The Artist Unique: Discovering Your Creative Signature Through Inspiration and Techniques [Paperback]

Carmen Torbus (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 23, 2011

Make your mark your way!

Every artist seeks to stand apart from the crowd. But how? Let author Carmen Torbus inspire you to new creative highs in this collection of hands-on techniques and heartfelt stories from 16 artists who have worked through their own artistic struggles and stalls to emerge triumphant, with looks uniquely their own.

Whether art is new to you, or you have been at it awhile and are having trouble discovering your own style, this encouraging book will guide you to experiment with different mediums, techniques and possibilities to make a mark that is exclusively yours. Inside you'll find:

• 17 of the artists' favorite mixed-media techniques shown step by step, with suggestions for how to make them your own
• Beautiful finished art illustrating how individual artists use and combine these techniques in their own work
• Easy worksheets to help reveal your artistic skills, strengths and preferences
• A quick-start guide to various mediums, mark makers and creative paraphernalia
• Lots of tips and advice for putting yourself into your art

Embrace who you are and find out what defines you as an artist. Make your art far from ordinary--become the artist UNIQUE!

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Carmen Torbus is a self-taught mixed-media artist and workshop instructor. Carmen's workshops focus on combining mixed-media techniques with enthusiasm, passion and participant perspective. She is the founding member of the Treasure Coast Women's Art Alliance, whose mission is to empower women through art. Her blog and artwork can be seen in the winter 2010 issue of Stampington's Artful Blogging.

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: North Light Books; First Edition edition (May 23, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1440308160
• ISBN-13: 978-1440308161
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 0.4 x 10 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #596,893 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Delicious "Recipes" for Fresh, Creative Journeys May 12, 2011

By mary anne radmacher

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is the colorful and inspiring equivalent of a new, favorite cookbook - except it's a recipe book for ART! Artists have long understood the profound connection between cooking food and creating art. They are both highly artful pursuits. However, with food, the creation is consumed and lives only in memory. With created ART, there is an end product that is sustained. That lives in the home or perhaps as a gift to a friend.

Carmen delivers a powerful message in this beautifully illustrated and well presented book. Learn from the professionals. Yes! Learn the technique but discover the way to articulate that technique that is unique to you. Carmen calls out the courageous creator and challenges her/him to develop a personal, signature style. Carmen has assembled a community of artists who generously share some of their trademark techniques. I say generously because they are not shielding their awesome, signature style in a cloak of mystery. They are giving a materials list and providing the guidance to learn the skill. In your own way.

It surprises people who ask me what I do in my spare time when I tell them I make art for myself and my friends. Not the commercial endeavors that people might associate with me, but experiments. Fun journeys in style and media that I'm just trying out. Carmen's book is invitation to new roads. I've already started in and just like a new recipe might call for a trip to the grocery store, I'm inspired to try tools and materials that I've never used before. So I'm off to the art supply store. Bye!

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great to have on my Kindle June 1, 2011

By Barbara Russell

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book has a lot of ideas -- and when I hit that creative brick wall -- it's nice to flip through this book and read about techniques and tools I haven't used yet. New tools and color delivery devices always revive the creative brain.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars too basic and thin on details October 27, 2011

By liberal sprinkles

Format:Paperback

This book reminds me a little of Taking Flight: Inspiration And Techniques To Give Your Creative Spirit Wings, but it falls far short in its objective. In The Artist Unique, author Carmen Torbus uses stories from 15 artists as a launch pad to try and inspire readers to creativity and their own unique style. Torbus' own story of how she developed her own "messy, layered and sometimes aggressive" style is condensed into the introduction and 2 pages of text - you never get the sense of how it all happened or for that matter, see enough of her work to identify her signature style.

In the Discovering Technique section, the contributing artists share their creative stories, what inspires them and some of their favorite techniques. Torbus then demonstrates how these techniques work with step-by-step instructions. She creates several artworks during this process, but sometimes the tutorials are basically just a how-to rundown - the work produced from the Print with Hand-carved Block technique is a piece of paper with a repeated pattern made from a hand-carved stamp; the explanations of collage is limited to different ways of attaching collage items.

Most of the techniques featured were pretty basic. And while I enjoyed reading the artists' stories, I was already familiar with some of their works. If you need inspiration, this book delivers a little although nothing in much detail. You can get as much from reading blogs and creative sites.

I read the book once. It's clear and nicely laid out, overall it's not bad but I won't need it again. The Artist Unique may be useful for someone who's not familiar with many mixed-media techniques or who is starting to look for his/her own artistic voice and expression and needs a little guidance. Not so much for someone who reads art blogs or who's been creating for a while.