5 comments about How to Survive and Prosper as an Artist, 5th ed.: Selling Yourself Without Selling Your Soul.

1. Lots of great, helpful information. A reference book for anyone becoming an artist. One tip in the book is worth the price. Don't think twice about getting this good resource.



2. I purchased this book about five years ago while just getting out of undergraduate school. The practical tips and ideas about developing work helped out immensely. The writing is pratical advice which helps anyone who is starting out, to cut out at least six months to a year of bumbling mistakes one would normally make when approaching the beginnings of an art career. Along with all the good advice, the lists of institutional information in the back of the book is worth the price of the book itself. I have reccomended, and lent this to many of my friends to read and plan to re-read this with the completion of graduate school and a new body of work.



3. Book is good for painters who want to deal mostly through galleries. Not good for other artists or photographers and not good for artists who want to avoid the gallery manipulations.



4. Since retirement, I have been exploring the arts as a business opportunity. This book is a real eye opener about what questions to ask and where to look for assistance. It appears that artists are the talent and others may just be users of the talent without respect for the talent. Newbies should learn what to expect and safeguard their interest as they develop a business. Business is not emotional and artists are usually emotional about their works and talents. Developing business skills is critical to building those safeguards that can lead to a the artist having a good experience both with the art and the business.



5. Not quite what I expected. Third of the book is lists of resources. Really only useful if you live in the US. Some interesting points about the relationship between art galleries and artists and a fair attempt at empowering artists. Still, not the book for me.

5 comments about Calder Jewelry.

1. Expertly photographed, beautifully styled catalog of A. Calder's jewelry. A great purchase, no regrets.



2. Anyone who appreciates well-made, original design in jewelry needs to have and read this book. What an inspiration! Although I was familiar with Calder's mobiles, for which he is most renowned, I was even more impressed with his jewelry designs. All one-of-a-kind. A definite must for the coffee table or even to read and enjoy. As a jewelry designer influenced by other cultures, this has been most helpful in inspiring me to follow my instincts and to design the items I've seen in my dreams. What a book!



3. Merely walking by this book makes my artisan heart tingle. The genius, the simplicity and golden aura of beauty makes this book a "must own." The photographs are gorgeous and the descriptions beautifully written. Get inspired.



4. This book is an inspiration to anyone who makes jewelry. The use of cold connections is terrific and can show you what can be done without the use of solder.



5. This book is a beautiful celebration of Calder's gorgeous and playful jewelry. The pictures are lovely and the jewelry itself is simply amazing. It's hard not to feel joyful flipping through these pages. Buy it and enjoy!

5 comments about Anatomy for the Artist.

1. Excellent book for studying the human body! This book retails for $40.00 in a book store.



2. Great way to get familiar with the human body, different positions than the boring usual, a book for more advance artists looking to improve and to know those little details only a model or this book could reveal to you.



3. A must for any serious art student. Sarah Simblet also has a Sketchbook for the Artist that I recommend.



4. This is a beautiful books full of beautiful pictures of incredibly beautiful people.
   Aren't beauty and perfection what artists are, in essence, desperate to capture? Well, this aestetically superior book gives us a glimpse of what levels of perfection the human body can attain. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in fine arts, or to anyone simply sensitive to the human body's unsurpassed beauty.



5. The purchase I made was everything listed when I bought it. It was in perfect conditon, and look forward to doing business with them in the future! Thank you!

5 comments about Cosmic Motors: Spaceships, Cars and Pilots of Another Galaxy.

1. Cosmic Motors offers a new perspective on futuristic racing machines by blending the form factors of things like WWII bombers and F1 racers with Simon's creativity to bring you some of the slickest vehicles around. Daniel Simon also provides a context for his vehicles with dashes of story throughout the book. The book contains several pages of tightly rendered sepia sketches as well as many extremely crisp 3D renderings that show off some seriously insane attention to detail. A lot of the 3D renders contain composited pilots or sexy babes posing by the vehicles to show off scale and maybe a little leg.
   
   Overall the book is a nice addition to any concept-book lover's library. I only have two little complaints about this book: 1. I wish there were more loose sketches to paw through and 2. sometimes the composited pilots are so "earth-like" that they contrast oddly against the futuristic vehicles from another galaxy, but that contrast may have been intended.



