30 Artist Date Ideas to Reconnect With Your Creative Side

Here are 30 artist date ideas that will help you nurture your inner artist and spend mindful and lovely time with yourself.

There are some ideas you come across on the internet that make you think, “Wait…where has this been all my life?

Going on an artist date with myself is one of those for me.

If you’ve been anywhere near the slow creative side of the internet lately, you might have come across the idea of artist dates.

At first glance, it might look like just another trend, but oh, this might just be the deepest and most fun trend the internet has ever blessed us with.

Let’s understand it a bit before we dive into the ideas.

What is an Artist Date?

The idea comes from Julia Cameron’s iconic 1992 book The Artist’s Way, a 12-week program designed to help people reconnect with their creativity.

One of Cameron’s foundational practices is the artist date: essentially, a weekly solo adventure devoted to doing something fun, interesting, or enchanting purely for your creative self.

The practice is meant to nurture the playful part of you that creates.

We spend so much of our lives consuming these days, and most of it without being mindful.

But when you’re on an artist date, you pay attention while spending time with yourself.

And you don’t need to be a painter, novelist, musician, photographer, or someone with a studio for this.

There is an artist inside each of us, and an artist date is a way to give input to our creativity so that you can start creating.

One important rule before we start: Your artist dates have to be solo.

Your best friend cannot come. Your boyfriend cannot come. Your mom cannot come.

This time is just between you and your inner artist.

So, if you’re ready to leave productivity behind for an hour or two and go play, then here are 30 artist date ideas to get you started.

30 Artist Date Ideas You’ll Enjoy

1. Read a fantasy book while having your morning drink

I am starting off with something I’ve been doing every morning myself.

Pick a fantasy book that feels wonderfully immersive, make your coffee or tea, and give yourself a few slow minutes.

Not only will this help you begin your day with stillness, but you’ll be feeding your imagination while relaxing with a warm drink. This is habit-stacking done right.

I’ve been reading The Night Circus, and I look forward to entering its pages every morning before getting on with my day.

2. Make a collage about your current life

Grab old magazines, newspapers, wrapping paper, printed photos, tickets, packaging (anything you can cut up) and create an analog collage.

Don’t make a vision board about your five-year goals. Make something about right now.

You can add your current colors, obsessions, mood, things you’re craving, places you keep thinking about, and words that feel like you.

It doesn’t have to make sense to anybody else, just yourself.

3. Go to a bookstore and follow your curiosity

A bookstore is probably the easiest place to understand the whole point of an artist date.

You can walk in thinking you like thrillers, but end up being drawn to a book set in English cottages. Let yourself wander like that.

Look at the beautiful coffee-table books you’d never actually buy, and read random poetry.

Pick up a book because the cover has a pretty house on it, and go into sections you normally skip entirely.

You don’t even need to leave with a book. It’s enough to leave with some new ideas churning in your head.

4. Take yourself on a color hunt

I love artist dates that make normal places feel magical, and this is one of them.

Pick a color (cherry red, butter yellow, forest green, or whatever you’re currently obsessed with), and spend time outside trying to spot it everywhere.

You can even take pictures to make it more fun.

It’ll be a pretty fun way to notice the world around you through an artist’s eyes.

5. Visit a stationery shop with a tiny budget

Give yourself a small budget (like 20 dollars or whatever amount feels guilt-free) and head to a stationery or art supply shop.

Then let your inner eight-year-old choose.

Get a glitter pen, tiny stickers, watercolors you have absolutely no idea how to use, or a notebook with strawberries all over it.

This is perfect if you want to remind yourself how to be playful again and stop doing things for the sake of being impressive.

6. Walk on a tree-lined path

Walking underneath a canopy of trees is such a main character activity.

Just find a leafy path like a park, garden, quiet street, or a trail you’ve never explored. And walk without trying to get your steps in or reach somewhere on time.

Notice the patches of sunlight on the ground, the sound of leaves above you, weird little mushrooms, fallen flowers, and trees that look like they’ve been there for a hundred years.

And if you wanna listen to a dreamy soundtrack and pretend you’re walking in a movie, I fully support that.

7. Take a cozy train ride

I know this isn’t an artist date you can casually take on an everyday afternoon, but if you can do it even once a year, I think it’s worth it.

There is something incredibly romantic about train journeys that you just can’t feel in a car or airplane.

You get to actually see the world changing outside your window (little towns, fields, rivers, stations, houses, mountains).

You can spend a few hours suspended between where you were and where you’re going.

Take a book, get yourself a warm drink, claim the window seat if possible, and enjoy watching the world go by.

8. Create a weird Pinterest board

Pinterest is usually where we organize our dream kitchens and fall outfits, but not today.

You have to make a secret board around something oddly specific, like:

• Houses where fictional witches would retire
• Red things that feel expensive
• Summer in an Italian novel
• Bedrooms for women who disappear mysteriously
• Things my seven-year-old self would lose her mind over.

