An artist needs to be in the mood and have inspiration in order to create masterpieces. Some drew on love and music for their imagination, while others had more specific methods for bringing out the creativity in themselves.
Charles Dickens - the author of the emblematic books A Tale of Two Cities and Christmas Carol worked with extraordinary pedantry. He kept to a strict writing schedule. When he decided to write, he would lock himself in his cabinet from 9 in the morning until 2 at night and required grave silence to be kept in the house so that he could focus.
The author believed that the furniture in his writing room were also his talisman, which was why he took them with him whenever he left his home. He would also ask hotel owners to rearrange the rest of their rooms to resemble his own home.
Dickens only slept in rooms facing north and with his face pointing north because he believed he attracted the positive vibrations of the Earth when in this position.
Ludwig van Beethoven created a great part of his compositions while in motion. The composer believed that walks fueled him with inspiration and he would go outside to charge himself with creativity.
Beethoven also stimulated his creative thinking with beans. He would transfer 60 beans from one hand to the other, back and forth, while thinking. His secretary said that the musical genius also used water to inspire himself. He would pour water on his hands before creating a new work.
One of the strangest inspirational methods was invented by Salvador Dali. His surrealistic paintings take us to the world of hallucinations - between sleep and reality. But in order to walk the fine line between the 2, Dali relied on a specific trick.
Before falling asleep, the artist would grab a heavy metal key, holding it between his index finger and thumb of his left hand, with the head facing down. Eventually when he would drift off into sleep, his grip would loosen and the key would fall to the floor. Salvador Dali would wake up and immediately begin expressing the strange visions from his dreams.
Demosthenes was the most famous ancient Greek orator, leaving a mark on history with his unusual exercises on eloquence. He would develop his talent by speaking with rocks in his mouth while facing the sea's waves before going up in front of an audience.
