The artistic process/The individual artist

Inasmuch as we have seen art as a community or collaborative effort, many artists work alone in studios, dedicated to the singular idea of creating art through their own expressive means and vision. In the creative process itself, there are usually many steps between an initial idea and the finished work of art. Artists will use sketches and preliminary drawings to get a more accurate image of what they want the finished work to look like. Even then they’ll create more complex trial pieces before they ultimately decide on how it will look.

Some artists employ assistants or staff to run the everyday administration of the studio: maintaining supplies, helping with set up and lighting, managing the calendar, and all the little things that can keep an artist away from the creative time they need in order to work.

Some artists don't actually make their own works. They hire people with specialized skills to do it for them under the artist’s direction. Fabricators and technicians are needed when a work of art’s size, weight, or other limitations make it impossible for the artist to create it alone. American glass sculptor Dale Chihuly employs many assistants to create and install his glass forms.