and what your personality has to do with it
Creativity isn’t just a magical spark — it’s a journey made up of different stages, and the way you move through them is uniquely yours. In this lesson, I’ll walk you through the four key stages of the creative process and show you how your personality plays a big role in shaping your creative experience.
Here’s what we’ll explore together:
Getting to Know the Creative Process
We’ll break down the four stages to understand what’s really happening at each step.
A Fun Personality Quiz Just for You
To make things more personal, you’ll take a quiz that reveals your creative strengths and the challenges you might face along the way.
Understanding Your Personal Preferences
We all tend to feel most comfortable in a certain stage of the creative process. This gives you the opportunity to really explore your own strengths. With the help of your quiz results, we will take a look at the areas where you have the potential to make progress.
Setting Personal Goals for Your Growth
Finally, I’ll guide you in setting meaningful, achievable goals tailored to your personal journey — so you can nurture your creativity with confidence.
This lesson is all about YOU and your creative path. By understanding both the process and yourself better, you’ll be able to approach your art with more ease, joy, and purpose.
The creative process can be seen as a circle of four stages: Inspiration, Exploration, Realization, and Reflection. These stages flow into one another, creating a cycle that drives creativity forward.
What I’ve noticed in my own experience and work with others is that each stage holds a different meaning depending on who you are — your personality, what you enjoy, and what you’re aiming for. Often, people feel most comfortable in certain stages because those align with their natural strengths.
My personal theory is that when someone spends too much time and energy stuck in just one stage, it can cause creative block — making it hard to move on or progress. For example, endlessly chasing inspiration without moving toward realization, or over-reflecting without taking action.
Understanding your own preferences in this cycle and learning to balance all four stages can help you keep your creative energy flowing and avoid feeling stuck.
Ready to dive a little deeper and understand yourself better? Take this quick quiz to discover which creative style you naturally lean toward. It’s completely optional to have your results sent to you by email — whatever feels best for you!
Later in this lesson, you’ll get to learn about all the different creative types in detail. But first, let’s find out where you tend to go in the creative process.
You might notice that you don’t see yourself fully reflected in the characteristics of your result — and that’s okay! It could mean you’re quite balanced across all four stages, which is a strength in itself.
No matter what, there are some exciting and helpful tips waiting for you at the end of the quiz to support your personal growth.
So, let’s get started and uncover more about your unique strengths!
…and find out which phase you feel most comfortable in?
Great, a first step towards better understanding where your strengths lie. But now let’s take another look at all personality types. I’m sure you’ve had matches here too.
There is so much beauty in the unique strengths each of us brings to the creative journey. Let’s explore the different personality types and stages of the creative process together — and discover how you can set meaningful goals that support your personal growth and creative flow.
INSPIRATION
Our expert in this phase:
The Gathering Eye
You see beauty everywhere and love to soak in inspiration.
Strengths:
You have a strong visual sensibility and an eye for beauty. You love to collect colors, textures, and inspiration. Your work is often rich, detailed, and carefully considered.
Challenges:
Fear of starting or making mistakes.
You may hesitate to begin, get stuck in planning, or overconsume ideas. Self-doubt can creep in as comparison or feeling like you’re not “ready” yet. You may fear the blank canvas or taking risks.
Potential for growth:
Exploring new materials and tools (just play and have fun!), Creating a concept and sketching, Reflecting what your art means
Goals that could help you get ahead:
– Begin before you’re fully “prepared.”
– Limit your research time and trust your instincts.
– Embrace the unknown — inspiration grows through action.
– Start with no references — respond only to what you feel in the moment.
– Use collage or layered materials to make spontaneous decisions.
– Work small at first to break through hesitation.
EXPLORATION
Our expert in this phase:
The Dreaming Mind
You have a natural gift for imagining possibilities.
Starting is easy — finishing, not always.
Strengths:
You’re playful, intuitive, and overflowing with ideas. You love exploring new directions and being surprised by what happens. You’re at home in open-ended, unstructured processes that allow freedom and discovery.
Challenges:
Staying focused and following through.
