Book picks similar to
Creative Journal: The Art of Finding Yourself by Lucia Capacchione
journaling
art
writing
self-help
Listography Journal: Your Life in Lists
Lisa Nola - 2007
Some lists are obvious (greatest accomplishments, best friends, favorite food), others obscure (guiltiest pleasures, greatest acts of kindness, personal fashion trends), and each list is accompanied by hilarious illustrations.Listography is perfect for getting down all the details of a life less ordinary.
2,000 to 10,000: How to Write Faster, Write Better, and Write More of What You Love
Rachel Aaron - 2012
This is the book explaining how, with a few simple changes, I boosted my daily writing from 2000 words to over 10k a day, and how you can too."Expanding on her highly successful process for doubling daily word counts, this book, a combination of reworked blog posts and new material, offers practical writing advice for anyone who's ever longed to increase their daily writing output. In addition to updated information for Rachel's popular 2k to 10k writing efficiency process, 5 step plotting method, and easy editing tips, this new book includes chapters on creating characters that write their own stories, practical plot structure, and learning to love your daily writing. Full of easy to follow, practical advice from a commercial author who doesn't eat if she doesn't produce good books on a regular basis, 2k to 10k focuses not just on writing faster, but writing better, and having more fun while you do it.
Understanding Exposure: How to Shoot Great Photographs with a Film or Digital Camera
Bryan Peterson - 1990
Peterson stresses the importance of metering the subject for a starting exposure, and then explains how to use various exposure meters and different kinds of lighting. The book contains lessons on each element of the exposure-aperature, shutter speed, iso-and how it relates to the other two in terms of depth of field, freezing and blurring action, and shooting in low light or at night. A section on special techniques explores such options as deliberate under- and overexposures, how to produce double exposures, bracketing, shooting the moon, and the use of filters. Understanding Exposure demonstrates that there are always creative choices about how to expose a picture-and that the decision is up to the photographer, not the camera.
Instant Happy Journal: 365 Days of Inspiration, Gratitude, and Joy
Karen Salmansohn - 2015
Each page features a specific intention, inspiring quote, surprising scientific fact, or thought-provoking question to ponder. When you approach your day with Salmansohn's "happiness prompters" in mind, you amp up your ability to notice (and create!) many more joyous moments in your day. But that's just half of what it takes to live a supremely happy life. This journal teaches the top two habits of happy people: to naturally set their intention to enjoy a happy day, then end the day reflecting on what made them happy. When you end your day writing about what went right, you further strengthen your happiness mindset. With fill-in dates so that you can write and reflect at your own pace, this little journal features a graphic design and fresh attitude perfect for today's modern happiness-seeker.
The Story You Need to Tell: Writing to Heal from Trauma, Illness, or Loss
Sandra Marinella - 2017
Riveting true stories illustrate Marinella’s methods for understanding, telling, and editing personal stories in ways that foster resilience and renewal. She also shares her own experience of using journaling and expressive writing to navigate challenges including breast cancer and postpartum depression. Each of the techniques, prompts, and exercises she presents helps us “to unravel the knot inside and to make sense of loss.”
List Your Self: Listmaking as the Way to Self-Discovery
Ilene Segalove - 2008
This best-selling journal provides an easy, provocative, and liberating way to get to know yourself. Ilene Segalove and Paul Bob Velick offer more than 175 journaling prompts designed to encourage serious self-reflection. Categories encourage readers to write about their fears, loves, regrets, life changes, friendships, health regimes, superpowers, wishes, and more—all of which are destined to lead to a deeper knowledge of themselves, their goals, and dreams. Kooky, de-stressing, and thoughtful, these journal prompts help you get in-tune with your inner self and combat self-rejection. It’s list-making like you’ve never seen it before.
Altered Art: Techniques for Creating Altered Books, Boxes, Cards More
Terry Taylor - 2004
Paint, collage, pierce, sew, and cut the pages of an old book. Change an ordinary candy tin into a charming decorative storage case with paper scraps, metal grommets, and paint. The possibilities are infinite. The author lives in Asheville, NC.
