While talking with a customer the topic of choosing a design for your project came up. Some of the tools I have used in finding designs for my pieces are:
Pinterest boards
As you're looking at images on Pinterest or any other platform, create a board labeled design inspiration. Then when you see something that Sparks that interest in you pin it to that board. After a while you may notice a pattern in the images that inspire you. Use these as a jumping off point for your work. Whether it's the color palette or the shape of the image or the lines use what interests you to come up with your original designs.
Sketch pad
I've had several sketch pads through the decades I've been working in mosaics. A lot of times my design ideas start as a pencil sketch very rough and almost indiscernible sometimes. I'll also describe what does the design is needing to do in the sketch pads or play with colors or just play scribble see what sparks your interest. Do not throw your sketch pads away. It's helpful to see ideas from years and years past and what they've become in your current work or how you may have abandoned them or why.
Journals
Similar to my sketch pads have been my journals. I've gone through periods where I have journaled more consistently and many pages include sketches with notes about what tile, color, process should be included.
Coloring tools
When I first started doing mosaics I was working in vitreous last tiles. At one point I took each color of tile with me to a local art supply store and bought a colored pencil in that tile color. Thinking this is what I have to work with and these are how I will come up with my designs. Sometimes that works sometimes it doesn't but it was a start. Whether you working crayon colored pencil markers with your designs whatever makes you happy that you should do.
Rulers stencils and other tools
At one point I found a bendable ruler that was a quarter inch wide. I use that for a while to work with the lines within my design to show about what a quarter of a 20 mm tile would work would look like in that space.
Copying other artists work
Previous pieces I've done have copied the work of Vincent Van Gogh. I took from a book about van Gogh's work a sketch of the Moon from Van Gogh's starry night. It was rounder than the actual image in the painting. Using that as a starting point I tried to mimic some of the texture and then goes work and some of the colors.
Another piece that I did was worked straight off of a photograph of Martha Graham in her dance "Lamentations". I photocopied the photograph from a book sized it's to work on the base I had picked, and decoupaged it down then I use that to image to glue the tiles directly where I wanted them on over top of that.
If you are copying the work of other Mosaic artists you do want to be careful to attribute the original art when you show your work. It is a very frowned upon practice to sell other artists designs as your own. You can even get into legal trouble if you are recreating licensed or copyrighted images.
What tools have been useful in your growth as an artist?