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What art books are you reading at the moment? I have quite a collection on the go and I thought it might be fun to share them with you. Some of them are art technique books, some are inspirational books, some are business books and there are a couple are downtime books for kicking back and enjoying at the end of my working day.

The Business Of Art Books

On Monday I shared a couple of the business books I am using to help me with my business planning this year in my ‘How To REALLY Get Things Done’ blog post but I am also reading Lisa Congdon’s  ART Inc book and Lilla Rogers’  I Just Like To Make Things workbook to help inspire the creative business that I am growing.

I have to admit that I have had Lisa Congdon’s book for a while now and I dip in and out of it from time to time and I am in one of those dipping into it moods at the moment as I try to focus on my business goals this year. It is interesting to learn about other creatives’ journeys as there are just so many directions and paths to building a creative business and there is no one-size fits all, which is part of the fun but also part of the mystery! This book gives lots of ideas on how to make a career through your artwork from licensing to working with galleries and lots of journey stories from other artists. If you do not know Lisa Congdon then you can find her at her website where she also sells classes including one on becoming a working artist.

And if licensing is something you are interested in then Lilla Rogers’  I Just Like To Make Things might be of interest to you. Lilla Rogers is a well-known artist agent and her book is geared towards licensing art and turning them into products.Well I say book, it is more of a workbook with some creative exercises and tips about agents and different markets for your art. She also has classes on her website to help artists develop their careers.

Design Technique Books

I am also reading two books on fabric design, A Field Guide to Fabric Design by Kimberly Knight and The Complete Guide To Designing and Printing Fabric by Laurie Wisbrun. Both books have some nice beginners tips on designing in general and then some very hands-on tutorials creating patterns with software, which I have been playing with. There are also some hands-on techniques in both books but in particular the Complete Guide which has a massive section about hands-on printing techniques like screen printing and stamping. They also have information about licensing and a dip into the business of fabric design too.

You can kind of see what has been on my mind a lot recently, can’t you? 🙂

Books For Inspiration

So a change from the business books and technique books and onto the books on my reading list and this time I have a couple of books for inspiration to share. Two very different books Freehand curated and written by Helen Birch and 20 Ways To Draw with Lisa Congdon (honest, I’m not stalking her, although I do follow her on social media, and I did get a bit excited when she was named as a keynote speaker at Blogtacular last year, erm!), Julia Kuo and Eloise Renouf.

Freehand is a collection of artists’ work with a snippet of  information about the techniques or the reasoning behind the work which I love, it is a great book for dipping into or flicking through for inspiration.

I got 20 Ways a couple of weeks ago as I thought it might be handy to expand my design motifs for the creative exercise that I shared last year and I’ve been doing over on Instagram almost every day now since the beginning of the year. It is a bit of a no brainer really seeing as my creative exercise involves drawing 30 of the same thing but in different ways and the book is page after page of different motifs, mostly from nature, but drawn in different ways. So great inspiration if you think you are getting into a creative rut or if, like me, you are trying to expand your creative horizons.

And Books To Relax With

The last two books that I wanted to share are my downtime reading, for when I’m not reading about business or about art, instead I read art. I love comic books, I read a lot of them, not as many as my partner David but still a fair few. And I have recently finished these two books that I really enjoyed: Nimona by Noelle Stevenson and Giant Days Volume One created and written by John Allison with art by Lissa Treiman, colouring by Whitney Cogar and lettering by Jim Campbell. Nimona has a wonderful fantasy twist to its world which suits me perfectly and Giant Days is more a real-world story of student life. Both are great stories with lovely art and very enjoyable reads.

So go on then! What books are you reading at the moment?

Kim

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