--- title: Artistic Practice & Creative Process description: Artistic practice and creative process cover how artists actually work: generating and developing ideas, keeping a sketchbook or studio habit, overcoming blocks, finding a personal voice, and sustaining output over years. You will understand the routines, mindsets, and feedback loops behind consistent creative work. category: arts-design subcategory: creative-arts difficulty: beginner, intermediate, advanced url: /subject/artistic-practice-and-creative-process --- # Artistic Practice & Creative Process Artistic practice and creative process cover how artists actually work: generating and developing ideas, keeping a sketchbook or studio habit, overcoming blocks, finding a personal voice, and sustaining output over years. You will understand the routines, mindsets, and feedback loops behind consistent creative work. ## Available Resources 6 Books • 1 Websites ## Podcasts ### 1. Creative Pep Talk **Author:** Andy J. Pizza Weekly podcast by illustrator and author Andy J. Pizza on sustaining a creative practice, through solo episodes and interviews with working artists about discipline, finding a creative voice, overcoming blocks and building a viable career from creative work. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** en | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.creativepeptalk.com **Tags:** creative-practice, creative-careers, illustration, creative-discipline, artist-interviews ### 2. The Open Sketchbook Podcast **Author:** Evan Kitson Interview podcast hosted by artist and educator Evan Kitson, talking with artists, illustrators and teachers about how they developed their style, built working habits, stayed motivated and made a living, giving listeners a realistic picture of sustaining an art practice. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** en-us | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.buzzsprout.com/2457295 **Tags:** artist interviews, creative process, art careers, artistic practice, art education ### 3. Art Side of Life **Author:** Iva Mikles Interview podcast in which illustrator Iva Mikles talks with working artists about their careers. Conversations cover finding clients and commissions, freelance illustration, building a personal style, social media audiences, and daily studio habits, showing how professionals sustain creative work. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** en | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://artsideoflife.com **Tags:** art-career, illustration, freelancing, artist-interviews, creative-habits ### 4. The Creative Endeavour **Author:** Andrew Tischler Interview podcast in which painter Andrew Tischler talks with practising professional artists from around the world about their working methods and career paths. Listeners understand the habits, decisions and setbacks behind building and sustaining a professional art career. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** en | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://andrewtischler.podbean.com **Tags:** art-career, professional-artists, creative-practice, painting, artist-interviews ### 5. The Artist Next Level **Author:** Sergio Gomez Interview podcast hosted by Chicago curator and gallery director Sergio Gomez, talking with working artists, curators and art professionals about exhibiting, pricing, finding galleries, marketing and sustaining a studio practice. Listeners gain practical guidance for managing and growing a professional art career. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** en | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://theartistnextlevel.libsyn.com/site **Tags:** artist-interviews, art-career, art-business, professional-practice ### 6. Your Creative Push **Author:** Youngman Brown Interview podcast in which painters, musicians, writers, photographers and designers describe the fears, excuses and habits that stall their work and how they keep producing. Listeners come away with practical strategies for overcoming creative block and sustaining a regular creative practice. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** en | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://yourcreativepush.com **Tags:** creative-process, creative-block, artist-interviews, creative-habits, motivation ### 7. The Creative Boom Podcast **Author:** Katy Cowan Interview podcast from the Creative Boom magazine in which Katy Cowan talks with designers, illustrators, animators and creative founders about their careers, including confidence, burnout, pricing and sustaining work. Listeners hear how working creatives build durable practices. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** en | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.creativeboom.com/podcast/ **Tags:** creative-careers, creative-process, burnout, illustration, graphic-design ## Websites ### 1. The Creative Independent A free archive of over a thousand interviews, essays, and practical guides in which working artists, musicians, writers, and designers discuss sustaining a practice: money, doubt, routines, day jobs, and finishing work. Published ad-free by Kickstarter. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://thecreativeindependent.com **Tags:** creative-practice, interviews, essays, artists, kickstarter ## Youtubes ### 1. The Gap by Ira Glass **Author:** Ira Glass Two-minute animated cut of Ira Glass explaining the taste-skill gap: beginners have good taste but their work disappoints them for years, and the only way through is a large volume of finished work on deadlines. The most-cited short talk on early creative careers thanks to the highest insight-per-minute resource. This is the right first thing to show a discouraged beginner. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91FQKciKfHI **Tags:** creative-process, motivation, ira-glass, short-video ## Books ### 1. Daily Rituals: How Artists Work **Author:** Mason Currey Documented daily routines of 161 creators — painters, composers, novelists, choreographers — from Matisse and O'Keeffe to Twyla Tharp. Shows how real artists structured hours, handled day jobs, and sustained output; evidence against the myth of waiting for inspiration. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0307273601?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** creative-process, routines, biography, artists, nonfiction ### 2. Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative **Author:** Austin Kleon A short illustrated manifesto arguing that nothing is original: artists build a voice by collecting, remixing, and transforming influences. Covers keeping a swipe file, working with your hands, side projects, and starting before you feel ready. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0761169253?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** creativity, creative-process, originality, inspiration ### 3. The Artist's Way: 25th Anniversary Edition **Author:** Julia Cameron A structured 12-week program for creative recovery built on two daily tools: Morning Pages (three pages of stream-of-consciousness writing) and the weekly Artist Date. Each chapter pairs a theme, such as recovering identity or abundance, with concrete exercises. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0143129252?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** creativity, creative-recovery, journaling, self-help ### 4. The Creative Act: A Way of Being **Author:** Rick Rubin 78 short meditations on the phases of creative work — noticing, experimenting, crafting, completing — from the producer behind Johnny Cash, Adele, and the Beastie Boys. Focuses on awareness, taste, and sustaining a lifelong practice rather than techniques. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0593652886?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** creativity, creative-process, artistic-practice, philosophy ### 5. The War of Art **Author:** Steven Pressfield Names the force that stops creative work — Resistance — and catalogs its forms: procrastination, self-doubt, rationalization. The second half argues for 'turning pro': showing up daily and treating art as work rather than mood-dependent inspiration. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/1936891026?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** creativity, resistance, discipline, productivity ### 6. Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking **Author:** David Bayles, Ted Orland Two working artists examine why so much art doesn't get made: fear of imperfection, comparison to others, misreading talent, and quitting. Argues that quantity of ordinary work, not waiting for inspiration, is how artists actually develop. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0961454733?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** creativity, artmaking, fear-of-failure, creative-practice --- *This content is part of Dantes.io - Your Treasure Map to Knowledge* *Curated by humans at Dantes.io. 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