Creating Art at the Speed of Life; Pam Carriker

Sprightly, Diana Trout

Pam's new book, Creating Art at the Speed of Life is packed full of great information, ideas and projects. Full disclosure: I have two pieces in the book and received a complementary copy. That said, I'll do my best to give an honest review.

Creating Art has a good bit of technical information regarding the elements of art: color, form, texture, shape, lights/darks. This is a fine introduction to the bones of making strong art. There is much to achieve here and the book is meant as a beginners guide with creative projects to illustrate and guide you through the beginnings of learning these elements. Perhaps you'll want to go further with weightier texts after mastering what's offered here. Or maybe this is enough for you. Either way, the information presented is a wonderful beginner art class in a book. 

Apply yourself and your artwork will become stronger. 

There are simple projects in here as well: information about working in monochromatic color for instance. The little lesson on creating your own street tag by abstracting the letters in your name is very fun. Some of the projects have been around for centuries: rubbings, texture making with found object. There is much to learn from creating artwork in the styles of Cubism and Impressionism. These are all time-honored ways of training artists in the formalities of art.

Honesty, Diana Trout

It wasn't a surprise when Pam assigned me with projects for the color section of the book. I've been studying the interactions of color for all of my artistic life. I pushed myself to use white in these paintings and mix some muddy colors. I like the pebbly flower forms. All of these elements, taken one by one could provide a lifetime of study. And what is neat about this book is the overview can give you a sense of your favorite element. 

I see myself dipping into this book for fun and practice and am honored to have been a part of it. 

 

Comments

[Sarah Anderson]

gorgeous flowers Diana, and great colours; love how the white really makes them 'pop'
Congratulations on being included in this new book :)

[Wendy @ the Late Start Studio]

Very tempting! The flowers and the book . . . I want to pick them both! There's a very good preview for those who follow your link.

[Aloquin]

This book looks fantastic, and thank you for the review. You touched on some very integral subjects that are relevant to all artists, regardless of how long they've been creating. I think I may look into this one further, especially since the very first book I ever bought regarding creating art that I ENJOYED (and I still carry it in my backpack EVERY day) is a treasure called "Journal Spilling" :)

[Cherie Cawdron]

I was fortunate to get this book out of our local library this week in New Zealand. We must have a lover of art journaling or mixed media art as our local librarian, I am so lucky here in Auckland. The book is fabulous. Thanks for sharing.