Instagram is such a great space for a daily dose of inspiration, to connect with other artists, and to share our work with the world.

Marine Tanguy of MT Art Agency (who you should also definitely follow as they represent some truly incredible artists) famously said that Instagram is like junk food and we need to go on a visual diet.

I couldn’t agree more. So I put my feed on a ‘diet’ and I only follow great artists, or inspirational people and my Instagram feed is filled with only that – great art and inspiring stories.

Here’s my pick of five amazing illustrators and artists whose work always inspires me – especially if you can be a bit of a perfectionist like me.

Enjoy…

henn_kim

I absolutely love her illustrations, and she also has a really inspiring story – when she was a teenager she stopped speaking for 2 years. Crippling depression and anxiety rendered her mute, however, her mind was coming alive with words and images. Art and illustration

ultimately proved to be her personal form of therapy.

Her illustrations express beauty and darkness. They’re a beautiful contradiction!

Carluccio7

In LOVE with this feed. So colourful and it gives you lots of inspiration for bringing paint and colour into your illustration work. There’s a real sense of play and experimentation, which is so important to me and really shows how work that you might see as imperfect or wrong isn’t at all, and it can lead to something even better than you imagined.

Fabulous feed and always makes me want to get the watercolours out!

tatiana_alida

I love Tatiana’s playful and colourful illustrations. They are perfectly imperfect, as she says herself, and this is really inspiring to me because I can be a perfectionist. To be able to just create without that hang up is true freedom. Illustrations do not need to be perfect to be wonderful – being authentic and letting your own style shine through is the key.

These illustrations always bring a smile to me, and there’s some real nuggets of wisdom in there too!

morganharpernichols

A mix of poetry, words of wisdom and simple yet striking art that combines shapes with great use of colour, almost child-like. Really playful art and another example of how letting yourself play with whatever medium you’re using is the key. Just have fun with it. Be like a child.

Morgan also gives some wonderful words of wisdom.

mars_black

OK so not an illustrator, but this account is one of my absolute favourites. The imagination, the humour, the captions, the paintings – they are just awesome. This is the level of imagination, fun and humour I want to bring to my illustrations and artwork. I hope to own a painting one day. Preferably with an animal on it.