2. It's an amazing blend of Concept Design and (realistic)Vehicle Design. Every item has a (hi)story, a unique character accompanied with realistic renderings, which make you believe those vehicles are real. You can also witness the process of Daniel Simon's concepts through neat sketches. This book, like other Design Studio Press books, won't let you down, in addition it will give you more of what you expect/imagine.



3. This is a great book for reference for concept artist.
   Amazing 3D models and other models with curves;)
   Lots of sketches, clean presentation....great book!!



4. I ordered this item, says sent by USPS - USPS says they attempted delivery and left a notice to redeliver. USPS did NO leave such a notice, and there is no record beyond that. I was ripped off the cost of the book and shipping. I will never order a book from this publisher or any other publisher who uses USPS again.



5. I first read this book in 'Top Gear' magazine, checked out the website, and then discovered that Amazon were selling the book cheaper! It's an incredible book! While there are many artists who create stunning visuals, Daniel Simon's are so incredibly lifelike I though initially he had got someone to actually build his vehicles! His love and dedication to his art are obvious from the design processes that are explained in the book. All my colleagues in my architectural firm are fighting for their turn to look through this book! Amazon, you've come through for me again. Thank you!

5 comments about Creative Colleges: A Guide for Student Actors, Artists, Dancers, Musicians and Writers (Creative Colleges: A Guide for Student Actors, Artists, Dancers,).

1. As if being a student in the college search and application process is not challenging enough, student actors, artists, dancers, and musicians are presented with additional and different sets of options and challenges. Creative Colleges: A Guide for Student Actors, Artists, Dancers, Musicians and Writers by Elaina Loveland is a great resource for creative students, the parents of creative students, and the counselors who work with creative students.
   
   The information in Creative Colleges is clear, practical, well researched, and well presented. Students will get help with decision-making and advice on applications, auditions, portfolios, essays, resumes, and other aspects of the process. They will also get a feel of what different colleges are like.
   
   Much of the tips and advice is quoted directly from admissions professionals, professors at creative colleges, and from creative students who went through the college search and admission process.
   
   The author is a former editor of the Journal of College Admission. In Creative Colleges, she combines that experience with her background as a writing student and writer and her experiences as a dance student and dancer. The author's experience and empathy for and understanding of the creative student are evident throughout the book.
   
   Creative Colleges is a book that can be a great help every to every high school junior and senior who wants to pursue acting, art, dance, music, and writing at the college level.



2. "Creative Colleges is very informative and it would have been so helpful to my daughter as a high school senior (she is now in college). It is much better to know about the things that are in this book well in advance. It is very helpful for parents and students starting the research. Also, there is very little information out there like this."



3. I only wish this book was around when I was researching colleges in NY! It's very comprehensive, simple to understand for any high school senior, and all of the information is up to date. Most other books hardly touch on the creative student- this book specializes in it. I recommended it to all the high schools in my area, and I'm pleased to say that they all love this book!



4. This reference book helps in choosing creative type colleges or conservatories by providing the facts we need to know before we choose the school, such as how many apply/audition and how many are chosen each year. It lists the department activities, degree concentrations, number of full time faculty, prices, enrollment, scholarships, entry requirements, and prominent alumni.
   
   While certain colleges have been chosen to have in-depth profiles as described above, most creative schools have been listed by state under their specialty(acting, artist, dancing, music, writing) without in- depth profile for you to further investigate on your own. The biggest down fall of the book is that not enough colleges have been chosen for in-depth profiles on their creative departments.
   
   This book also provides examples of creativer resumes and audition / portfolio requirements.
   
   So the book is a starting ground for creative school investigation but must be used in conjunction with other information sources and books that outline creative schools. Use this in conjuction with Peterson's College Guide for Performing Arts Majors.



5. This is a great book for those seeking advice, suggestions and useful information on any performing arts major. It ofers suggestions, tips and a lot of very useful information for this specific area of study.

5 comments about Becoming the Natural: My Life In and Out of the Cage.

1. Another great MMA fighter autobiography!
   
   First off the book has a very funny, short (foreword) written by comedian/actor Kevin James!
   
   "Becoming the Natural" is right up there with Chuck Liddell's book "Iceman / My Fighting Life", which I consider to be the best MMA/UFC book out there.
   
