind it will help you improve in some way no matter what it may be. If you're looking for inspiration, doing things that are very different in nature  is a great source for looking at things from weird angles and coming up with ideas. I like super crisp looking 'serious' art, but I also like crappy stylized drawings. I like reading and writing, but I also like watching silly videos on youtube and bantering on anonymous imageboards. Between any two extremes there's a world of possibilities just waiting to be explored.