7 Art and Craft Books To Read This Month

I love books, obviously I love the internet too, but I still love the physicality of books and I love being able to flick through art and craft books for reference, knowledge and inspiration. So back in January I shared the art books I was reading that month and now it is time for an update!

It's another mix of art business and inspiration books but I've also got some craft books in the list this month, oh, and a notebook too!

[There are some affiliate links in this blog post, so if you buy through them I do get a small amount of money at no extra cost to yourself. Thanks for your support!]


Living The Creative Lifestyle And Art Business

This month I have the two Austin Kleon books on my list, Show Your Work and Steal Like An Artist, have you read them? These two books are inspirational self-help books on nurturing the creative lifestyle and making a living, or not (!), from your art. They work as motivational books with tips on how to be true to yourself, work on your art to improve it and get your artwork out there to sell it.

Every time I open one of these two books it is like 'oh yeah! That is so true!' and it reminds me of the things I frequently need reminding about as day to day life kicks in and I scrabble about trying to build my business and improve my art and all the thousands of things that go into those tasks. So if you are in the same boat I can recommend these books as grounding points and interesting reads!


Need Art Business Advice To Get Your Teeth Into?

But for something with a bit more umph and some nitty gritty about licensing, contracts, tax etc then try The Essential Guide to Business for Artists and Designers (Essential Guides) by Alison Branagan. What I find particularly useful for me about this book is that is is UK-centric. So many art/design business books are USA-based and having a book that is about working within the UK business rules and regulation, as that is where I am based, is very useful.

Just as an aside, when you do freelance work with clients based outside of your the country that you live in it is a good idea to do your research as best you can. Your clients can help and they may know what forms you need to fill in to comply with their countries rules or regulations. But you can also contact the various regulatory authorities within your own country for help. And of course finding other people on the internet who are in the same situation as you and have worked with clients in those countries helps too!

And of course if you run a blog and earn money from that blog there are lots of rules you need to be aware of across all territories, so research and joining blogging groups is great for that!

I've got the 2011 edition of The Essential Guide to Business for Artists and Designers (Essential Guides) but there is a new edition that came out in February 2017, so perfect timing if you are looking for a really useful resource for your art, craft or design business.

Get Designing!

For this month's designing inspiration I'm kicking off with Color + Pattern: 50 Playful Exercises for Exploring Pattern Design by Khristian Howell. This book has, as it says, lots of fun exercises and prompts to help focus your mind and build up your design skills. I like it because you can dip in and out of it as you want and there are even an occasional how-to for using software to build designs, although perhaps not as in depth as some of the fabric design books on my last reading list. There are also some mini meet the designer features in this book and lots and lots of image inspiration in the form of both photos and patterns, so a lot to get your designing mind whirling.

The next book on my list this month in the inspiration category is actually not a reading book, it is a notebook. It's the Everything You Can Imagine Is Real notebook designed by Helen Dardik. This notebook is super cute and has illustrated quotes in between the writing pages and I am using it to capture my illustration ideas and work at the moment.

How beautiful is that Unicorn? You can find Helen Dardik on Instagram and she is an artist and illustrator represented by the agent Lillia Rogers, whose art business book I Just Like to Make Things: Learn the Secrets to Making Money while Staying Passionate about your Art and Craft was on my January Reading List, if you missed it!



Get Your DIY And Craft On!

The final category on my reading list this month are some DIY craft books. So my studio is going through a bit of a re-organisation and I've been working through my art and craft books. It is fun to revisit them but also as part of this I am thinning them out and passing them on to new good homes. So if you are looking for art and craft bargains then pop on over to my Ebay where I have various items looking for people to love and use them!

So the books I have been re-reading this month, before I sell them on, are House Proud: Hip Craft for the Modern Homemaker by Danielle Proud, ReadyMade: How to Make (Almost) Everything by Shoshana Berger and Grace Hawthorne and Sew Quick, Sew Cute: 30 Simple, Speedy Projects by Fiona Goble.

House Proud and ReadyMade are great for any home decor or recycling and up-cycling inspiration you might be thinking of doing. They are full of some fabulous ideas and even some full-on furniture making projects, particularly in ReadyMade! The Sew Quick, Sew Cute book is full of cute sewing projects from soft furnishing, wearable items and home decor, I love the face cushions project, totally fun!

So that is my reading list this month, what is on yours?

Kim

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Art Books I am Reading This Month

[There are some affiliate links in this blog post, so if you buy through them I do get a small amount of money at no extra cost to yourself. Thanks for your support!]


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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