Carmen Torbus's subtitle for her new book, The Artist Unique says it all: inspiration and techniques to discover your creative signature.
This is a conversation in book form that I've been looking for. In the mixed media art world there is often an emphasis on the end product rather than an opportunity to develop one's own signature. This takes dedication and a willingness to experiment on the part of the artist.
After each essay, Carmen highlights a technique used by that artist.
The techn iques are very broad. They cover a wide range of materials and, no, they are not ground breaking. How many techniques do you really need? It's all about what you do with those techniques. Torbus and the artists did a very good job of that. I responded strongly to some of the artwork; not all of it, as I said, this is a very broad book.
You won't find step-by-step-to-end products in this book. Instead you will find artists describing their process and their geneology as an artist. This, in my view, is the real meat of The Artist Unique. The step outs are mean as jumping boards. Use the techniques as you will.
Some of the techniques used and illustrated in The Artist Unique are encaustic, acrylic and watercolor paints, image transfer on wax, relief work with spackle, molding paste and polymer clay. Good for the beginning artist and the developing artist to see how techniques are used to express a particular vision.
Complete Disclosure: Northlight provided me with a review copy of this book.
