Synopsis
Remember those childhood days spent running in your bare feet, playing make-believe, and most of all, living life with wonderment? That youthful enthusiasm and playfulness are key to discovering who you are and what you love to do. Living Out Loud is the perfect prescription for a creative jump start to your life. Included are games, projects, activities, crafts, postcards, and playful ideas that will send you off on an exciting adventure, where you'll discover inspiration around and within you.
Synopsis
For anyone who's ever wished to, but had trouble starting, keeping, or finishing a journal or sketchbook comes Wreck This Journal, an illustrated book that features a subversive collection of prompts, asking readers to muster up their best mistake- and mess-making abilities to fill the pages of the book (and destroy them). Acclaimed illustrator Keri Smith encourages journalers to engage in "destructive" acts-poking holes through pages, adding photos and defacing them, painting with coffee, and more-in order to experience the true creative process. Readers discover a new way of art and journal making-and new ways to escape the fear of the blank page and fully engage in the creative process.
Review
First, I read Living Out Loud, is a small coil-bound filled with huge ideas to get you thinking and acting creatively. Filled with activities, games, tear out postcards and permission cards Living Out Loud is a book that can be read through again and again for inspiration. Written by Keri Smith, who also provides wonderful illustrations throughout, this book also helps deal with self-esteem and motivation throughout the creative process. Whether you are looking for new ways to express yourself or just want to enjoy free-spirited, child-like fun, this book is a perfect way to get there.
Next, I picked up a copy of Wreck This Journal, and loved it from the moment I first flipped through the pages. All my life I have wanted to start and maintain a daily journal, filled with random thoughts and doodle. Sadly I am a bit anal about journal-ing - being a perfectionist doesn't go well with spontaneous writing. But with the help of Wreck This Journal I have discovered that sometimes it is the little mistakes and the unconscious squiggles that really express your thoughts. The entire point behind this book is to wreck it, damage it, mangle it - but to do it creatively. So I picked an easy page first - the instructions tell you to stick those little stickers you find on apples, bananas, pears etc. all over the page - it was slow going (who eats that much fruit each day) but eventually I ended up with a page full of peeling, ripped, kinda grungy fruit stickers. And you know it was really fun! Now I am working myself up to the assignment where you take your book somewhere's really high up - and drop it! Or maybe the one where you take the journal into the shower. Oh I can't forget the one where you rub a page against a tree and do something creative to what it leaves behind!
About The Author
Keri Smith is an author/illustrator turned guerilla artist. She is the author
and illustrator of several books. As a free lance illustrator she has worked for a wide variety of clients worldwide. Most recently Random House, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Ford Motor Co., the Boston Globe, Galison/Mudpuppy Press, and Hallmark. In the last few years she has given lectures and workshops on the topic of “living creatively” for the How Design Conference, the Ontario Graphic Artist’s Assocation, UC Davis, and schools across North America. She has been featured in How, Step by Step, Print, Bust, and many more. Having left her home of Toronto in recent years Keri currently lives in Troy, NY.
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© 2008-2010 Joanne Mosher of The Book Zombie. All rights reserved.
1 comments:
I'm totally adding both of these to my goodreads list right now - I have enough books to just read, I want books to make me DO something! At least now I do! :) Thanks
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