Consider this hypothetical question If, from birth, we were never exposed to any form of creative influence whatsoever, would we be more, or less creative and original ourselves?

Since of course its impossible to accurately test, we have to accept that in fact we are influenced from the day we are born by thousands of different creative influences and sources, and inevitably it shapes the creative work we ourselves produce.

And so it follows, all of us who are creative have heroes of some kind, those we look up to as giants in their field, and whove achieved the kind of creative feats we aspire to ourselves.

Rather than just passively gaze at these creative idols of ours in admiration though, how can we learn from them in a way that will stimulate and enhance our own creativity?

On a simple level, there are two ways we can research this and begin to experiment with incorporating parts of our creative heroes work into our own.

Studying their creative work

The first is through their work directly. If youre a musician or composer, whether you aspire to write music like Beethoven, Brahms, The Beatles or Boyzone, the easiest way to learn how they created is to immerse yourself in their work. Listen to as much as you can, as closely and intimately as you can.

One of the great pleasures in life for those who enjoy music is lying in a dark room with their favourite artists on headphones and getting as close as possible to their creative work (without actually meeting them in person or seeing them live).

Deconstruct the music, listen to how the compositions are formed, the similarities, the common elements, learn how the changes in sound trigger changes in the emotion of the listener.

There really is no better way to educate yourself than listening to the music of your heroes, working out how they did it and implementing parts into your own work. Of course youre not trying to simply copy them but learn how they worked and how you can utilise similar methods to express your own creativity.

Countless famous and successful artists when asked how they started creating music say We were just to trying to write songs like [insert their favourite artists here] and it came out sounding like this.

The same technique applies whatever your creative medium. Absorb yourself in the work of all those you most admire and find the parts and the elements that work for you in your work.

Researching their lives, attitudes and approaches

The second way to learn from our creative heroes involves more indirect research, looking into the lives, attitudes and approaches they had, the methods and equipment they used, and finding how this influenced their creative work.

A good starting point is a written biography or a volume of letters or diaries. There are literally thousands in print today, and reading a few of those of the people you look up to will no doubt give you some fascinating insights into their life and work.

After this, the internet is a fantastic resource for research. Typing the artists name into one of the major search engines will yield dozens, up to possibly millions of results.

Within a few minutes you can be amongst other admirers, and find out all you need to know about your creative hero, their working methods and life story, as well as the associated movements and scenes they were a part of.

The linking of sites is one of the most exciting elements of the internet and before long youll have a great list of sites full of information about your creative heroes. Also, youll be able to discover others who were peers and contemporaries at the time and were producing similar or comparable work and learn from them too.

If you want to get even closer to the lives of your creative heroes, you can research the places they lived and worked, and the environment they were inspired to create by. Most of the more famous creative artists have anything from small exhibitions up to whole museums dedicated to their work. Visit these to gain further ideas into how they worked.

These ideas will get you started. With the information widely available today, there really is virtually no limit to what you can learn about the creative work and lives of those you aspire to. So dive in today and enrich your own creativity in the process.

Copyright 2006 Dan Goodwin.