You may struggle to finish your work, avoid structure, or abandon ideas midway. You get easily bored or distracted when the process slows down or requires commitment.
Potential for growth:
Creating a concept, Reflecting what your work means, gathering inspiration
Goals that could help you get ahead:
– Develop light structure to hold your ideas without restricting them.
– Practice following through — even when the outcome isn’t perfect.
– Revisit unfinished pieces with curiosity rather than judgment
– Embrace limitations (e.g. fewer colors or one brush) to focus your flow.
– Trust the process to guide you, even without a clear end in mind.
– Observe recurring shapes, themes, or marks — they are part of your inner language.
REALIZATION
Our expert in this phase:
The Driven Hand
You create with passion and drive. Once you begin, you go all in.
Strengths:
You are action-oriented, determined, and passionate. You thrive on progress and often find motivation in challenge and momentum. You get things done and are unafraid of bold, expressive work.
Challenges:
You may push too hard, striving for results while missing emotional depth. Burnout, frustration, or perfectionism can appear if things don’t go as planned. It’s hard for you to slow down or surrender control.
Potential for growth:
Exploring new materials and tools (just play and have fun!), Pausing and reflecting, resting and filling with new energy and inspiration
Goals that could help you get ahead:
– Practice painting without outcome pressure.
– Allow moments of pause to reflect and recharge.
– Loosen your grip — explore mess, imperfection, and rest.
– Let go of results and create simply for joy or release.
– Use music or movement to shift into a softer flow.
REFLECTION
Our expert in this phase:
The Thinking Heart
You reflect deeply on what you make.
Strengths:
You’re thoughtful, deep, and emotionally connected to your art. You care about meaning, honesty, and growth. Your work is often introspective, soulful, and rich with subtle expression.
Challenges:
Overanalyzing, perfectionism.
You may overthink or get stuck in analysis. Your inner critic can slow you down or make it hard to start. You may feel vulnerable or unsure how to express what you truly feel.
Potential for growth:
Gathering new inspiration, Exploring new materials and tools (just play and have fun!), Creating a concept and sketching
Goals that could help you get ahead:
– Let yourself begin without having all the answers.
– Practice expressive marks or gestures without self-judgment.
– Trust the process to reveal meaning.
– Set a soft emotional intention (e.g. “freedom” or “release”) before starting.
– Let color and movement speak before meaning is formed.
– Try painting as a journal — focus on feeling, not outcome.
Reflection questions:
1. Which phase of the process would you like to pay more attention to over the next few weeks?
2. Write down three small goals e.g. like a gathering eye “I make sketches for 30 minutes on wednesday at 7pm”
3. Share your quiz results, your thoughts and goals in the facebook group to connect with other creatives and learn from each other.
Support
S.M.A.R.T Goals by Doran (1981)
The SMART model helps you set goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. It turns vague intentions into real, focused action.
S – Specific
Be clear about what you want to achieve.
→ Instead of “I want to get better at painting,” try:
“I want to paint abstract paintings with acrylic inks I really like.”
M – Measurable
Define how you’ll track your progress.
→ “I’ll complete one painting a month.”
A – Achievable
Make sure the goal is realistic given your time, energy, and resources.
→ “I’ll dedicate two evenings per week to work on this.”
R – Relevant
Connect your goal to your bigger creative vision or current learning.
→ “This supports my goal of developing my own painting style.”
T – Time-bound
Set a deadline or timeframe to keep yourself focused.
→ “I want to complete this paintings within the next four weeks.”
The Goal: “Over the next four weeks, I will paint one abstract painting using acrylic inks I truly enjoy, dedicating two evenings per week to the process, as a step toward developing my own painting style.”
The key is to find that sweet spot between underload and overload — a place where you’re neither stuck in fear nor too comfortable to grow. Growth happens when you’re gently stretching your boundaries, not when you’re overwhelmed or simply staying where it feels safe.
A good way to choose is to ask yourself:
Which stage of the creative process sparks my curiosity — but hasn’t gotten much of my attention yet?
