The Artist’s Way: An Honest Review (From Someone Who Didn’t Quite Know What They’d Signed Up For)

January 3, 2026 • Art • Creativity

I thought The Artist’s Way would help me get more disciplined and connected with my creativity. But, what I didn’t expect was launch my own art events (which I’d been dreaming about for years), write more than ever, start painting again (after a long dry painting spell), and get to really know myself.

In this blog post I review my experience and share suggestions for those thinking of doing the Artist's Way. I hope you enjoy it!

Firstly, what is The Artist’s Way?

The Artist’s Way is a book by Julia Cameron, she is an American author, teacher, artist, poet, playwright, novelist, filmmaker and composer. First published in the early 1990s, the book has since then been embraced by artists, writers, and creatives around the world, selling over four to five million copies.

The book is structured as a 12-week programme designed to help blocked creatives reconnect with their creativity. Each week requires roughly 10 hours of commitment, including:

Reading the chapter for the week.
Weekly tasks, exercises and activities. These connect to the week's theme and really can range. For instance, it could be doing something like making a pie chart of how you spend your time, writing letter to your 'haters', or fixing up a part of your house you've been putting off. - Side note, I finally made my dream "frame wall" in my bedroom, with quirky frames thrifted over time and full of my fave art work - I love it so much!
Daily Morning Pages (essentially journaling) which must be at least 3 pages and handwritten (I had a small journal which made this easier lol)
Weekly Artist Dates. In essence this is a solo adventure to nurture your inner artist and let it play.

How (and why) I ended up doing The Artist’s Way

Doing The AW was a pretty spontaneous decision. A good friend and fellow creative recommended it to me, and told me she was loving it.

At the time, I was craving more consistency and discipline with my creative projects, so I shrugged and thought: Sure, sounds helpful, let’s do it, and immediately bought it on Amazon.

What I did not realise was what I was actually signing up for.

When the book arrived (24 hours later lol) and I read the introduction, I learnt what was expected of me, more than I imaged, that's for sure.

So I decided that if I was going to take it seriously, I would not begin the programme immediately and wait for a few weeks, intentionally starting it when I knew I’d have more free time and mental space to focus on it.

And I’m very glad I did. This is definitely not a squeeze it in when you’re busy kind of book.

My experience, its impact on my creativity & productivity

I must admit one of the biggest benefits from The AW was the amount of creative things I did during those three months.

This was partly thanks to the tasks in the book, but also because it repeatedly reminds you that creativity is good and meaningful. It's also pushing you constantly to connect creatively with yourself which, for me, had a massive impact on my productivity.

Overall, if I had to choose 3 words to describe my experience it would be: insightful, enjoyable, and impactful.

To illustrate how productive I was creatively, by the end of the 12 weeks, I had:

Launched my own art events and community. My number one achievement is launching my Art Club. The process included scouting and contacting venues, bars and cafés. I was able to land a collaboration with a very trendy cultural café and ran my first ever event in December. I received wonderful feedback (still smiling about that), planned the next event, and confirmed dates for the next three after that. Huge moment for me. And I don't think it's a coincidence it happened while doing the AW. The programme absolutely helped me see the idea through to fruition.

The first Art Club event, where we created our own hand-made cards. It was a lovely evening with lots of laughter and connection.

Branding: Created the visual branding for Art Club (logos, templates), set up a Meetup group (which now has grown to 40 members in 2 months), and launched the Instagram page for it.
Writing: Wrote four blog posts.
Journaling: filled up five journals with Morning Pages, notes, poems, blog ideas, drafts, doodles, and thoughts. I genuinely surprised myself with how much I wrote and journaled.

My journal came with me everywhere - I've never written so much in my life!

Painting: Started painting again and began a piece I genuinely think is super fun (it's a still-life of a summer-y tin of olives). It’s still in progress, but after months of not touching a paintbrush, it feels like a win.
Collaging: Created a very large collage piece, and made several other ones. I also made a Mood Board for 2026 and a collage visualising my creative dream (i.e. what it would look like to run my own art gallery and studios).
Social media: I started taking my art Instagram more seriously again, including buying a microphone and filming myself talking on camera. Was it cringe? Yes. Did I do it anyway? Also yes. Will I hide the posts later? Potentially. lol.