Journal Spilling: Mixed-Media Techniques for Free Expression
Diana Trout - 2009
You're free to quiet your inner critic and spill color (as well as your thoughts) all over the page. Author Diana Trout offers a double-dose of encouragement for you to try out new techniques, to ask yourself new questions and to see how safe of a place your private journal can truly be.Whether you've been carrying around an art journal for years, or have been waiting for just the right push, in the pages of "Journal Spilling" you will learn new ways with mixed media as well as new insights about yourself. Step-by-step instruction will make the process easy and you'll explore such techniques as: Using salt, alcohol and wax paper as resists for watercolorSpilling" color over your page with the help of watercolor crayonsCreating unique lines and shapes with a fun ink-blowing techniqueMaking secret pockets and flaps for storing wishes and private reflectionsCarving and stamping with hand-carved stamps, making your pages even more personalGetting out of a writing rut with prompts and inspiring exercises and much more Find out just how fulfilling using creative expression in your personal journal can be and let "Journal Spilling" be the friend to offer you support for each page you create."
Making Handmade Books: 100+ Bindings, Structures Forms
Alisa Golden - 2011
Thanks to the 100 ideas in this volume, the craft is now available to everyone. In as little as an afternoon, beginners will be on their way to folding, gluing, and sewing handmade books in a variety of shapes and styles, from rolled scrolls to Jacobs ladders, folded flexagons to case bindings. Complete with photographs of the authors own master books and statements by more than 40 established book artists, this collection is sure to inspire. Culled from the authors best-selling books Creating Handmade Books, Unique Handmade Books, and Expressive Handmade Books, these projects will fuel bookbinding adventures for years to come.
Real Artists Have Day Jobs: And Other Awesome Things They Don't Teach You in School
Sara Benincasa - 2016
Author and comedian Sara Benincasa, now in her mid-thirties, had an absolutely harrowing early twenties and now, on the other side, she has a LOT of hard-earned wisdom and common sense to share.Real Artists Have Day Jobs includes 52 witty, provocative essays on how to live like a real adult—especially for those who have chosen a slightly more offbeat path to get there. Chock full of information and advice, Sara’s warm, smart, empathetic, and quirky voice is relatable to everyone from twenty-somethings and recent college grads to anyone a bit older who’s still trying to figure things out. While Sara doesn’t have all of life’s answers, this indispensable book has more than its share!Essays include:How to Read a Book, Real Artists Have Day Jobs, The Power of Being a Dork, Put Your Clutter in Purgatory, Ask for Exactly What You Want, Elect Your Own Executive Board.
No More Secondhand Art: Awakening the Artist Within
Peter London - 1989
Peter London offers inspiration and fresh ideas to artists, art students, and art teachers—as well as to people who think they can't draw a straight line but want to explore the joys of creative expression. Inside every person, he believes, there is an original, creative self that has been covered over by secondhand ideas, borrowed beliefs, and conditioned behavior. By freeing the capacity for visual expression—a natural human language possessed by everyone—we can awaken and release the full powers of that original self. Among the topics and exercises included are: • How to increase the ability to visualize, fantasize, and dream • Obstacles to the creative encounter and what to do about them • Experimenting with art media as true mediators between imagination and expression • Making masks to reveal the hidden self • Painting with "forbidden" colors • Arranging found objects as metaphors for one's life
Living Artfully: Create the Life You Imagine
Sandra Magsamen - 2006
