Sketchbook

The Artist’s No-Excuse Guide to Self-Promotion By Alyson B. Stanfield

This book is amazing. It has so many tips and ideas that it was hard for me to read it for more than 15 minutes at a time. I kept getting excited and worked up about all the things I can do to get my work out to the public. I actually got the idea for my business card design from this book.

There are also plenty of resources and websites. Stanfield uses action steps to help bust through the excuses that a lot of people, not just artists, use to hold themselves back.

I started this book around April, but with all my traveling I really didn’t have the stamina to keep working myself up. I was not able to get in the studio to follow through with any of the ideas and it was frustrating. It took me about two weeks to finish it cover to cover, even though it is a really fast read.  Like I said about 15 minutes in I would start daydreaming and going off on tangents of all the things I could do.

I know I will be going back to this book over and over again. I will be re-reading these chapters countless times over the next few months let alone years.

When I owned a house that had rental property with it there was a book that we jokingly called our bible. It was what we used to make contracts and what we used to set up rules with the tenants. I’d Rather Be In The Studio is my artist bible.

*Edit: Yes, this is a short review, but there really isn’t much to say other than: Read it!
If you have read this book let me know what you think about it. I would love to hear any ideas that were inspired from this book. If you don’t think this book is as great as I make it out to be let me know what your favorite books on the subject are. I am always looking for more to read.

Note: Originally posted on 7/25/09 at blog.limitedpalette.com