Save the pins purely by instinct. It’s a cool way to notice patterns in what fascinates you!

9. Visit a flower market

I don’t think I’ve ever walked past a place overflowing with flowers and found them uninspiring.

Flowers have a way of connecting you to nature, and also bringing you closer to yourself.

So, go to a flower market and look at all the pretty, weird, and colorful flowers. Smell everything, and notice which colors you’re drawn toward more.

And if you can, bring a bunch of flowers home.

There is something very artist-date-ish about carrying flowers through the streets for no reason other than they make you happy.

10. Watch a movie you would never normally choose

We all have our comfort genres, and I fully support watching the same cozy show for the seventeenth time.

But every once in a while, let your artist choose.

Watch an old French movie, a Studio Ghibli film, an 80s comedy, or a movie set somewhere you’ve never been.

Let yourself enter someone else’s world for two hours.

Sometimes a single movie can give you a new color palette, song, place, outfit idea, story idea, or just a feeling you carry around for the next week.

11. Lie down on grass and watch the sky

We spend so much time looking at beautiful things through screens, but that’s not real.

If you want to feed your imagination beauty from the real world, then spend time under the big blue sky.

Find a quiet patch of grass, put your phone away, and just look up for a while.

Watch the clouds change shapes, notice birds flying ridiculously high above you, feel the breeze, and see if you can spot the moon in the daytime.

It feels almost too simple to count as an artist date, which is exactly why I love it.

12. Read on a park bench

Take whatever book you’re currently reading, find a nice bench under a tree, and make that your reading spot for the afternoon.

It will feel like you’re inside your story while the real world carries on quietly around you.

Feel free to bring a coffee, and definitely stay for around three chapters instead of rushing home.

You’ll come back home feeling recharged, and full of freshness that can only come from spending cozy time outdoors.

13. Fill in a coloring book

Get yourself a coloring book with flowers, cozy houses, fantasy worlds, cute little cafes, or whatever makes you want to pick up a pencil, and just play with color for a while.

Make the trees pink, give the house a purple roof, and ignore every sensible color combination.

There is no finished product you need to be proud of here. You’re simply making something pretty with your hands because it feels good.

Very inner-artist approved.

14. Make something gloriously bad

This might be my favorite idea because the perfectionist in me absolutely hates it.

You have to sit down and deliberately make something bad.

• Paint a wonky flower.
• Write the most dramatic poem imaginable.
• Draw your dog and make him look like a potato.
• Try pottery and create a bowl that could never safely hold soup.

Seriously, don’t even care how bad or funny it looks. You’re not submitting it anywhere.

It will remind you that making things is supposed to be fun, and not good enough to show people.

15. Create a soundtrack for an imaginary movie

I could spend an embarrassing amount of time doing this, and I think anyone can.

You have to invent a movie in your head and make its soundtrack.

Maybe it’s about a woman moving to a tiny coastal town after completely messing up her life.

Or maybe it’s a dreamy coming-of-age movie set during one perfect autumn.

Whatever story you make up, you have to choose songs for it. Pick the opening credits, the falling-in-love montage, and the rainy-night scene song.

You’ll end up with a fictional universe that is all yours, with the perfect soundtrack to go with it.

16. Create morning pages

If we’re talking about ‘The Artist’s Way’, we obviously have to include morning pages.

This is Julia Cameron’s other famous practice.

You sit down in the morning and fill three pages with whatever is floating around in your head.

You can write what you’re worried about, something weird you dreamed, what you need from the grocery store, an idea that appeared out of nowhere, or how badly you want another cup of coffee.

Don’t try to make the pages profound or even readable. Nobody is grading them.

17. Go on a solo sensory date

Choose somewhere interesting, like a bakery, garden, market, park, or cafe. And experience it through your five senses.

What colors do you see? What can you smell? What sounds are happening behind you? What textures can you touch? What can you taste?

Our lives are very visual because of screens, but this exercise will bring you back into the full physical world and also give you an excuse to leave the house alone.

18. Create a bouquet from what you find outdoors

Take a walk somewhere you’re allowed to collect fallen or abundant natural materials.

You can pick up interesting leaves, tiny wildflowers, twigs, seed pods, and feathers lying on the ground.

Bring your collection home and create a bouquet from it. There could be no better way to appreciate the beauty of nature.

19. Sit in a cafe and people-watch

Order your favorite drink in a cafe, find a good corner, and for once, don’t pull out your phone.

Instead, spend your time in the cafe observing people silently without being creepy.

You might notice the woman reading alone by the window, two friends having important gossip, and someone dressed so beautifully that you feel inspired to do the same.

You can bring a notebook and jot down the things you notice, or simply sit there and watch life happen around you.

It might feel like you’re not doing much, but that’s kind of the beauty of this.

20. Spend time near a water body

Water makes us naturally slow down and pay attention, which is exactly the kind of quiet space creativity loves.

Visit your nearest lake, river, pond, or beach, and stay there for about an hour.

You can bring a book or a notebook, but you don’t need either.

