A complete course in 40 lessons

by: Judy Martin

(click on image to go to Amazon page)

I came across this book in an email from Artist Daily just as I was thinking to myself, “I really need a book that teaches you how to sketch.”

Unfortunately this book did not exactly hit the mark I was looking for.

There are a few paragraphs in the beginning of each “lesson,” however,  there is really no guidance in the book.  There are tips, i.e. “…if you fill a whole sketchbook with hands and feet you will know all there is to know…” or draw things you have around the house and use a hard cover sketchbook.

There are also ideas of things to sketch, such as, go to the zoo.   Unfortunately for myself, it’s not a lack of what to sketch that seems to keep me blocked.  It’s more of a “how to.”  I have thought a million times, “I wish there had been a class at my college just on how to sketch.”

I want the lovely sketch book that is in itself a work of art.   I can’t imagine anyone getting that from this book alone. It’s a great start for some one who is really just getting started, but don’t expect instruction on how to sketch other than you can use a pencil, pen and ink or watercolor. As an artist I already understand the myriad of media available to me.

I do find some of the ideas helpful and a fresh perspective on how to think about sketching. Buildings for example are extremely tough for me. They are boring and complicated at the same time.  However, if I had looked a bit closer at Martin’s lesson on recording detail while I was in Maine last week, I may have had an easier time of it. I would have done very rough sketches of the buildings as a whole and done more detailed sketches on the adjoining page of their complicated details.  Instead I just wanted to jump in and get it all down in one go.

Still this doesn’t help me with hairy lines, my real obstacle to interesting sketches.

The book is worth a look, but don’t expect to master sketching in 40 lessons.  If you don’t like the way your sketches look follow the advice of my friend Gabriela and ask someone who’s sketches you admire.

by J. Jason Horejs

I just wanted to let everyone know about a book I read last month. Horejs is a gallery owner so of course he recommends going the gallery route, so you know, take all that for what it’s worth and also realize that not all galleries are created equal. However, the first copy of this book was lost in the mail and he promptly sent me another one no extra charge, although the mailing error was most likely mine.

This book is a very fast read and it has a lot of good information whether you are looking for a gallery or not.  My favorite part is the section titled “A Crash Course In Selling Art.” I think if you especially don’t want gallery representation this part is something to read and practice. You need to learn how to sell your own art if you don’t want to pay someone to do it for you. There is also a section on pricing work. I feel like it never hurts to think about pricing your work in a new way. His way is simple enough, you price per square inch. This will give you a consistent way of pricing your work. My Uncle was not fond of this idea as this means that all the things that make it a piece of art would not be included in the price, but then I explained to him that that’s how you decide how much each square inch is worth. I don’t know if he was quite satisfied with that answer, but it helped me price my work in a much more consistent way. The less headaches the better.

So how I price my work: I took a piece that I was sure of the amount that I would not take less than. If you start with a painting that you are confident about the price then you don’t need to worry about ones that you are not so sure about. If you don’t really know about any of your pieces, get a few friends/mentors who know about artwork and talk it through. Then I divided the price by the squared area of the painting (HxW). That’s my price per square inch.  Now I can go to paintings that I am not so sure about and price them with confidence and ease.  Just the way I like it.  Now all you have to do is add the cost of any framing and you are set.

By: Daniel Grant

I am a bit torn with this book.

I found a lot of  great info in the pages, but not much had to do with selling w/o a gallery. The author mentions obvious venues such as art fairs and a few not so obvious ones, however, most of the examples from artists seem to be dealing with galleries. Or, even more frustrating,  Grant will give an example of what worked, but in a tone that is more, “This may work for you, but probably not.”  Although, I could just be reading into that.

If you saw all the tabs coming from the book you would assume it’s amazing. I have marked quite a few things from it. It was really dry reading though and it took me quite awhile to get through it. I had a couple of false starts.

This book does have a few amazing lists though. It lists different societies, different insurance groups, etc.

While it is not a very exciting read I think it is one for the book shelf if only for the very valuable archive of extensive lists. The chapter titled ” Help That Is Tailored To Artist’s Needs” is worth the price of the whole book, especially for a “new” artist.

The Unconventional Guide To Internet Marketing

Clark R. Covington

Full disclosure time: I tweeted a request for recommendations for books on selling. Covington tweeted an invite to check out his books on Amazon. I scurried over, but he was out of stock. He very kindly sent me a copy.  I read the introduction right away before I headed to work. However, I put off reading the rest for a few weeks. There’s a lot of pressure. What if I don’t like it? What if it has nothing to do with my line of business, but I still “have” to review it (that is purely my own pressure as I was never asked to review it/he probably doesn’t even know I review books on my blog/has never seen my blog)? I also have about 8 other various books I am reading at any given time.  Some for the business side, some for the art side and some just because I love to read.  So with out any further ado…..