Scrapbooking: Scrapbooking was something I loved as a child and somehow abandoned. Lately I’ve really re-discovered the joys of it and collecting photos, little bits from trips like flyers and leaflets from museums, weekend exploring, holidays.... and genuinely look forward to making scrapbook pages when I get home.
Junk journaling: I've also been exploring junk journaling and really enjoying it. I never knew about it, and have now found myself going down rabbit holes about ways to store washi tape and how to use crisp packages to make pockets haha, it's a lot of fun!
Exploring: Visited galleries, museums, thrift stores, and creative spaces I probably wouldn’t have otherwise if it wasn’t for the encouraging Artist Dates.
Personal development: Gained more confidence, drive and a better understanding of myself and my creativity.

A page from my 'creative scrapbook'. Read my blog on How Scrapbooking (Glubeooking) Can Spark Ideas and Beat Creative Block

The unexpected amount I learnt about myself

I didn't even think that the book would be a journey of self-exploration and, dare I say it, self-help. And that was silly of me. I was naive to think myself as a person and my creativity are two separate things.

Throughout the weeks, I started to gain more confidence in myself and make peace with "villains" as Julia describes them. These can be people who have influenced you to hold back. For example, with negativity, judgement, expectations, unhelpful advice or comments. I also acknowledged that the villain unfortunately often tends to be oneself too.

Through self-reflection I learnt why I thought and felt things that held me back with my art, creativity, about myself, and hence did or not do, certain things.

The book helped me gain clarity that I have let people's thoughts about me influence my work, how I express myself, even with clothes, hair, and - sorry to go deep - ultimately the choices I make about how I live my life.

I realised some people will never be happy with what you do, and you can never really win or please everyone. And also, why would you want to? I have decided to try to focus on how I want to do my life and creative projects. And now doing and creating what I think is interesting and meaningful. Big turning point mentally for me.

I also learnt I should protect my creativity and myself. And that I really do have the obligation to create and pursue my ideas, that this is important and of value, for me and for the 'universe' (sorry, a bit woo woo haha).

I ended the 12 weeks by accepting I am my inner artist, and also the other parts of me which has made me feel like I live a double life. For example, as I still work full time in marketing I felt shame about this. But a big realisation was finding out that it's okay to be both, to be a creative and still work in something else. It was really interesting to join those two different sides of me together, in an accepting and positive way.

In summary, I made peace with myself, and with others. I feel much more in tune with who I am, and that I want to do things more authentically.

First time trying out doing a big collage on canvas - was super fun!

A note on the spiritual aspect

Disclaimer, I didn’t do The Artist’s Way for a spiritual awakening, I just wanted to make more art. And I didn’t particularly connect with the parts that focus heavily on God and prayers.

But some of the semi-spiritual, slightly woo-woo but not too woo-woo parts really worked for me. For instance affirmations. A simple one that stuck with me is: “Creativity is good”, which I like to repeat to encourage myself to go ahead with a project or idea.

I don’t think you need to be a very spiritual person to still benefit from the book. I would say the way you want to do the book, and what you want to take from it, is quite up to you as an individual.

Personally I connected and gained more with the self-reflection tasks, instead of the spiritual, but I imagine someone else could connect more with the spiritual aspects of it.

About the time commitment

The programme lasts 12 weeks, which I actually think is a great length for building habits and seeing impact. I was probably spending 5 - 10 hours a week on the book (depending on Artist Dates).

How did I manage my time? I spread the weekly chapters across the week, reading the chapter one day, doing the exercises another, alongside daily Morning Pages and the weekly Artist Date (and this varied how long I could dedicate to it).

Overall, I’m proud to say I stuck to the 12 weeks. But, I must confess, by week 10 I was definitely happy to be nearing the finish line.

Ironically, while the book is about creativity, following the programme so closely sometimes left me with less time to actually make my own art. I was ready to finish and run off to create freely again.

On Morning Pages

I really enjoyed MPs.

At the beginning I was pretty certain that I wasn’t going to stick to them as I am most definitely not a morning person, and did not want to wake up earlier to do them. I was sure after three days I would give up on them.

But I didn't. To this day I've kept them up. :)

I realised spending even just 15 minutes (at least on a working day, at the weekend I would tend to spend more time on them) writing, and of course coffee in hand, had a big positive impact on me.

It became a really nice moment which I looked forward to, before the busy day began. I wrote down my thoughts, my feelings, my ideas, streams of consciousness, list of things I wanted to do and create, goals, anything.

