Where do ideas come from?

One of the aspects of working in a creative field that I find challenging is coming up with good ideas. Staring at a blank page, trying to fill it with something wonderful and inspired, can be incredibly daunting. I've learned that ideas tend to pop into my brain at the weirdest of times, which explains the tiny scraps of paper with scribbled notes filling a drawer of my art desk.

I think inspiration hits when I'm relaxed, not really 'trying'. For example, I came up with some concepts and plots during bus/metro rides; crammed into public transport with fellow commuters like a sardine, losing oneself in imagination seems a reasonable way to escape.

I think it's easy to come up with bad or boring ideas; it's pretty simple to take an existing concept (or genre) and rework it slightly, plugging in generic characters and situations. I find it difficult to settle on ideas that just feel right and 'original' (which, considering how absolutely everything has 'been done', is nearly impossible).

Recently, my Mom and I with my two daughters went out for breakfast. We were all discussing her new car, and started teasing her about her fast driving. I blurted jokingly how it'd be a funny story to have a Grandma driving wildly with a cute child through the city; as I mulled it over, an unrelated germ of an idea I'd had long before (about an oblivious elderly man facing Zombies) floated to the surface of my thoughts.

I could nearly hear a bell chime as a fun concept was born, one that I instantly found appealling and tremendous fun: a Grandmother and granddaughter drive through a post-apocalyptic world, fighting mutants. I whipped up some quick sketches, and couldn't stop grinning:

Of course, Thelma and Louise meets Mad Max isn't high literature; that being said, the idea screams 'fun' for me, and I think it'll be easy to come up with adventures for my daring duo. I mentioned it briefly on my Facebook, and folk seemed to like it as well.

I hope this glimpse into my creative process (which is basically random musings colliding in my brain) has been enlightening!