You can just watch the sunlight dance on the surface, listen to the water moving, look for tiny fish or birds nearby, and let your mind wander wherever it wants to go.

And if you catch a sunset while you’re there, even better.

21. Read a children’s book

Children’s books are overflowing with illustrations, imagination, crazy plots, magical worlds, and ideas adults would dismiss as too silly.

This is exactly why you should read them now and then, maybe before bed or when you’re bored in your room.

Flip through picture books, read a fairy tale out loud in your room, and laugh as you read about talking animals.

Let your imagination be unrealistic, so that you can stop putting limits on it yourself.

22. Go somewhere at an unusual hour

Places change personality depending on when you visit them because of the light, weather, and the people.

So, visit your favorite cafe right when it opens. Walk around your neighborhood during golden hour. Go somewhere usually crowded when it’s unusually quiet.

You don’t always need somewhere new. Sometimes you just need to see somewhere familiar under new circumstances.

23. Spend an afternoon making your room more interesting

I have chosen the word ‘interesting’ deliberately here. Not cleaner, organized, or fancier, but interesting.

You can move your lamp somewhere unexpected, stack books differently, and put a postcard on your mirror.

Display something you’ve kept hidden in a drawer, or bring a branch home and put it in a vase.

Giving your room a different personality can help you stir your own, and give life to thoughts that might be hidden because of being stuck in the same routine.

24. Make a meal just for the beauty of it

Choose something you normally wouldn’t bother making because it feels unnecessary.

You can make pancakes with berries, a beautiful pasta, tiny sandwiches for one, a fruit tart, or hot chocolate.

Put music on, arrange your ingredients nicely for preparation, and use your pretty plate.

Cooking can be a great artist date when you approach it as creating rather than just feeding yourself.

25. Go to a library and pick a book by accident

Serendipity is excellent creative fuel, and this activity is for that.

Go to a library, but instead of searching the catalog for something specific, wander through the shelves.

Choose a random aisle, pull out books because their titles intrigue you, and open one to a random page.

Let yourself discover something without looking it up on Goodreads. You don’t have to bring the book home or read a lot of pages from it.

It can be an artist date where you peek into different books for a small window of time, purely for spontaneity and inspiration.

26. Watch a TV show and write down meaningful lines from it

I am sure you hear lines in TV shows that make you want to memorize them.

Instead of letting them disappear into the next scene, make an art date out of collecting them.

Pick a show with writing you love, get cozy, keep a notebook nearby, and write down any line that makes you laugh, think, ache a little, or want to rewind.

You might end up with five lines or an entire page.

I have a notebook dedicated just for this, and I rarely watch anything without it next to me. It’s like building your own library of words worth remembering.

27. Have an analog evening

Boredom used to be where we invented things, daydreamed, and followed strange little ideas.

Now we usually snub it in seconds by opening Instagram. Give your imagination a chance to get bored again.

Put your phone in a drawer and pretend it’s 2003 for a few hours.

Read a physical book, light a candle, make tea, write something by hand, bake cookies, or sit outside.

You might feel slightly itchy without your digital world. That’s good, because that means you’re doing it right.

28. Go on an architecture walk

Pick an interesting street or neighborhood and spend your walk looking at the buildings rather than walking past them.

Look at the old doors. Tiny balconies, strange windows, tiles, roofs, and houses covered in vines. Most importantly, just look up.

There are so many beautiful details above eye level that we completely miss because we’re usually staring straight ahead (or at our phones).

Nobody needs to understand why you’re doing it, but your inner artist will.

28. Recreate something you loved as a teenager

Do something you loved when you were a teenager.

Listen to the album you played endlessly at sixteen, reread an old favorite book, or paint your nails the color you once obsessed over.

You could also watch your old comfort movie or wear something inspired by your old style.

Creative identity often leaves breadcrumbs throughout our lives. This is a good way to find some of yours.

30. Spend time chasing a curiosity

What random thing have you wondered about lately?

Maybe it’s how perfume is made, what Victorian Christmases looked like, or why flamingos are pink?

Choose one such thing you’ve been curious about and disappear down the rabbit hole.

Find a documentary, borrow a book, visit somewhere related to it, and fill a notebook page with weird facts on the topic.

And resist the urge to turn your new interest into content, a hobby, a side hustle, or a productive skill.

You are allowed to know things simply because they delight you.

31. Let your inner artist plan the date

For the final idea, don’t use an idea from this list at all.

Sit quietly and answer this:

If you had two free hours this week and didn’t have to make them productive, impressive, healthy, aesthetic, or useful…what would you really want to do?

Maybe you want to sit beside a lake, buy stickers, bake cookies while listening to Taylor Swift, or take a train somewhere you’ve never been.

Go do that, dear reader.

Because ultimately, artist dates aren’t another cute habit to perfect.

They’re about building a relationship with the curious, playful, observant part of yourself that adulthood has shoved aside.

So, go do something from this list, or plan something on your own. Your inner artist is waiting!