Exploring the sources of ideation among visual artists

Purpose The aim of the paper is to holistically explore ideation as a part of visual artists' creative processes. The study focuses on how various sources of information are integrated into visual artists' ideation for their future artworks. Design/methodology/approach Our research is based on 15 qualitative interviews with visual artists. Data was analysed with content-driven thematic analysis. Findings We identified four primary sources of ideation from our dataset: (1) observation, (2) self-created, (3) experimenting, and (4) self. We examined the sources of ideation and their relations within four dimensions: the external and internal worlds, intentionality, and serendipity. Originality/value This study represents the use of various types of information sources for artistic ideation and defines a previously underexplored category “Self” that relates to using personal experiences, visual ideas and imagination as source of ideation.