The New Creative Artist, Nita Leland – Book Review

And here’s another book that was on my wishlist and that I bought after it suddenly plummeted in price on Amazon. Perfect timing too as it means I can keep this blog turning over with a book review during a week when the days are too hot and (with the World Cup on) too short for me to be able to do much painting. This well respected classic is a 176-page paperback.

Before I get on to the contents, I think it’s worth me saying something about the “feel” of the book. There are certain art instruction books out there that look to me to be targeted at a female market. They have fancy abstract braiding around the outside of the pages and include lots of photos of the female authors standing with their brush looking like busy 21st century women. The kind of images you might get in a Nigella Lawson cookbook. I have no problem with there being books like that out there but wouldn’t want to buy one. I was a little worried about the braided abstract borders along the tops of most of the pages in this book. Was this a book targeted at female artists? Having read it, I can confirm that it isn’t: it’s just a normal, unisex art instruction book.

Now that’s out of the way, let’s talk contents. We have, roughly:

• 20 pages of introduction
• 20 pages on approaches to creativity
• 15 pages on other arts and crafts
• 25 pages on drawing
• 25 pages on design/composition
• 20 pages on realism
• 20 pages on abstraction
• 20 pages on experimentation with other media
• 10 pages on where to go next

I have to say I found the bit on other arts and crafts to be a waste: I’d have been just as happy with a 160 page book leaving out this chapter. But I appreciate Nita’s underlying message that we shouldn’t restrict creativity to our paintings and should try to be more creative in everything else we do.

The rest of the book, though, has a nice rhythm to it. It switches between handwavingly motivational management speaky stuff about creativity, exercises for the reader, examples of paintings by Nita and by other artists, ideas about how to come up with something different and theoretical stuff. Creativity is a common theme throughout the book. The theoretical stuff is on composition, so there’s a lot of it in the design chapter but Nita keeps referring back to it in later chapters. The ideas she throws out are interesting too: as well as being ideas that I could just go with, I found they set me off onto coming up with other, related ideas. And the words I use to describe the woolier bits of the book might sound negative and disparaging but that’s not my intention: the book needs stuff like this and I actually found it to be useful and focused. I know there are other books on creativity out there that are 100% woolly stuff without anything else to dilute it and that get bad feedback. I suspect that a book like that would drain me rather than vitalise me. The variety and rhythm within Nita’s book is great at keeping the reader engaged.

This book has definitely had an impact on me. I’ll be investing in a sketchbook so I can scribble on days when I’m not painting. And I might make myself an ideas jar, although I could scribble ideas on a marker board or sketchbook instead. But most of all, it’s the design chapter that’s influenced me. It’s not just about understanding the seven design elements and the seven design principles but about going through all of them in the design stage and deciding which ones will be important in the painting. I’m used to planning my colours and values but don’t think I’ve ever thought through everything as meticulously as Nita recommends. It’s a process that I’m expecting will tone my creativity muscles. I think the book would also work well as one to be opened randomly from time to time to help generate ideas.

So, yes, great book. A motivator, an ideas generator, an inspiration and a textbook. It’s exactly the treatment this subject deserves and requires. Can creativity be taught? You know what, if you approach this book with an open mind, then maybe it can. I wasn’t expecting this book to be as good as this. It’s a five paletter.

🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨

You can find this book and more reviews of it at Amazon UK, here. As an Amazon Associate, I earn commission from qualifying purchases but this costs absolutely nothing extra to you.