Daily Painting: Paint Small and Often To Become a More Creative, Productive, and Successful Artist

Now this is a unique book. A collection of short stories on many artists and their tips and recommendations to improve your art. The author advises to improve your art by painting “small and often” or get into that habit of painting quickly, frequently, and for short periods. Whatever your medium, you must practice to improve. Each chapter contains an important element of successful artistry. I found chapter 6 to be very impactful. Drawing and proportion. I struggle with this. The author provides useful tips here, including use of a viewfinder. I never did understand why that would be helpful, now I do!! This is a clever and valuable book. Seriously, give it a chance. My first impression was that this was not going to be very valuable for me because I only paint watercolor. It’s not about that. It’s not about what you paint or what you use, it’s how to get better at it. Buy this book and read it! You can thank me later.

This book is among my best art resources! Painting small has removed fear and anxiety and helped me paint often and joyfully. I love the layout of the book with tons of paintings and all the essential wisdom I needed to improve my work. Highly recommend!

Inspiration works in strange ways. One artist inspires another, who inspire others. In Daily Painting, author and artist Carol Marine talks about how she was inspired by Duane Keiser who's another daily painter. So since 2006, Marine has been painting daily, and selling her work online. Marine talks about her experience on painting daily, where she finds inspiration and subjects to draw, techniques involved and how you can sell your paintings online. It's very inspiring and insightful. It certainly gives me the if-she-can-do-it-so-can-I feeling. Actually the book covers more technical topics. Here are the contents. 1. How daily painting changed my life (and can change yours too!) 2. My materials 3. Subject matters 4. Value 5. Color mixing 6. Drawing and proportion 7. Composition 8. Staying fresh and loose with oil 9. Fighting artist's block 10. How to photograph and edit small paintings 11. Tips for better online sales I really like the idea of painting small. Somethings the size of a blank canvas can be intimidating. It's difficult for a small painting to match a big one in terms of impact, but it's likely to sell better because it's more affordable. All these info are mentioned in the book. It also includes a chapter on subject matter that talks about the kind of subjects that work well on a small canvas. Marine uses oil as her main medium. However her tips and techniques can often apply to other media as well except for things specific to oil, such as wiping a canvas and starting over again. Throughout the book, there are many other artists being featured with examples of their paintings, sometimes with interviews, such as in the latter chapter on dealing with artist block. All paintings featured look beautiful and inspiring. The best part about the book is it shows you the possibility of selling your work online. It's a model that works for Marine and other painters. I've went ahead and check out the listing of other artists and her paintings on eBay and some other websites and can see people buying at the listed price. It's great to see other artists make a living using this method and it's something that anyone can get into. It's certainly very motivating. This is a great book for all artists. Highly recommended. (See more pictures of the book on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for the link.)

I am a big Carol Marine fan. I am an Artist, I paint in a somewhat hard edged realistic manner, and this is helping me to loosen up. Every page is an inspiration. Easy to read, good examples of other peoples works, too. I would have liked to see some more examples of paintings in Acrylic and in Pastels. That kept it one star short, for me. Otherwise an excellent book to have for all Artists, all ages from 14 to 100-114...! Excellent size to carry around with you everywhere, high quality, excellent color photos. Good step by step examples. Buy this one for yourself or aspiring Artists friends and family members. Would make an excellent gift.

I bought this book because I started painting only a year ago and because I am completely self taught, learning through books and videos. This book has been the most valuable resource yet in pursuing creative ventures; it provides a great deal of information about pointing and about the daily painting movement, as well as engaging stories of daily painting artists. I made my first daily painting after I finished the book. Now, thanks to this book by Carol Marine, I am a daily painter as well.

Love this book! This is a great book for lapsed painters, as well as beginners, or for anyone who feels the need to make creativity a part of their daily life. It truly is like a breath of fresh air. Work small and set yourself free from the myths you may have learned in college (at great financial and personal cost), that you need to paint large, stretch your own canvases, have gallery representation, etc. to be a "real" artist. What a relief! I wish my painting classes in school had been more like this. Years later, I still remember having to spend weeks on a large painting of a truly hideous still life set up by the instructor (who wasn't a very nice person). Which brings me to another reason to praise this book--the author comes across as a positive person genuinely interested in helping people become better painters. No pretentiousness here. Daily practice. Daily learning. Art school painting instructors, please take heed of this book. The Daily Painting movement is also making original art affordable for regular people. This book does have a bit of a bias towards oil painting, as that is the author's preferred medium. Perhaps future editions could include chapters on other popular media, like watercolor, acrylic, or monotype. There is a chapter on dealing with artist's block, with contributions from several artists--very helpful information, and great to have multiple perspectives. I'd also like to see more information on using photographic references effectively, something which was missing from my education.

Carole Marine is one of the painters I truly admire!! I love her art; subjects, colours, composition.....her brushstrokes! Amazing how she can create those great little treasures with deliberate, confident, carefree brushstrokes.....mingling the colours with such skills and precision, resulting in fresh, beautiful, unmuddied, not overworked paintings! I have admired Carol's works from her blog and from the wonderful website dailypaintworks. I have always thought she should publish a book to share her wisdom to others, especially the ones who do not have access to her workshops. So you can imagine my surprise and excitement when I realized she just did! I was checking Amazon.ca for some gift ideas when I saw her book so I ordered it right away! The best Holiday gift I could give to my artist self!! It seems like she is talking to me directly in the book. I can fully relate to what she talks about! I have painted pieces ranging from huge canvasses to a series of miniatures which I am working on at the moment. Having said this, I have yet to find a clearer direction to a path I want to take and this book has shown me the way! Carol has convinced me so much so that 2015 is the year I will join the growing numbers of successful daily painters! What Carol say in this book make every sense to me!I highly recommend this book to painters of all levels! It does not really matter if you do not intend to become a daily painter or to paint in small format. Carol Marine (and some selected painters) have generously shared their valuable knowledge, tips and insights, applicable to painting in general!! Thank you so much Carol! You are such an inspiration! You have shown me the way.....the rest is up to me!

This is absolutely the most useful book I've found for aspiring oil painters or people who have painted a little but feel they've lost the knack, or who have been discouraged by past efforts. Full of practical, actionable tips and insights, it really gives you the confidence to get out the paints and get painting!

Interessantes und hilfreiches Buch hinsichtlich kleiner "daily paintings". Die Autorin hat irgendwann damit angefangen jeden Tag ein Bild zu malen und sie schreibt über diesen Prozess. Im Buch selbst sind viele ihrer Bilder zu sehen, mit unterschiedlichen Informationen und Angaben zum Bild. Sehr inspirierend! Schöne Bilder in Acryl, farbenfroh und schön anzuschauen. Angenehm zu lesen und anzuschauen, man kann durchblättern und sich inspirieren lassen von der Vielfalt ihrer Bilder und der Ausführung. Viele Informationen auch zum Thema Gestaltung usw.

Para quem está começando a pintar sempre existe uma barreira do que fazer, o que pintar, quando, etc. O livro dá umas dicas legais para vencer estas barreiras...

Excellent livre que je conseille à tous les peintres qui veulent apprendre quelques bases solides sur la composition , valeurs et couleurs sur des exemples simples de scènes de vie de la vie de tous les jours . Une base de travail intelligente avec laquelle on ne peut que progresser !! . Un grand Bravo à Carol !!!!