Words, Words, Words

"I'm so sick of words!" 

Actually, not really, though I dearly do love this song . . . and this whole movie pretty much.

I actually don't think I could ever be sick of words.  Although I did consider it after writing a massive research paper this weekend.  Ugh.  Even, then, though, I did like writing it.  In a weird sort of way.  It's hard to explain.  I liked my topic and I like to write, but then I start to think about other people reading my writing and whether or not they'll think I have good ideas or mayhap they start to question how I got into college in the first place.  And then all I want to do is find a good dark corner under my covers and live there for the rest of eternity.

Writing this is different, though.  I mean, it's not like I don't think you guys are judging me (because I know all of you are . . .) but I suppose it's because I'm writing this for myself.  I don't write my blog to prove anything to anyone.  Although, sometimes I wish my teachers could see it so I could show them that I do, in fact, have a brain.  On second thought, maybe that wouldn't be a good idea.

Anyways, now that we've got that out of the way, I come to my point.  Words.  They're great!  Especially when you put a whole string of 'em together and make a rope, er, I mean, a book.  And that is what I am here to talk to you about.  Books!  Yay!  Let's all just take a moment to sit back and enjoy the Reading Rainbow theme, shall we?

I'm sorry guys, now that I've discovered that I can add Youtube videos to my blog, I just can't help myself.

Okay, okay, okay, let us begin.  I thought I'd write today's post on inspiring art books I've read/am reading.  I'll start with just a conglomeration of books I remember from my childhood.

Okay, actually, come to think of it, I really only have memories of Lee J. Ames' books.  Which were totally fantastic!  The one pictured above is an especially good one.  I highly recommend it.

On to stuff I actually remember.

Freehand Drawing by Gerhard Gollwitzer.  I read this book when I was in 11th grade and it marked the start of a sort of art revolution in my life.  I started to take art more seriously and the very first inklings of being an art major started to grow in a little unattended patch of thought.  What I love about this book is that, most of the time, you only need a pencil and some paper to do the projects he gives.  They're mostly just sketchbook stuff, but it's really great for someone who's just starting to try out art.  I remember it teaching how to draw faces in a way that I had never been shown before.  I need to go back and reread that part because I've since forgotten, but I remember it helped me out so much.  Here's an example of one of the exercises from it: 

Such fun!

This is one of my all-time favorite books at the moment.  I've mentioned it before and I post the projects I do from it quite often.  It's full of little projects that can take five minutes to several days to complete.  The great thing about it is that the projects are so open-ended that you don't feel like your creativity is being stifled, but they're also structured enough that they're easy to get into if you're having an art block or are just starting out with art.  Also, everything is so quirky that you don't know how things are going to turn out.  You don't have to worry about things looking any one way.  I don't even really know how to describe how fun these projects are.  Highly, highly, highly recommended.  Here's some of the stuff I've done:

Look familiar?  Yeah, probably.

Okay, last one.  I actually only just bought this book a few weeks ago.  I was talking to my mom after a particularly frustrating day and she told me to go reward myself by buying something from the bookstore.  Yeah, my mom's just awesome like that.  I'd been eyeing this book for pretty much the whole semester, so I wasn't all that slow to heed such motherly advice.  I'm only just beginning with this book, but I'm already in love.  I've had to put progress on hold for now, though, because the next project requires postage stamps, which I ordered off eBay (it made me feel like weird, independent single adult . . . ).  So now I'm just waiting for my bag of stamps to get here from Canada and I can move forward with this.  I've looked through some of the other things in here while I've been waiting and I'm very excited.  I'll let you guys know more as I get further down the road.

So go forth and read, my creative friends!  And let me know if you have any great books that I should be reading.