For example, maybe you’ve always been drawn to the Inspiration phase, but never really allowed yourself to explore it fully. Perhaps you’ve told yourself you’re not ready, or don’t know where to begin. But maybe… now is the right moment to give it a try — to invite in something new and see what happens.
Don’t be afraid to step toward the unfamiliar. Let your curiosity guide you, and choose a stage that challenges you gently but meaningfully. That’s where growth lives.
That’s completely okay! The quiz is just meant to give you a first impression — a starting point for reflection and discovery. It’s based on where you selected the most answers, but that doesn’t mean it captures everything about you.
It’s very possible that you connect with multiple types or stages, and your results might show strong tendencies in more than one area. In fact, some people are quite balanced across the creative process — which is a beautiful strength in itself.
Feel free to read through all the descriptions of the different stages and personalities, and notice where you see yourself the most. After all, you know yourself best.
Use the result as a helpful hint — not a definition. Let it inspire your own reflections and perhaps point you toward areas you haven’t fully explored yet.
Because sometimes, we’re so close to our own experience that it becomes hard to see the bigger picture. We’re used to our perspective — our way of thinking, creating, and reacting — and it can feel completely normal, even when we’re stuck or unsure. Sharing your results and reflections with others allows you to step outside of your own mind for a moment and see things differently.
When you exchange ideas with fellow creatives, new insights emerge. You might realize that a challenge you thought was only yours is actually something many others face too. For example: maybe you feel like your head is always full of ideas, but you struggle to stay focused on one long enough to really bring it to life. Then you hear that others feel the same — and suddenly, there’s a sense of connection, of mutual understanding.
These conversations can be incredibly motivating. They not only spark new perspectives, but also help you feel less alone on your creative journey. Together, you can support each other in setting meaningful goals — and gently encourage each other to take the next steps to make them real.
So don’t hesitate to share. It might just be the reflection someone else needed — and the encouragement you didn’t know you were missing.
You decide what — and how much — you want to share. As an introvert myself, I know how much courage it can take to open up. It’s completely okay to take your time and only share what feels right for you.
Personally, I’ve experienced that the moments when I did choose to open up — even though they felt scary at first — often led to the biggest breakthroughs. I was always glad afterward, because they brought new insights, fresh perspectives, and a deeper connection with others.
What helped me most was hearing how others saw me — especially at times when I was being my own harshest critic. That outside perspective can be incredibly grounding and uplifting.
So no pressure — but if you feel a gentle pull to share, even just a little, know that it might bring something really valuable to you and to others. You’re not alone in this.
I often receive messages from you and see responses in the Facebook group surveys, and many of these doubts revolve around three main challenges: lack of time, space (like not having your own studio), and resources (financial constraints or limited access to the right materials).
I want to say that it’s absolutely okay to admit when you feel a lack in these areas. Maybe it’s a sign of a deeper personal wish — like wanting your own dedicated studio space, or simply craving more time to paint without being rushed. Sometimes life just doesn’t allow these things to change quickly, and that’s okay.
What matters most is how you deal with the here and now. Try asking yourself constructive, goal-oriented questions like:
“How can I organize my paints, canvases, and tools so they’re easy to access with minimal effort?” or
“Is there a corner or small space where I could leave my painting supplies set up for convenience?”
Feel free to use the Facebook group to ask how others handle these challenges, too. Often the starting point isn’t perfect — but it’s still possible to create space for your creativity to flourish.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll take a closer look at all four stages of the creative process in our Facebook group and share our own experiences.
I’ll also highlight which parts of the existing course content already relate to these phases — for example, there are workbooks and videos on INSPIRATION in the Art Journaling module that can support you in this area.
In addition, there will be new content coming soon, such as sessions on intuition, composition, and more — so you can apply your personal goals directly to these topics.
And of course, I’d love to hear from you personally — feel free to reach out to me by email if you’d like to connect one-on-one!
I’m here for you and happy to support you with your personal situation.
Please don’t hesitate to reach out — just send me an email anytime at info@christina-hohenwarter.com. I look forward to hearing from you!
Please check your inbox for the next steps.