The creative process is an exercise in faith.  Being human, all of us are creative by nature.  Developing enough faith to trust our intuition is what the creative process is all about.  And that’s why even the simplest art assignments are a lesson in successful living.  By paying attention to what I go through during the creative process I’ve realized there seems to be nine phases from start to finish.  I’ve illustrated them as “The Nine Phases of the Creative Process” as a way to help me from losing faith whenever I feel frustrated.

I’m convinced that once inspiration strikes; the conscious mind believes it has to takeover to get the job done.  The problem with the conscious mind however, is that it bases its entire ability to solve problems on past experience.  Since it can find no reference for something that hasn’t been created before, the conscious mind begins to see it as something that can’t be done.  That’s when we begin to become full of self-doubt.   The next mistake is to try to overcome our feelings of self-doubt with self-will and determination.  This only brings frustration, which leads to a crucial jumping off point.  Do we continue to push harder or do we take a break and relax?