If you want to succeed in life or business, this book is a must.

    Plus, get inspired by--and learn from the mistakes of--artists/business owners such as Jonathan Adler, Lotta Jansdotter, Denyse Schmidt, Jill Bliss, and many more.

    Noah made 365 skull-themed projects . . . now he invites you to choose your obsession and get creative! The book offers 365 project prompts to kick start your creativity, plus plenty of room for journaling, sketching, and jotting down ideas. Learn how to choose your subject and document your work, and see examples from other artists and crafters who took the 365 challenge. In addition, master new techniques to incorporate into your projects, including quilling, clay-making, paper pop-up engineering, and more. Share your progress with other 365-ers at www.MakeSomething365.com. With 365: A Daily Creativity Journal you’ll get charged up, get messy, and get inspired, and you’ll see how making something every day can change your creative process—and change your life—forever!

    Using incredibly easy-to-create textures and a kaleidoscope of colorful imagery, you'll learn to create one-of-a-kind collages with your own unique touch.Claudine Hellmuth shows you how to create amazing textures like layered tissue paper, masking tape texture, dishwasher rinse aid resist, Elmer's Glue-All crackle and more! You'll also learn how to:Add whimsical hand-drawn elements to your artworkExplore the possibilities of printmaking, including the use of a pasta machine!Combine paper and fabric in new and creative waysIncorporate personal imagery into your collage workWhatever your collage experience level, Collage Discovery Workshop: Beyond the Unexpected will unleash the artist within.

    It's used widely among artists of many types with both fine and bold lines, creating different variations. Botanical Line Drawing teaches you how to start with the simplest doodles, building into more elaborate, delicate illustrations. This book focuses on the extremely popular subject matter of the natural world and includes flowers, leaves, succulents, houseplants, trees, branches, mushrooms, and more. These simple line drawings will allow you to branch out and have fun with your own personal style, as well as inspire you to add flourishes to other projects.

    Museum attendance is surging. More people than ever call themselves artists. Contemporary art has become a mass entertainment, a luxury good, a job description, and, for some, a kind of alternative religion. In a series of beautifully paced narratives, Sarah Thornton investigates the drama of a Christie's auction, the workings in Takashi Murakami's studios, the elite at the Basel Art Fair, the eccentricities of Artforum magazine, the competition behind an important art prize, life in a notorious art-school seminar, and the wonderland of the Venice Biennale. She reveals the new dynamics of creativity, taste, status, money, and the search for meaning in life. A judicious and juicy account of the institutions that have the power to shape art history, based on hundreds of interviews with high-profile players, Thornton's entertaining ethnography will change the way you look at contemporary culture. 8 illustrations.

    Gilbert offers insights into the mysterious nature of inspiration. She asks us to embrace our curiosity and let go of needless suffering. She shows us how to tackle what we most love, and how to face down what we most fear. She discusses the attitudes, approaches, and habits we need in order to live our most creative lives. Balancing between soulful spirituality and cheerful pragmatism, Gilbert encourages us to uncover the “strange jewels” that are hidden within each of us. Whether we are looking to write a book, make art, find new ways to address challenges in our work, embark on a dream long deferred, or simply infuse our everyday lives with more mindfulness and passion, Big Magic cracks open a world of wonder and joy.

    52 Projects chronicles the author's artistic journey over the course of one year and how it changed his life-and also offers 52 jumping-off points for the reader's own creative inspiration: - Frame a picture you've drawn, painted, or photographed-and hang it up in a public environment - Write the story of why you moved to the city in which you currently live - Ask your grandparents to tell you their stories-and document them - Create something while your laundry is washing and drying - Make the perfect margarita-and drink it - Send a friend a Chinese take-out menu and chopsticks - Stay up all night-and make the most of it

    You dream and plan and make stuff – all the time. And whether that “stuff” is a book, a startup, or abstract crayon art on the bathroom wall, you have a nagging feeling that you could take your work further. Do it better. Become more successful. In The Good Creative, I outline the 18 habits of the world’s most respected artists. It’s a concise, invigorating manifesto for creative pursuits of every kind. Unlike the get-rich-while-you-meditate programs and e-courses that seem to multiply by the day, there offers no guarantees here. None. These 18 principles might not fund your early retirement, but when applied consistently with a healthy dose of hard work, they will help you to make better, more meaningful art. Now that’s a promise you can take to the bank (or at least to Twitter). You’ll learn how to: Promote yourself without feeling like a used car salesman Hug your critics, embrace failure and reinvent your work Launch small and build a larger, more engaged audience Share your process and break the rules You will NOT learn how to: Take over the world from your bathtub Win the Sundance Grand Jury prize Earn six figures, yesterday Make an age-defying green smoothie (but you might learn how to attract more fans and readers for your recipe books)