   Randy tells his childhood story and how he got into wrestling and MMA. He had a very sordid childhood as far as his parents were concerned. Randy talks about alot of very personal issues in the book, that he didn't have to tell us the readers. He really lays it all out there! He goes into detail about his ex-wives, cheating and being a parent.
   
   Randy goes into detail about the UFC, Dana White and his current legal battle with the UFC. Couture's 16-8 record doesn't stand out like that of a champion, but read the book and you'll see just where that record comes from. Randy was fighting heavyweights with 40-50 pds. over him, in many fights once they got on top, he was simply pinned beneath them.
   
   Randy is one of my favorite fighters simply because he seems to be a genuinely good guy and this book gave me that same feeling about him! Randy has beaten the best and been beaten by the best.
   
   Throughout the book, even when describing his losses, he never bad mouths his opponents, in one fight he loses, he later learns the other fighter failed a steroid test, Randy is given the chance to have the fight changed from a (loss) to a (no contest), he refuses, saying a loss is a loss!
   
   As a fan, I hope to see Randy get his chance to fight Fedor. As Randy says in his book, it's about taking on the best possible opponent and that man is Fedor!
   
   Randy is still training, but not currently fighting, he is pursuing his acting career, with his first leading role movie, "Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior" due on DVD this Tuesday!
   
   The book also provides alot of nice pictures to give you a better sense of his past and family!
   
   Another good MMA bio. for fans collections!



2. Randy Couture did not have to "take it on the chin" with certain admissions he made in this book regarding the cause of his divorces. It gives insight to a great champion and the road that took him there. Absolutely excellent book, if you are a fan of any sport this book is an excellent true account of incredible determination.



3. Very good read.
   
   Randy is very open about his personal life. He doesn't try to hide his skeletons. Although, i think he has made some bad choices along the way, i respect him even more for admiting to them and not trying to make excuses.
   
   It also shows that Randy wasn't always "the natural" in his athletic career, and how one must work hard and dedicate themselves to achieve their goals.



4. Generally entertaining - Background confirmed my Father's advice:
   "It is easier to become a Father, than to be a Father"
   Would have liked to have seen a photograph of Randy's 2nd wife.
   Appreciated Randy's honesty in revealing his less than perfect
   morals, which at the same time, marred, to some extent, my admiration of the man.



5. Randy gives a great insight into his life and times, It lets you see what drives a champion. Also one of the few books that points out some of the injuries that happen along the way.
   
   I highly recommend this book to any MMA fan or aspiring martial artist Along with the books by Chuck Lidell and Matt Hughes. All 3 give vastly different perspectives of the fighting world.

5 comments about Art for Kids: Drawing: The Only Drawing Book You'll Ever Need to Be the Artist You've Always Wanted to Be (Art for Kids).

1. The book has enough explanations for those children that want to learn basics of drawing on themselves.



2. This book is excellent for the beginning art teacher and drawing student. I am basing a lot of my curriculum on ideas inspired by this book in my upcoming school year. It takes your thoroughly through each step/stage of learning to draw so that anyone can master it! Great illustrations and ideas are perfectly fit onto each page, without annoying "materpieces" that you don't think possible. By the end, you will be drawing with the best of them-- and students will too!



3. We purchased this book for our 7-year old daughter. The book is written and illustrated in a manner that she was able to open the book, read it and go by the illustrations by herself. She has been using this book almost daily since Christmas.



4. I ordered this book based on some of the reviews I had read and I am very impressed with it. Though it is geared for kids, it is great for older artists as well. It breaks down steps and procedures wonderfully and presents them in a very informative many. If you want to learn the basics of drawing I would strongly recommend this book. Enjoy!



5. My 11-year old son loves to draw. His skills are self taught, and he has checked out MANY books from the library over the years. He recently checked out this book and declared it one of the best he'd ever seen. (I bought it from Amazon for a Christmas present.) Even though he already understands shading, perspective, etc., he thought this book helped him improve even more. The book also has a lot on drawing people and faces, which can be very challenging.

5 comments about Cloth Dolls for Textile Artists.

