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.

    Brimming with ballads, riddles, and magical transformations, here is the timeless tale of a charismatic bard whose talents earn him a two-edged otherworldly gift.A minstrel lives by his words, his tunes, and sometimes by his lies. But when the bold and gifted young Thomas the Rhymer awakens the desire of the powerful Queen of Elfland, he finds that words are not enough to keep him from his fate. As the Queen sweeps him far from the people he has known and loved into her realm of magic, opulence—and captivity—he learns at last what it is to be truly human. When he returns to his home with the Queen’s parting gift, his great task will be to seek out the girl he loved and wronged, and offer her at last the tongue that cannot lie.

    Bursting with color, vivid imagery, and bouts of whimsy mixed with deeply intimate insights, the sketchbooks capture the texture of personal experience in a dizzying variety of illustrative styles and layouts that run the gamut from street portraits to stream-of-consciousness doodles, comics, and pop-ups. The Sketchbook Project World Tour presents the most compelling, surprising, and visually stunning examples from this one-of-a-kind artistic treasury.

    Through richly detailed full-color paintings and line drawings, magical kingdoms emerge from a sea of dreams. Cassandra Aisling, who is nine years and eleven months old, doesn't care “a jot” about what sensible people think. She likes strange, mysterious, and magical things. So when her world gets tumbled upside down, she boards the H.M.S. Basset, ready to explore the landscape of her imagination. Pledging allegiance to the Basset's motto, “Credendo do Vides...Believing is Seeing,” Cassandra, her skeptical older sister Miranda, and their father, Professor Algernon Aisling, set out in search of the ancient legends. From the flickering flight of fairies and the mermaids' siren songs to a labyrinth-bound Minotaur and a fire-breathing dragon, the Aisling family witnesses firsthand the wonder of mythological worlds. In this lavishly illustrated edition, Cassandra's adventures intertwine with her father's scientific scribblings to present both new tales and the essence of classical myths. From the two voices, readers learn the power of imagination, the importance of believing in oneself, the value of family, and the need for creative, cooperative problem-solving. The story of a magical journey and the exquisite fantasy artwork will appeal to young and old alike.

    During the heyday of the American circus from the mid-1800s to mid-1900s, traveling circuses performed for audiences of up to 12,000-14,000 per show, employed as many as 1,600 men and women, and crisscrossed the country on 20,000 miles of railroad in one season alone. The spectacle of death-defying daredevils, strapping super-heroes and scantily-clad starlets, fearless animal trainers, and startling freaks gripped the American imagination, outshining theater, vaudeville, comedy, and minstrel shows of its day, and ultimately paved the way for film and television to take root in the modern era. Long before the Beat generation made ""on the road"" expeditions popular, the circus personified the experience and offered many young Americans the dream of adventure, reinvention, excitement, and glamour.

    Illustrator Emma SanCartier captures the bizarre and hilarious elements of 17 monsters from around the world in a light, tongue-in-cheek tone, from the Japanese dream-eater Baku and the Persian carnivorous unicorn Shadhavar to the Eastern-European Shurale, a literal tickle monster. Packaged in a textured three-piece case and illustrated in lush watercolor, Monsters You Should Know is a perfect primer for the many strange, frightening, and compelling things that go bump in the night.

    Literary journals bound by magnets, or designed to look like junk mail. The sharp wit, gorgeous design, and playful why not invention of independent literary publisher McSweeney's have earned it a large and loyal following and made its journals, books, The Believer magazine, and Wholphin DVDs collectible favorites of readers and graphic designers alike. Created by the McSweeney's staff to commemorate their 11th (or 12th) anniversary, this book showcases their award-winning art and design across all the company's activities. It features hundreds of images, interviews with collaborators such as Chris Ware and Michael Chabon, and dozens of insights into McSweeney's quirky creative process and the visual experience of reading.