    During his more than forty years in the business, Williams has been one of the true innovators, winning three Academy Awards and serving as the link between Disney's golden age of animation by hand and the new computer animation exemplified by Toy Story. Perhaps even more important, though, has been his dedication in passing along his knowledge to a new generation of animators so that they in turn could push the medium in new directions. In this book, based on his sold-out master classes in the United States and across Europe, Williams provides the underlying principles of animation that every animator--from beginner to expert, classic animator to computer animation whiz --needs. Urging his readers to "invent but be believable," he illustrates his points with hundreds of drawings, distilling the secrets of the masters into a working system in order to create a book that will become the standard work on all forms of animation for professionals, students, and fans.

    We arrive at this crossroads over and over again, and every day. And we get to choose. Starting out or starting over, making a career change or making a life change, the most life-affirming thing you can do is to honor the voice inside that says your have something special to give, and then heed the call and act. Many have traveled this road before. Here’s how you can, too. #choosemust An inspirational gift book for every recent graduate, every artist, every seeker, and every career change.

    One of these principles is what Harold Speed calls "dither," the freedom that allows realism and the artistic vision to play against each other. Very important to any artist or work of art, this quality separates the scientifically accurate from the artistically accurate. Speed's approach to this problem is now considered a classic, one of the few books from the early years of this century that has continued to be read and recommended by those in the graphic arts.In this work, Harold Speed approaches this dynamic aspect of drawing and painting from many different points of view. He plays the historical against the scientific, theory against precise artistic definition. He begins with a study of line drawing and mass drawing, the two basic approaches the artist needs to learn. Further sections carry the artistic vision through unity and variety of line and mass, balance, proportion, portrait drawing, the visual memory, materials, and procedures. Throughout, Speed combines historical backgrounds, dynamic aspects which each technique brings to a work of art, and specific exercises through which the young draughtsman may begin his training. Although not a technique book in the strict sense of the terms, The Practice and Science of Drawing brings to the beginner a clear statement of the principles that he will have to develop and their importance in creating a work of art. Ninety-three plates and diagrams, masterfully selected, reinforce Speed's always clear presentation.Harold Speed, master of the art of drawing and brilliant teacher, has long been cited for this important work. For the beginner, Speed will develop a sense for the many different aspects which go into an artistic education. For the person who enjoys looking at drawings and paintings, Speed will aid developing the ability to see a work of art as the artist meant it to be seen.

    [It] was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother's shoulder, and said. 'Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.'"With this basic instruction always in mind, Anne Lamott returns to offer us a new gift: a step-by-step guide on how to write and on how to manage the writer's life. From "Getting Started,' with "Short Assignments," through "Shitty First Drafts," "Character," "Plot," "Dialogue." all the way from "False Starts" to "How Do You Know When You're Done?" Lamott encourages, instructs, and inspires. She discusses "Writers Block," "Writing Groups," and "Publication." Bracingly honest, she is also one of the funniest people alive.If you have ever wondered what it takes to be a writer, what it means to be a writer, what the contents of your school lunches said about what your parents were really like, this book is for you. From faith, love, and grace to pain, jealousy, and fear, Lamott insists that you keep your eyes open, and then shows you how to survive. And always, from the life of the artist she turns to the art of life.

    Following the simple SoulCollage directions, your hands move fragments of cut-out magazine pictures around, fitting them together in a surprising new way and gluing them down on a card. Cards containing the images you select — or the images that select you — come straight through your Soul, bypassing the mind. This is a multi-leveled, creative process which anyone can do. All you need is a good pair of scissors, pre-cut mat board cards, glue, and images you can cut out from magazines, greeting cards, personal photos, postcards, catalogues, and calendars. It is wonderful to have other people with whom to share the process. The cards are fun to take to a friend's house, to work with in therapy or support groups, or to keep on your coffee table.

    An inspiring tool and beautiful art book in one, Creative Pep Talk offers illustrated words of wisdom from 50 of today's leading creative professionals. With full-color, typographic prints and explanatory statements from a host of creative luminaries—including Aaron James Draplin, Oliver Jeffers, Lisa Congdon, Mike Perry, and many others—this volume encourages artists to stay excited, experiment boldly, and conquer fear. "Create curiosity," "Learn to say no," and "If you can't be good, be different" are just a few of the motivational maxims in this visually rich collection that's perfect for students, designers, artists, and creatives at any stage in their careers.