I find that a good way to start them off, and get me warmed up, is to describe what I'm doing in the moment and my surroundings, i.e. I'm sitting on the sofa with a coffee in my right hand and Chica (my dog) is curled up to me on my left. It's raining outside, heavy rain. Today I have a busy day ahead....

I do admit I’ve always enjoyed journaling, which probably has helped MPs come easily to me. But I am thankful for The AW which have embedded the daily morning habit into me now.

My Artist Dates (aka taking your inner artist out)

This was another part I found surprisingly easy.

Again, I have never had problems having solo adventures or exploring days (which I actually affectionately call Mattie Days lol), like going to visit new towns, museums, or cafés.

But what I loved about ADs was the idea of intentionally taking my inner artist on a date, and tapping into creativity.

On some dates, I went to a bar and imagined if my Artist and I were on a real date together and what she would say to me. I would write this all down, and the dialogue we would have.

Interestingly, it got to a point where my Inner Artist even thanked my other sides, such as my marketing side (the me that works and pays the bills lol), for providing stability and security. It lifted the shame I felt of not being a full time creative. Quite powerful.

I think visualising my Artist and “talking” to her actually got me pretty deep. It helped me understand what I want in life from different parts of myself, who I am, and reconcile my artist with my other parts.

It made me realise I can be many things at the same time. And that the important thing is to just keep moving forward, towards what makes me feel authentically happy. Be it creative things, or travelling, or the marketing work, and simply taking life step by step.

Read the blog about my Artist Date here.

I must admit some weeks I did struggle to have, or better said feel like I had the time for an AD. These weeks helped me realise that by making an effort to even just do something simple made a big impact and surprised me how positive I felt after.

For instance, twice I took myself to the park for only about 20 minutes. I would sit on a bench observing my surroundings while I wrote my thoughts and poetry. It felt so good. It was a great reminder that I could easily do this much more in my life.

For other ADs I went to various art galleries and museums, thrift shops (where I let my creative mind play), and cafes to write. On holiday in Palma de Mallorca I had a great AD on the rooftop of my hotel, having a beer and writing while overlooking the sunset... good times!

What else I liked about The Artist’s Way?

I liked the combination of the experience being both fun, through its varied range of tasks and activities, as well as being pretty deep, with lots of self discovery and reflection.

I also found the quotes throughout the book from artists and creatives interesting to read, as well as learning about the author's journey and perspective.

It's also been nice to connect with others who have done the book, or are curious about it. Funny story, once I was on the train to work reading a chapter, and the woman next to me started telling me she had done it many years ago. We had a great, and pretty long lol, conversation about the AW, art, life and creativity.

The scrapbook page from my Artist Date visiting the Frans Hals art museum in Haarlem, The Netherlands

Would I recommend The Artist’s Way?

Well, I think it's not for everyone.

However, if you're someone looking to develop their creativity, up for a challange and enjoy self-reflection, introspection, and are open to exploring your inner world, I would recommend it.

I do believe it can be a way to reconnect with yourself and your creativity.

A few suggestions

If you’re considering doing The Artist’s Way, here are a few tips which really helped me get the most out of it.

Commit to the full three months. Ideally choose a quieter period in your life. I did it from late September to late December, which felt perfect, fewer plans, darker evenings, and a strong sense of closing the year with intention.
Take it seriously. Skipping the odd task is fine, but the more you put in, the more you’ll get out.
Take breaks from social media for it. I found that by deleting instagram from my phone, for periods of time, I could focus a lot more on the tasks and be able to look more inwards.

Additionally, I would like to say to be careful with triggers. I would imagine for people who might have complicated upbringings or very traumatic experiences the AW could be a pretty difficult thing to do.

For instance, there are some parts of the book which intentionally bring up hard memories, and which make you explore the reasons why your creativity might be blocked.

I could understand this might not be easy for everyone. Therefore, maybe if that's your case a different approach could be better, such working through your creatives blockers with a therapist.

So.. did The Artist’s Way achieve its goal for me?

Short answer: yes.

My intention was to reconnect with my creativity and be more consistent with my art. I achieved that, and was very productive with my creative projects. In addition, I developed and explored myself along the way.

I hope this helps anyone thinking about starting The Artist’s Way. And if you’ve done it yourself, I’d love to hear about your experience!

Feel free to reach out to me on Instagram on comment below :)