    Reoffered to coincide with the release of THE QUOTABLE SANDMAN HC, this comprehensive collection contains all the painted covers that Dave McKean produced for THE SANDMAN series, including all the collections, one-shots, trading cards, and more. Writer Neil Gaiman and McKean offer running commentary throughout. SC, 8x11, 208pg, FC

    Pre-eminent among those who have is John Howe.  Now, for the first time ever, a portfolio of more than 250 of his paintings and sketches has been collected together which celebrates the breathtaking vision of one of the foremost fantasy artists working today. Myth & Magic takes the reader on a journey through John Howe’s work, from his early days as a student to his most recent paintings, and features a number of previously unseen pictures. All of his Tolkien work inspired by The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion and The History of Middle-earth is included, and this is complemented by a dazzling array of the many works of art that he has produced, ranging from books on dragons and myth and legend, children’s books that he has written as well as illustrated, to a wealth of cover paintings for some of the biggest names in fantasy. John Howe has additionally provided an entertaining and informative commentary which gives the story behind his work.  Myth & Magic also boasts contributions from Tolkien expert and author of The Lord of the Rings Movie Guide, Brian Sibley, and top fantasy authors such as Robin Hobb and Robert Holdstock, features a revealing insight from Oscar-winning actor Sir Ian McKellen into the challenge of becoming John Howe’s ‘Gandalf’, and includes an exclusive Foreword by Peter Jackson, the directorof The Lord of the Rings Movie Trilogy. From the beloved painting of ‘Smaug’ that decorates The Hobbit, and the world famous ‘Gandalf’ picture which is synonymous with the one-volume edition of The Lord of the Rings, to the spectacular images which adorn best-selling novels around the world, this sumptuous gallery will delight all fans of Tolkien and fantasy, as it takes us on an unforgettable tour through the imagination of one of the finest artists in the world. A tour through the realms of Myth & Magic.

    Enter Stage Right NATE. Dashing pirate. Will do anything to protect Bertie. COBWEB, MOTH, MUSTARDSEED, and PEASEBLOSSOM. Four tiny and incredibly annoying fairies. BERTIE'S sidekicks. ARIEL. Seductive air spirit and Bertie's weakness. The symbol of impending doom. BERTIE. Our heroine. Welcome to the Théâtre Illuminata, where the actors of every play ever written can be found behind the curtain. They were born to play their parts, and are bound to the Théâtre by The Book, an ancient and magical tome of scripts. Bertie is not one of them, but they are her family, and she is about to lose them all and the only home she has ever known. Lisa Mantchev has written a debut novel that is dramatic, romantic, and witty, with an irresistible and irreverent cast of characters who are sure to enchant the audience. Open Curtain

    Now seventeen, she revisits the woods where Tom was taken, resolving to say good-bye at last. Instead, she's lured into the trees, where she finds strange and dangerous creatures who seem to consider her the threat. Among them is Jack, mercurial and magnetic, with secrets of his own. Determined to find her brother, with or without Jack's help, Jenny struggles to navigate a faerie world where stunning beauty masks some of the most treacherous evils, and she's faced with a choice between salvation or sacrifice--and not just her own.

    It's a little bit like reading my diary -- with permission. Succulence is powerFull! and so are we as women.

    This volume presents the work of Edward Gorey, the American artist and writer perhaps best known for his witty opening credits for PBS's Myster! series and for such books as Amphigorey, The Doubtful Guest and The Unstrung Heart.

    There is no question that Robert Frank's The Americans is the most famous and influential photography book ever published. It was 1959 when the book first came out: a series of deceptively simple photographs that Frank took on a trip through America in '55 and '56, pictures of normal people, everyday scenes: lunch counters, bus depots, cars, and the stangely familiar faces of people we don't quite know but have seen somewhere. They are pictures that saw the "American way of life" as we hadn't yet quite been able to see it ourselves, photographs that condensed the entire life of a nation in classic images that still speak to us today, forty years and several generations later.

    Artists will begin with some warm-up exercises and basic drawing instruction. From there, they'll embark on creating projects with doodles that get progressively more advanced through the book, starting with a gift tag and ending with elaborate doodling projects on wood and fabric. Sprinkled between projects are fun prompts and exercises designed to spark creativity, as well as beautifully designed practice pages to hone drawing and doodling skills. From cover to cover, this whimsical book is packed to the brim with ideas, while an elastic band keeps the book securly closed when not in use.