Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative


Austin Kleon - 2012
    That’s the message from Austin Kleon, a young writer and artist who knows that creativity is everywhere, creativity is for everyone. A manifesto for the digital age, Steal Like an Artist is a guide whose positive message, graphic look and illustrations, exercises, and examples will put readers directly in touch with their artistic side.

Journal with Purpose: Over 1000 Motifs, Alphabets and Icons to Personalize Your Bullet or Dot Journal


Helen Colebrook - 2019
    Copy or trace direct from the page, or follow one of the quick exercises to improve your skills. Featuring all the journal elements you could wish for - banners, arrows, dividers, scrolls, icons, borders and alphabets - this amazing value book will be a constant source of inspiration for journaling and an 'instant fix' for people who find the more artistic side of journaling a challenge.

1000 Journals Project


Someguy - 2007
    Inspirational. Entertaining. One thousand blank journals are currently circulating throughout the world, beckoning contributors who find the journals by chance on trains, in cafés, and anonymously left on doorsteps. Artist Someguy shares more than 250 of the best entries: a collage of African countries repositioned into a new continent; the musings of a teen trapped in a drug- ravaged community; a student's humorous personal ad for his ideal girlfriend ("C-cup required!"). A faux leather cover and two beautifully embroidered pages bring the look and feel of the original journals to life. The perfect gift for journalists, aspiring artists, designers, and anyone who can't wait for one of the journals to magically appear in their lives.

The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity


Julia Cameron - 1992
    An international bestseller, millions of readers have found it to be an invaluable guide to living the artist’s life. Still as vital today—or perhaps even more so—than it was when it was first published one decade ago, it is a powerfully provocative and inspiring work. In a new introduction to the book, Julia Cameron reflects upon the impact of The Artist’s Way and describes the work she has done during the last decade and the new insights into the creative process that she has gained. Updated and expanded, this anniversary edition reframes The Artist’s Way for a new century.

Damn Good Advice (For People with Talent!): How To Unleash Your Creative Potential by America's Master Communicator, George Lois


George Lois - 2012
    Offering indispensle lessons, practical advice, facts, anecdotes and inspiration, this book is a timeless creative bible for all those looking to succeed in life, business and creativity. These are key lessons derived from the incomparle life of 'Master Communicator' George Lois, the original Mad Man of Madison Avenue. Written and compiled by the man The Wall Street Journal called "prodigy, enfant terrible, founder of agencies, creator of legends," each step is borne from a passion to succeed and a disdain for the status quo.Organised into inspirational, bite-sized pointers, each page offers fresh insight into the sources of success, from identifying your heroes to identifying yourself. The ideas, images and illustrations presented in this book are fresh, witty and in-your-face. Whether it's communicating your point in nanosecond, creating an explosive portfolio or making your presence felt, no one is better placed than George Lois to teach you the process of creativity.Poignant, punchy and to-the-point, Damn Good Advice (For People With Talent!) is a must have for anyone on a quest for success.

The Bullet Journal Method: Track the Past, Order the Present, Design the Future


Ryder Carroll - 2018
    Out of sheer necessity, he developed a method called the Bullet Journal that helped him become consistently focused and effective. When he started sharing his system with friends who faced similar challenges, it went viral. Just a few years later, to his astonishment, Bullet Journaling is a global movement. The Bullet Journal Method is about much more than organizing your notes and to-do lists. It's about what Carroll calls "intentional living:" weeding out distractions and focusing your time and energy in pursuit of what's truly meaningful, in both your work and your personal life. It's about spending more time with what you care about, by working on fewer things. His new book shows you how to... • Track the past: Using nothing more than a pen and paper, create a clear and comprehensive record of your thoughts. • Order the present: Find daily calm by tackling your to-do list in a more mindful, systematic, and productive way. • Design the future: Transform your vague curiosities into meaningful goals, and then break those goals into manageable action steps that lead to big change. Carroll wrote this book for frustrated list-makers, overwhelmed multitaskers, and creatives who need some structure. Whether you've used a Bullet Journal for years or have never seen one before, The Bullet Journal Method will help you go from passenger to pilot of your own life.

Start Where You Are: A Journal for Self-Exploration


Meera Lee Patel - 2015
    It helps readers navigate the confusion and chaos of daily life with a simple reminder: that by taking the time to know ourselves and what those dreams are, we can appreciate the world around us and achieve our dreams.Featuring vibrant hand-lettering and images that have attracted a large following for her stationery and textile line in boutiques across the country, Meera Lee Patel's uplifting book presents supportive prompts and exercises along with inspirational quotes to encourage reflection through writing, drawing, chart-making, and more.Featuring inspiring quotes from writers, artists, and other visionaries paired with open-ended questions and prompts, with plenty of room for writing and reflecting, this appealing full-color book will make a perfect gift and keepsake as well as being a powerful tool for positive change.

