Customer Reviews

The Blank Canvas

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

What a wonderful book - I go back to it again and again. While "Art and Fear" is a great source of information, it is a little dry. I truly enjoy reading "The Blank Canvas", because it is a concise and witty source of inspiration. I wish I had read it sooner!

Excellent

The Blank Canvas is an excellent guide for visual arts students. It is concise, insightful and packed with practical suggestions for `getting started', nurturing ideas and developing one's painting/drawing. All of this valuable advice, plus insights from other painters and illustrations in a little over 100 pages. It's a small treasure. I like this book a lot!. I highly recommend it. Another wonderful, very special book for visual artists is Roberta Weir's The Artist's Way of Seeing.

I disagree strongly with the previous review. While this book is targeted at beginning artists, I think there is much to offer those further along in their careers. I return to it regularly. I would also recommend a book called "Art and Fear." They should sell these two books together and make every aspiring artist read them (during breaks from their copious studio work, of course...). It's nice to see a small book like this one packed full of useful ideas.

small book full of knowledge.if you are a painter,will find answers and solutions for creative blocks. comments on "the studio"(the space for your work), copying, sources and others. read this book ,and feel secure the next time you face a blank canvas.

I am one of the "beginning artists" at whom this book is aimed. (Just give me a moment to giggle at the person who complained that a book called "The Blank Canvas" is for painters. Okay, I'm over it.) This concise, easy to digest (but certainly not simplistic) text gives suggestions on how to find subjects on your own, which is where I am in my art, I need to know HOW to get ideas. It's not written in that mucky, "Vein of Metallic Glitter" mode, either. I believe anyone who makes visual art (drawings, paintings, sculpture, computer art, for instance)--and who is "stuck"--will find this useful. Also, it gives very helpful advice on good art habits that will help you keep flexible and open to what actually constitutes a subject. (BTW, if you are a writer, I'd suggest "Bird by Bird" by Anne Lamott or "Writing Down the Bones" by Natalie Goldberg, for similar but more writerly :) suggestions.)

Well worth what I paid for it, and a welcome addition to my art library.

The blank Canvas is an enlightening reading not only for students but for anyone interested in art related careers. Anna Held Audette's clear and elegant discourse has been very beneficial to my Spanish speaking painting students who find much of English written artbooks hard to understand.

I read reviews of this book and also had it suggested as one of the better ones to have for reference. First of all, to say it is a small book is quite accurate. I read this in light speed. It was definitely not worth the price for me. I found about two sentences that I highlighted and then I stuck it in an envelope and sent it on. It's a lightweight by comparison with other books I've read for inspiration, or as antidote to being blocked. When there are so many good books that can help an artist or creative mind, save your money and choose more wisely than I did. Try "Everyday Matters" by Danny Gregory or one of his other books. I'm sorry I didn't discover them first.

This small book is fun to read, but it's usefulness is limited mainly to painters. Not as good as "Art & Fear", which addresses the same material in a more general and insightful way.

The book has many good points that are reasonable but one glaring fault. This writer believes that you should not use literature as much as you should. It's no wonder a book like this had to to written, if this is the prevailing attitude. The reference in the book by the author is found on page 68.

" Think about doing images associated with, not illustrating, a favorite novel or poem."

You have got to be kidding. This is the entire instruction about using literature as a well-spring for artistic ideas and the instruction is not to illustrate. For one thing illustrating an idea from literature is illustrating but it doesn't make you an illustrator. The greatest artists in human history have used literature as their source for the art they completed, illustrating all along the way. On the instruction by this author we are to be denied this artistic heritage because the author is afraid of being accused of being an illustrator. Give me a timeless mythological picture by Titian over a million poorly painted scenes by modern artists of some insignificant event in the artist's life or worse some meaningless blobs and splotches that we're supposed to derive some feeling about.

All religious art is based on literature. This means the author is suggesting that you should ignore the entire Renaissance and forget about painting a picture that deals with that subject. No wonder you can't find anything to paint, and this author will give you a round about way to help you so that, heaven forbid, you won't illustrate. Mythological subjects are also based on literature. Some of the greatest paintings of the western world are based on religious and mythological subjects. Should we ignore the works of Michelangelo, Titian, Raphael, William Blake, and a thousand artists that were all better than many modern masters. I think not. Art that deals with current events is also recorded mostly as literature in newspapers. What about written, literature, histories. I suppose we should ignore all of that as well. Historical painters were at one time considered the best and most skill full of the artists. I guess you really need this book because by taking out all of these topics dealing with literature you don't have anything to paint.

You can not be hypocritical about utilizing the ideas of earlier works of art and then in same breath deny the source which in many instances is literary. This author says that we should trust the work of the old masters because they have stood the test of time which many modern artist have not. This is true, fashion is fickle and modern artists that deny using literature as a well spring may easily find their star waning in the future when critics beyond this time find no reason for their art beyond it's decorative effect and insipid subject matter. Give me someone of talent that illustrates great literature any day over some of the modern drivel I've seen. If this is the course your teaching count me out as your pupil. I'll be in the class with the illustrators doing fine art which won't be half baked.

I was pleased with the speed in which the book arrived, the condition for being used was good and the book itself was a really good read for someone in a dry spell. Thanks. S. Taylor