1. This is a keeper, Stump doll patterns and new techniques for the doll artist.
   Well illistrated, I am still reading over and over this book.
   You will enjoy the color illustrations, detail is amazing



2. I looked forward to this book,and when I recieved it yesterday,I decided to return it.
   It did not seem to be about dollmaking,but seemed more to be a "push" on trendy products to make special effects,and that is what bothered me.I looked through the book,and was immediately bored.It's not about love of dollmaking,it is about what to do with plastic fibres and alot of expensive craft/junk on the market.Some of you readers may know exactly what I mean by the term "craft/junk"
   If you want a how to book on melting angelina fibres,and combining products that you can buy online,go online and buy the products,and save your money on the cost of this book.
   I find it very dull,and trendy.It smacks of "sommerset",the latest trendmaker in "how to be creative"-if you have 200.00 plus to blow on rubber stamps and synthetic fibres.
   I do not care for "trendy", and gimmicks,and this book has little to do with doll making,it is about selling plastic fibers to melt with your blowdryer.Go to Wallmart and buy some polyester,and grab your oldest iron and burn the daylights out of the stuff.It's way cheaper,and you will have the gratification of not liking the compressed goop without hating you paypal account for buying expensive plastic shards to mess up your iron with, let alone trying to hand stitch through the tough goop and try and make a doll with, this is just another book of gimmicks without heart of art making.
   I don't recommend this book in the least.I am sending it back tomorrow morning.



3. I usually purchase all books that have to do with cloth dolls just because they're a rarity, and I like to support cloth doll artists of all types. That said, this may become the first doll book that I ever return. There is a paucity of information about dollmaking in general, and so much white space on every page that it's clear that there wasn't enough material on anything to warrant a full length book. I'm not sure how this author got a book deal, unless whoever gave it to her was completely ignorant of the many amazing cloth doll artists in the world today. I am completely shocked that Interweave Press put out this book. It is so bad as to be embarrassing. The patterns are simplistic, the face painting instructions are sketchy, and most of the techniques are really about manipulating fabric, not dollmaking. And even those techniques are not fully explained, and the work pictured is messy. There are also VERY few dolls pictured in the book; and the author's handwork is not even up to the intermediate beginner standard. Prospective buyers would be much better served purchasing any of the excellent works by Patti Culea on cloth dolls, or even by visiting a site such as joggles.com or dollmakersjourney.com and purchasing 2 or 3 patterns by almost any cloth doll designer on either of those sites. A real disappointment.



4. I received my copy a week ago and have been entranced reading and re-reading over the past few days.
   The dolls are unique and wonderfully imaginative. The instructions and photographs are great and let the reader know that these dolls are do-able. I know that I can sit down with my book and my materials and be able to create a doll that will be successful. Not all books do that, but this one does. Buy it.



5. This book is a wonderful resource for anyone making art dolls or small art quilts. The techniques can be used for any art quilt application and not limited to doll construction. I will use this book over and over and learn something new every time I open it.

4 comments about The Complete Artist's Way: Creativity as a Spiritual Practice.

1. The Artist's Way books are inspiring, and this pretty book containing three of them is worthy of a prime space on the bookshelf (while keeping it handy for check-ins!). Nicely done.



2. The exercises in the first part of this "trilogy" is more than worth the price of the book. If you choose to do the exercises, your creativity will be released/unblocked. What a positive response this book is for really anyone who wants to live more creatively. If you want to think of yourself as an artist, or if you never thought of yourself as an artist before, this book is for you. I have already given it as a gift and I'm not even half way through with the reading/journaling/pondering. It would be a tremendous book for your local library. Then, use it on a solo journey or work through it with a group. Gigi



3. "Was there any issue this week that felt significant to you in your self-discovery?" Cameron's questions and exercises are very helpful for someone getting started in an artistic pursuit - or someone who needs to reactivate after a period of not working in this arena for a time. The book is written in short essays, some of which have tasks to do. The exercises help reduce the rigidity of our mental constructs, and so open the spirit path. It is a book one may pick up and read at any moment... find a gem of an idea to build upon, or an understanding of what's at work in all of the arts. This book is a treasure for me. It never fails to remind me of the creativity that is always ready to be stirred in every human being.



4. I was very pleased with the delivery time and the perfect condition my book arrived in. I also was pleased with the price. I recommend this book!

No comments about Performance: Richard Avedon.