How to Make a Journal of Your Life


Dan Price - 1999
    Now in its twentieth edition, the MOONLIGHT CHRONICLES has brought Dan's creed of "truth, beauty, and really big sabbaticals from the convention of life" to thousands across the countryWith such a following, Dan figured it was time to collect his offbeat observations into book form in hopes of inspiring other would-be journal writers to take pen, camera, and brush in hand. As Dan is fond of noting "Seems there's tons of empty journal books, but not too many on how to fill 'em up!" In HOW TO MAKE A JOURNAL, Dan answers the call, teaching readers how to tap into those pent-up creative juices and collect their life experiences on paper.

Make Good Art


Neil Gaiman - 2013
    He encouraged the fledgling painters, musicians, writers, and dreamers to break rules and think outside the box. Most of all, he encouraged them to make good art.The book Make Good Art, designed by renowned graphic artist Chip Kidd, contains the full text of Gaiman’s inspiring speech.

1,000 Artist Journal Pages: Personal Pages and Inspirations


Dawn DeVries Sokol - 2008
    They offer viewers rich, visual inspiration. There is a fascination with these revealing and often beautiful pages of self-exploration and personal expression. Journals offer a tantalizing, voyeuristic view of an interior life. Journaling has seeped into popular culture in a big way and this collection provides a wide array of ideas, techniques and themes to inspire and inform mixed media and journaling enthusiasts.This is the first book to offer examples of over 1000 journal pages in one eye-catching, visual format. Artists can embrace and experiment with this medium and will benefit from this rich collection.

Annie Leibovitz at Work


Annie Leibovitz - 2008
    Fuji. Climbing Mt. Fuji is a lesson in determination and moderation. It would be fair to ask if I took the moderation part to heart. But it certainly was a lesson in respecting your camera. If I was going to live with this thing, I was going to have to think about what that meant. There were not going to be any pictures without it." —Annie LeibovitzAnnie Leibovitz describes how her pictures were made, starting with Richard Nixon's resignation, a story she covered with Hunter S. Thompson, and ending with Barack Obama's campaign. In between are a Rolling Stones Tour, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Demi Moore, Whoopi Goldberg, The Blues Brothers, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Keith Haring, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Patti Smith, George W. Bush, William S. Burroughs, Kate Moss and Queen Elizabeth. The most celebrated photographer of our time discusses portraiture, reportage, fashion photography, lighting, and digital cameras.

The War of Art: Winning the Inner Creative Battle


Steven Pressfield - 2002
    Pressfield believes that “resistance” is the greatest enemy, and he offers many unique and helpful ways to overcome it.

Your Inner Critic Is a Big Jerk: And Other Truths About Being Creative


Danielle Krysa - 2016
    Silencing that stifling voice once and for all, this salve for creatives introduces ten truths they must face in order to defeat self-doubt. Each encouraging chapter deconstructs a pivotal moment on the path to success—fear of the blank page, the dangers of jealousy, sharing work with others—and explains how to navigate roadblock. Packed with helpful anecdotes, thoughts from successful creatives, and practical exercises gleaned from Danielle Krysa's years of working with professional and aspiring artists—plus riotously apt illustrations from art world darling Martha Rich—this book arms readers with the most essential tool for their toolbox: the confidence they need to get down to business and make good work.

The Collage Ideas Book


Alannah Moore - 2018
    It lets you juxtapose disparate elements, styles, and media against each other and create something entirely novel, bizarre, arresting, beautiful, ironic, or unsettling. Old and new can be fused together; the digital and hand-made can be combined.What you can create with collage knows no bounds.This little book is full of big ideas from contemporary collage artists to inspire you to think differently. It's the perfect gift for creative friends and family, providing inspiration for curious beginners as well as seasoned collagists looking for new ways of working.With a new idea on every page, you will discover fresh ways of tackling the medium to create work that is original and exciting.Ideas include:- monoprint- embroidery- felting- portraiture- painting- body art- sketchbooking- miniature dioramas- Surrealism- Photoshop- and many more!

Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity


Hugh MacLeod - 2009
    Those cartoons eventually led to a popular blog-gapingvoid.com-and a reputation for pithy insight and humor, in both words and pictures.MacLeod has opinions on everything from marketing to the meaning of life, but one of his main subjects is creativity. How do new ideas emerge in a cynical, risk-averse world? Where does inspiration come from? What does it take to make a living as a creative person?Ignore Everybody expands on MacLeod's sharpest insights, wittiest cartoons, and most useful advice. For example:-Selling out is harder than it looks. Diluting your product to make it more commercial will just make people like it less.-If your plan depends on you suddenly being "discovered" by some big shot, your plan will probably fail. Nobody suddenly discovers anything. Things are made slowly and in pain.-Don't try to stand out from the crowd; avoid crowds altogether. There's no point trying to do the same thing as 250,000 other young hopefuls, waiting for a miracle. All existing business models are wrong. Find a new one.-The idea doesn't have to be big. It just has to be yours. The sovereignty you have over your work will inspire far more people than the actual content ever will.After learning MacLeod's forty keys to creativity, you will be ready to unlock your own brilliance and unleash it on the world.