I have to say I like Clark R. Covington. Not just because he sent me a book (although that is a huge plus) and not solely because he has an easy chair called the Sumo, although I too have a gigantic Lay-Z-Boy that takes the place of my office most days once in a very long while.  I like Covington because he doesn’t seem to take himself too seriously and because he celebrates people owning their uniqueness. And I quote:

“Embrace the information in this book, and then immediately challenge yourself to be different, to stand out, to do things your own way, and there is a good chance the rewards of your risk-taking will come sooner than you’ve ever thought possible.”

When people say things like that I know they get it. They get that being yourself and bringing that thing that no one else can bring is what makes the world go round.

Another paragraph that I need to share with you is this:

“Think back to your happiest time, the time that you daydream with your fingers crossed will come again. think about that time: Did you have to overcome something to get there? Did you have to fall a few times and get back up before that happiness overcame you as you tasted sweet success?…If you are going to succed, you must fail first.“

I also love it when people tell me it’s okay to fail. After all, my personal motto is, “If you are going to fail, fail hard.” I have failed enough at enough things to know failing is a pretty good thing, even if it hurts at the moment.

I could share a few more with you, but perhaps you should get your own copy.

Covington writes like he is talking directly to you. I find that very easy to read especially when the topic at hand is not something I am familiar with.

It’s not all butterflies and rainbows though, he knows how to get down to business. Clearly. After all, he did write a book about it.

It could be argued that a lot of this book is an ad for his services as well. Why shouldn’t it be? If you trust a guy enough to take his advice about internet marketing, wouldn’t you want to know about all his other products as well?

This book may not be for everyone, but I definitely think there are a lot of great ideas in here. I know on several occasions it has had my mind racing with new ideas.

Being a fine artist and therefore being the only person who can create my particular artwork, implementing some of the ideas Covington introduces may seem a bit of a stretch at first, but I know with some creative thinking (it is what I do) I could use most of them to my advantage.

*Like all the other books I mention there is now a link on the side bar.

By: Joel Comm

In the name of full disclosure I must say I knew virtually nothing about Twitter before I read this book. I knew that it was similar to the Facebook status and that everyone seemed to be on Twitter. I definitely did not see what the big deal was, and honestly, I still don’t. However, that is most likely my own inability to adapt to yet another social network.  I do think it’s cool that I can follow Barack Obama and that an amazing author can follow me (did I mention I geeked out over Alyson B. Stanfield following me on Twitter?! No? Well she is and I am geeking out.)

Now for the book review:

I did receive a few very good ideas from this book. I do feel that I know much more about the purpose of Twitter now, even if I am not amazed by it yet. According to Comm, and I am sure many other people, Twitter is one giant conversation. You can have a conversation with anyone and with millions of people. It’s 24 hours and the party never stops. Twitter is a way to market yourself and to communicate with businesses that are marketing to you. Most importantly Twitter is for experts. Lots of experts twittering about what they do. People asking experts questions and experts linking to things. If you have enough experts following you then you too can be an expert. Or at least play one on Twitter.

Comm told me how to tweet, when to tweet, and what kind of tweets I should be tweeting.  One of the most helpful topics in Twitter Power is the Twitter applications.  These applications help you use Twitter to it’s fullest potential as a marketing and communications tool.

This book will tell you whether or not it’s important to have a custom background (it is), how to find out who your biggest followers are, and how to find out if you are being talked about.

I like that this book has a 30 day plan, but I wish it was at the front of the book. I could have been implementing the plan while reading the rest of the book and I think that would have kept my interest up.  I say check that out first and get to work.

I skimmed at least one full chapter of the book because some of it wasn’t as useful to a one person business, but I was still able to glean a bit from those parts and apply it to my situation.

I found Twitter Power to be a bit dry and very repetitive. Even with all the technical speak, which probably isn’t as much as I thought, it was still a pretty fast read and like I said in the beginning I learned some good tips. Plus a little repetition never hurt anyone, I hear it takes a person hearing something three times before they know it. I’m pretty sure I will be referring back to this book and the notes I took in the future.

Comm donates 10 percent of his proceeds of the “book to WaterIsLive.com, a nonprofit organization working to provide clean drinking water to a portion of the one-half billlion of the world’s population who are deprived of our most basic need.” (Comm, dedication page)

I am still confused about Twitter and all that goes with it, but I think that will only subside with practice. I do recommend this book for anyone who is interested in using Twitter to get in touch with their clients and/or discuss their field of business with other people who are interested. Twitter is the networking tool and that is pretty exciting.

If you have read the book or read the book, let me know what you think. I’d love to hear some of the ideas that this book inspired.

Note: There will now be a link to the right for all the books on the book review list. (Just one of the many ideas I learned about from Twitter Power) If you are interested in the book and use the link on the left I earn 4%. I do not get paid to review the books. I solely review books that I read for my business. My reviews are exactly what I think of the book and what I would tell any one asking my personal opinion about said books. I am just trying to pass on any useful information and get a discussion going about that information.

Note II: Originally posted 9/29/09 at blog.limitedpalette.com