Music, mostly, otherwise it's Let's Plays or other videos. The latter two sometimes end up a hindrance rather than a help, if they distract me by being too interesting. Frankly, I think any kind of general white noise would improve concentration; just something to keep from *trying* to hear something. Something to satisfy that part of my brain so it quits bugging me every couple minutes 'cause it's bored of not being used on the task

I find myself getting distracted by a lot of these things sometimes when the subject material is really interesting. But I guess its a benefit because that material gives me more ideas to work with later.

usually, A clear Idea by itself is enough for me. and sometimes any white noise.

That helps too.

Well, recently I helped write an essay with someone on-line about a mutual interest (zentai), so I suppose in a situation like that it something that gives a certain nugget of interest to what I like. Which I think is the root answer to the question, the interest in the subject

I like to write myself (check my da page jonnyschweer.deviantart.com) but I suppose what gives e inspiration can be varied. For my Angel moepm series there inspiration came from Magic: the Gathering playing cards, for my poem Dying, it was listening to the song "When Your Heart Speaks." So aside for specific commissions (of where characters pose and the such are requested) the inspiration for a piece of work can be as varies as thew work itself.

I remember you talking about Magic the gathering a bit so I figured a bit of your inspiration came from that.

Two major poem I wrote from the M:tG cards is Serra Angel and Fallen Angel so there is a certain sentiment involved.

For that sort of thing, I tend to prefer classical music (Dvorak, Tchaikovsky, etc.), or "lounge" music like 101 Strings, because they're pretty good at providing an ambient background without actively drawing attention to themselves or interfering with my thought processes. Plus, most of what I have in those genres is on vinyl LP, and since that requires me to actually get up every 20-30 minutes to flip the record over, it helps keep me from sitting in one spot for hours on end and losing track of time.

Whenever I need something peaceful sounding I usually listen to Nujabes or any other instrumental collaborations he has done in order to get my mind focused. Though with all the music he has done and inspired it can drag on for hours if you don't pay attention. (its good since the music is excellent). If Im simply just open to ideas the music usually fills in the gaps and I get something within a few moments.

Not sure what would help with technique or stuff like that. I figure just practice and draw as much as you can in order to get proper form.