Have you ever come across a book that you picked up in less than a second because you knew you had to read it? Steal Like an Artist was that book for me. This decision was definitely influenced from my experience reading Show Your Work by the same author, which is a part of what I call my "Creativity Triology" and books that I turn to almost every day.
Steal Like an Artist is a book that speaks to an artist, answering the many questions that play in our heads everyday. Now mind you, you don't need to be a professional painter or sketcher to call yourself an artist. If you're someone who seeks creativity in whatever you do, you are an artist. And this book is for you.
This book took me 2 sittings and practically 2 days to finish (would've been 1 had I not started it late in the night) and my only thoughts throughout the book was that 'Man, this was written for me!' I hadn't read a book so relatable in a long time. Written in plain, simple language with thought provoking chapters is what made this such a sweet and insightful read. Looking for easy non-fiction books to get started? Pick this!
Containing 10 brilliant chapters, this book carefully tackles the misconceptions of creativity. It speaks in the very 1st chapter that no idea on the face of the earth is ever 100% original but rather, a combination of many ideas always influenced from different sources. This frees an artist from worrying about not having an original idea (nobody does; everything is a copy), to just begin their creative journey somewhere.
The author shares how one must learn to copy; because that's how we learn everything. By this practice we must aim to learn the thinking that goes behind an artist's work and how we can start looking at the world through the eyes of the artist.
Quoting here an excerpt from the book that made a lot of sense to me.
'The writer Wilson Mizner said if you copy from one author, it's plagiarism, but if you copy from many, it's research. I once heard the cartoonist Gary Panter say, "If you have one person you're influenced by, everyone will say you're the next whoever. But if you rip off a hundred people, everyone will say you're so original!"
What the author really wants to convey here is to learn from the people who inspire us, whose work we admire. To use what our heroes created and to add a bit of ourselves to it.
'Don't just steal the style, steal the thinking behind the style. You don't want to look like your heroes, you want to see like your heroes.
The reason to copy your heroes and their style is so that you might somehow get a glimpse into their minds. That's what you really want- to internalize their way of looking at the world. If you mimic the surface of somebody's work without understanding where they are coming from, your work will never be anything more than a knockoff.'
Other impactful chapters include lessons on why you shouldn't wait until the "perfect" moment to start working, how to keep creativity alive in today's digital age, how to make your passions co-exist (and this was a game changer for me), the benefits of starting small, and the best way to trigger ideas. Honestly, if I elaborate on every chapter in detail, this blog post could be made into a short book: Ideas stolen from Steal Like an Artist) :P
Needless to say, I highly recommend this read, especially if you're one from a creative field like me. I will be talking about the other 2 books from my "Creativity Trio" i.e. Show Your Work and Keep Going by the same author in the next posts. Thank you so much for reading!
DETAILS
Name: Steal Like an Artist
Author: Austin Kleon
Publisher: Workman
Date: 28th February 2012
Pages: 140
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