How do I keep a dream journal for art?

Keeping a dream journal for artistic inspiration requires capturing dreams before they fade. Keep a notebook and pen beside your bed, and write immediately upon waking-even brief notes preserve imagery that vanishes within minutes. Record visual details: colors, objects, spaces, figures, transformations. Note emotional atmosphere and any juxtapositions or impossible elements. Sketch rough images alongside written descriptions. Over time, patterns emerge-recurring symbols, settings, or themes that become personal visual vocabulary. Surrealists including Dali cultivated techniques for maintaining awareness during the transition between sleep and waking (hypnagogia) to capture fleeting imagery. Review your journal regularly, mining it for painting subjects, digital art concepts, or collage inspiration. Dreams provide direct access to the unconscious-the source Surrealists sought to tap.