"Living Artfully" reminds us to explore and experience life with more heart, meaning, purpose, and joy. It asks us to imagine, to dream big, to believe in ourselves, to celebrate the people in our lives, make each day count, dance when the spirit moves us, laugh out loud, and let our voices be heard.In this beautiful, life-changing book, acclaimed artist and entrepreneur Sandra Magsamen will transform everything you think you know about art, creativity, and personal fulfillment. And she'll show you that you've already got just what you need in your own two hands to create the life of joy and beauty that you want -- for yourself and others."Living Artfully" puts you in direct touch with your own imagination, where the only rule is there are no rules. Warm, encouraging, always good-humored, it is full of inspiring stories about people who pursue their own creative impulses and are rewarded with unexpected and delightful results. By following the ten principles of Living Artfully -- Magsamen's own dynamic process of creative thinking and being -- you will embark on an exciting personal journey of self-discovery. You'll learn how to connect with everyone in your life in inventive new ways, through everyday things, caring gestures, meaningful moments, and simple gifts that really make a difference. You'll also discover how, where, and when you can use your own creative language -- the images, words, sounds, foods, or crafts through which you mosteasily express yourself.To Sandra Magsamen, Living Artfully is connection. It's the ultimate form of communication. It's recognizing and embracing your own powerful, creative abilities. And the first step on the journey to Living Artfully is to rediscover the gifts of imagination, curiosity, and playfulness -- gifts that you already possess. Each chapter presents a wealth of practical and fun ideas that you can tailor to suit your own circumstances and preferences and that will jump-start your imagination and free dormant or forgotten talents. By giving yourself permission to be yourself, you'll embark on a personal renaissance, connecting with your inherent sense of fun and optimism and discovering that even simple tasks of everyday life can become perfect, natural outlets for your newfound creativity.Filled with Sandra's stunning, four-color, signature artwork, "Living Artfully" is not a how-to book but a why-to -- uplifting, motivational, and fun. It is also a guide into a new cultural movement in which people choose to live with a creative purpose, celebrating the people, places, and moments that make life truly meaningful.
No Excuses Art Journaling: Making Time for Creativity
Gina Rossi Armfield - 2013
Along the way, you'll learn fun and convenient techniques to add sketching, watercolor painting, collage and more into your journal, all while setting goals, creating art and chronicling your unique life.Inside You'll Find:More than 20 mixed-media art journaling techniques demonstrated step-by-step so you can add color, style and life ephemera to your journal.6 pages of journaling prompts and tips for every month of the year.Dozens of inspirational art journal pages by Gina and 12 guest artists to show how you can make the No Excuses program decidedly yours.Grab your journal and pen, and kick your excuses to the curb!
Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction
Jeff VanderMeer - 2013
Employing an accessible, example-rich approach, Wonderbook energizes and motivates while also providing practical, nuts-and-bolts information needed to improve as a writer. Aimed at aspiring and intermediate-level writers, Wonderbook includes helpful sidebars and essays from some of the biggest names in fantasy today, such as George R. R. Martin, Lev Grossman, Neil Gaiman, Michael Moorcock, Catherynne M. Valente, and Karen Joy Fowler, to name a few.Praise for Wonderbook: “Jammed with storytelling wisdom.” —Fast Company’s Co.Create blog“This is the kind of book you leave sitting out for all to see . . . and the kind of book you will find yourself picking up again and again.” —Kirkus Reviews online“If you’re looking for a handy guide to not just crafting imaginative fiction like sci-fi, fantasy, and horror, but to writing in general, be sure to pick up a copy of Steampunk Bible author Jeff Vandermeer’s lovingly compiled Wonderbook." —Flavorwire“Jeff Vandermeer and Jeremy Zerfoss have created a kaleidoscopically rich and beautiful book about fiction writing.” —Star Tribune“Because it is so layered and filled with text, tips, and links to online extras, this book can be read again and again by both those who want to learn the craft of writing and those interested in the process of others.” —Library Journal
Stolen Sharpie Revolution: A DIY Zine Resource
Alex Wrekk - 2003
From tools, to layout, copying, printing, trading, promotion, ordering, mailing, distribution, and a whole lot more. Over 150 (albeit pocket sized!) packed pages. The new third edition includes 32 more pages of distributor listings, stores, and libraries that work with zines.