Rick Rubin’s The Four Phases of Creation

A map from idea to art

This part 1 of 4 reflections on the phases of creation is free for all subscribers, this short series will include additional notes to help you develop your prompt and experience the four phases of creation. For the full series, all the daily prompts and bonuses — become a subscriber.

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A NOTE ON THE PRACTICE

Ten Minute Artist is your daily companion in building a sustainable creative practice - one reflection, one prompt, one ten-minute session at a time. Whether you're just beginning, returning after years away, or making space for personal work, these prompts create a pocket of possibility in your busy life. Your daily practice becomes a way to show up consistently, find your voice, and join a community of artists who share your commitment to daily ritual.

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The Four Phases of Creation

Great artists often resist frameworks, preferring to see their process as purely intuitive.

But Rick Rubin, who has guided countless creators across multiple disciplines, sees patterns in how ideas become reality.¹ His four-phase creative framework – seed, experimentation, crafting, and completion – gives shape to the invisible path we all walk when bringing something new into the world.

Each phase serves a specific purpose.

The seed phase catches those first sparks of inspiration – a sketch in a notebook, a melody hummed into a phone, a character described in three words.

Experimentation is where possibilities multiply, where we try different mediums, styles, and approaches without judgment.

But it's in the crafting phase where many creators face their greatest challenge – choosing a direction and developing it with focused intention. This is where personal style emerges, where reputation builds, and where clients begin to recognize consistent excellence.

Finally, completion is about knowing when to let your work meet the world.

The power of understanding these phases lies in recognising where you are and what each stage requires. When you're stuck, this framework becomes a diagnostic tool. Trapped in endless experimentation? It might be time to commit to crafting. Rushing to completion? Perhaps you need to return to experimentation. Like any good map, it helps you locate yourself and plot the path forward.

TEN MINUTE ARTIST PROMPT

SEED PHASE: "Three-Line Drawings" (10 Min)

Fill a page with objects drawn using exactly three lines each. No lifting your pen during each line. These simplified forms will become your vocabulary for what's next. (We’ll be building on this over 4 days)

Notes for the seed phase

The seed phase is about gathering first impressions and pure observation, without judgment or refinement. Like collecting interesting stones at the beach, you're just noticing what catches your eye.

The three-line exercise works perfectly for this phase because:

• It removes the pressure of "good drawing"

• Forces pure observation (what's essential?)

• Creates quick, intuitive captures

• Makes filtering impossible (you only get three lines!)

• Keeps you from overworking

• Creates a collection of possibilities

• Each attempt is quick enough to stay in that first-impression energy

This is why we start here - when you can't add more lines, you can't second-guess. You're forced to stay in that pure "seed" energy of just noticing and capturing. Every three-line drawing becomes a potential seed for what might grow later.

More notes on the practice:

• All the prompts are repeatable, and customisable, use them as they are or adjust for inspiration and save them up for future use.

• The main tool we use for our practice is an artist book that we will sit with for 10 minutes daily. ( but any sketchbook or journal works too)

• You can connect to the community of Ten Minute Artists in the chat

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PS: Art Gym drawing workshop on the 23 of January: Drawing Anthropomorphic Characters, JOIN US!

1. Read Rick’s Book, and listen to his Podcast