Conscious Creativity: The Workbook: experiment, explore, create

by Philippa Stanton

Drawing on the success of her breakout book Conscious Creativity, artist Philippa Stanton dares you to throw away technique and open the door to free creative movement with this hands-on workbook.

Acknowledging the power of chance and experimentation, this is a safe space in which to scribble, sketch, tear, scratch, fold, weave – anything that Philippa’s playful prompts inspire you to do. There are no rules here: choose an activity at the back of the book or start at the beginning; pick an exercise on light and shadow, paint your own colour chart or build a collage of found items, whatever makes your creative juices flow.

Packed with simple suggestions to open our eyes to the beauty of ordinary things, this workbook draws on themes including randomness, colour, texture and the senses to encourage us to connect with things we might not normally notice. Breathtaking original photography acts as a catalyst to inspire us to take a chance with new ideas, follow up coincidences and find new ways of expressing our creativity.

Prompts encourage you to take risks and express yourself impulsively, from drawing random spontaneous lines on a page to writing a not to a stranger to creating a textured collage out of sticky tape and other found objects.

Conscious Creativity: The Workbook is a liberating place to be random, get things wrong and make a beautiful mess.

• ISBN13: 9780711253490
• Publish Date: 6 October 2020
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: The Ivy Press
• Imprint: Leaping Hare
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 128
• Language: English

Reviews

[annieb123]

Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Conscious Creativity: The Workbook is a companion volume to Philippa Stanton's Conscious Creativity. Released 6th Oct 2020 from Quarto on their Leaping Hare imprint, it's 128 pages and available in paperback format.

This is a companion book, but it works perfectly well as a standalone. It *is* a workbook however, so much/most of the content is guided exercises and less content is devoted to actual technique tutorials. The exercises are grouped roughly thematically: creating (freely, without an agenda), practice, observation, texture, colour, other senses and synaesthesia, and abstract comprehension and synergy.

Each of the chapters contain guided creativity prompts for looking at objects, finding similarities between form and function and opening a creative conduit to expression without throttling or limiting ourselves by internal expectations. The point is to free the reader's creativity and expression. The book is very colourful and appealing with high contrast graphics and lots of pages on which to paint - draw - write - and express. These are -not- limited to graphic arts or painting or drawing or sketching or the like. There are some exercises which will provide some takeaways for the graphic artist, certainly, but the majority are holistic in nature and will have broad applicability to writing, thinking, and being.

There are a great number of activities included here; not all will appeal to all readers, obviously. There are a number of intriguing tutorials which I will try out (writing a note to a stranger and tucking it into a pocket in a piece of clothing in a shop appeals to me very much).

This would make a super gift for a creative friend, possibly in conjunction with some writing or arts supplies. It would also make an intriguing selection for the studio library, maker's groups, or other activity based groups.

Four stars. Definitely full of interesting possibilities.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.