Learning to Steal...(like an artist)

This is how I have been starting my mornings lately.  Not always with cheese toast but with coffee and this work book, pen in hand.  I've long been a fan of Austin Kleon's books and blogs and he just came out with his newest creation:

Yes!  He has taken all his succinct advice in Steal Like An Artist and produced a journal.  I call it a workbook because each page has prompts on it which get the brain cells buzzing around priming the pump for finding ideas during the day from which to morph, build, stretch and otherwise create.

I have fallen off so many "journal" wagons you'd think I'd never climb on another but hope springs eternal and I made a commitment to myself to go the distance with this one.  Maybe I just love the sound "creative kleptomaniac?"  I also know that no page is the same (I purposely don't look ahead) and most don't take very long to do.

This was fun and easy: "Shop for a new pen.  Use this page to test several."  Easy peasy...and I came home with, not one...but 3 new pens.

This is one of the few that requires a daily effort consistently - and you can't see what I choose to do daily.  BUT even if it is to drink one glass of water daily you can complete the challenge and get the (not so) subtle lesson of the effort involved in developing habit.

Not everything gets completed during breakfast...some you think about during the day and complete later on.  Still...not so hard, huh?

Kleon likes simplicity...easy "How To" instructions printed on the back cover...

And finally, a "swipe file" in the back.  A great place to tuck articles, headlines, business cards and those receipts you make notes on.  Very clever, I think.

Please understand that as an artist himself, (Kleon started black out poetry from NY Times articles and has recently developed that into a 3D cut out poetry), the author does not endorse nor suggest anything close to plagiarism.  But building on the adage that there is really nothing new under the sun, his philosophy is that we can all train ourselves to be better observers of the world around us.  And therein lies the basis of our inspiration.  And if we get in the habit of grabbing these observations while they are fresh and crisp, we can return to them to doodle and elaborate.  Voila!  Genius.

Gotta run, I still have to complete today's "habit" and get on to the business of stealing the seeds for my next great project.

Color Fully Stealing,
Cindy