Painting from the Inside Out: 19 Projects and Exercises to Free Your Creative Spirit
Stroud brings years of one-woman shows, awards, and published  articles to this inspiring book on pushing boundaries and  exploring creative expression. She provides 19 projects and  exercises for loosening up, improvising paintings, and combining  media. The exercises explore texture, floral design,  self-portrait, and still life in a semi-abstract,  semi-representational style. Stroud references philosophical  traditions like Zen, but the emphasis is on freeing up one's  art. Williams's Creative Utopia, on the other hand, takes the  designer or illustrator much further into the realm of the  creative subconscious. Williams uses yoga, aromatherapy, feng  shui, meditation, and the Tibetan mandala to achieve mental  clarity and creative energy. Whether these methods can work for  everyone, as the author contends, is up for debate. They have  certainly worked for Williams, whose art design group has won  hundreds of awards. Stroud's book is highly recommended for  general collections as the next logical step after Nick and  Diane Meglin's Drawing from Within: Unleashing Your Creative  Potential, a humorous yet meaty book for neophytes. Williams's  book may be a little too mystical for those suspicious of  promises of "utopia" and "total creativity." Jeanne Carbonetti's  The Zen of Creative Painting: An Elegant Design for Revealing  Your Muse approaches the same territory in a more earthbound  fashion.Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.