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Brick by Brick
The road to mastering your artistic craft is a long one. Discouragement, exhaustion or even simple boredom can cause you to give up. If you want to reach the end, you must find a way to make your creative practice sustainable.
Brick by Brick explores the ins and outs of sustainable creativity with succinct and memorable comic essays. In this book you will find useful principles for goal setting, improvement and motivation to help you set up a creative practice that lasts a lifetime.
Brick by Brick explores the ins and outs of sustainable creativity with succinct and memorable comic essays. In this book you will find useful principles for goal setting, improvement and motivation to help you set up a creative practice that lasts a lifetime.
206 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2013
6 people are currently reading
145 people want to read
About the author
Stephen McCranie
45 books338 followersStephen McCranie has been drawing comics since before he could read or write. He graduated from the University of New Mexico with a degree in Fine Arts and currently lives and works out of a small apartment in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
July 12, 2022
Excellent advice and insight. I recommend this to any kind of artist.
May 12, 2022
Very encouraging read. :)
December 1, 2024
There are those books and movies that were groundbreaking when you experience them as a kid that you return to as an adult and they are nowhere near as good — this is NOT one of them. This one almost had more to give this time than previously. The essays “Know You Don’t Know,” “Learn to Learn,” “You Are Not Your Art,” “Hug the Elephant,” and Taste is Your Teacher” have formed so many thoughts I have about self development and art, and rereading them now made me love it more.
I forgot that in “Hug the Elephant,” he actually has the most useful definition of beauty and good art that I think even EXISTS.
His stuff on productivity and resilience ARE fantastic…. As long as it’s the parts where he’s NOT quoting “Getting Stuff Done.” The parts where he’s rehashing Getting Stuff Done I’m just glad even feel like the stiffest while reading, so you’re able to speed up your read and get to his better ideas .
I forgot that in “Hug the Elephant,” he actually has the most useful definition of beauty and good art that I think even EXISTS.
His stuff on productivity and resilience ARE fantastic…. As long as it’s the parts where he’s NOT quoting “Getting Stuff Done.” The parts where he’s rehashing Getting Stuff Done I’m just glad even feel like the stiffest while reading, so you’re able to speed up your read and get to his better ideas .
February 20, 2020
Stephen McCraine's book is a pure manifestation of his mission "to make good ideas easy to access, understand and share". The structure of the book is very clear - and so are the messages of the individual chapters which can be guide lines to artistic as well academic mastery. Personally, I found the amount of self representation a bit overwhelming. But as avatar and author a likeable characters, it could have been worse. The lettering is sometimes a bit too big for my liking - but then, that's better than too small.
November 26, 2017
Absolutely brilliant. As always, Stephen McCranie takes "giving advice" a step further and delivers not just a checklist of how to be an artist, but a philosophical and heart-warming, encouraging take on who an artist can be. Plus, plenty of great advice--yes, both philosophical and practical--on what getting there really takes.
P.S. If you haven't discovered it already, this book will prove to you exactly what an excellent, inspiring cinnamon roll the author is.
P.S. If you haven't discovered it already, this book will prove to you exactly what an excellent, inspiring cinnamon roll the author is.
June 4, 2025
This book is such a valuable resource for any kind of creative. Not only is it remarkably encouraging, it’s full of excellent advice and tips for how to be a better creator. And the art is just lovely. No matter where you are in your creative journey, I cannot recommend this enough. It’s good to know that we’re not in this alone 💙
August 4, 2020
I loved this book! I would recommend it to anyone, regardless of whether or not you consider yourself to be an artist or a creative person. There are valuable life-tips here that are visualized so beautifully. As I read this I kept saying, “yes. This is exactly how I feel sometimes.” I really appreciated Stephen’s message! I feel more hopeful and motivated to pursue my goals.
August 8, 2018
I love the art, I love the principles, and the author is amazing!
September 9, 2019
A warm hug of a book - part instructional, part self care manual, part inspirational. Will definitely be rereading this one <3
December 18, 2020
I read the online version (the Art of Being an Artist), and it was both a good refresher of things I already sort of knew, as well as being an enjoyable source of a wealth of new tips and advice!
January 29, 2015
I got this book despite not being an artist. (I mean, I doodle in the corner of my notes when I'm bored in class, I paint my nails nailart style when I have enough time, and I do like to do some artsy stuffs like modular origami for example, but it doesn't go further than that.)
But as, if I remember correctly, McCranie wrote himself in the description of his Kickstarter project for this book, it may be targeted to artists, but it can also be useful to people with any kind of big goal. That latest reason was mine to pick this book: for the part about motivation mostly.
Now, as I read the book entirely, I think it gives a great insight in the life of artists and their struggles, some that I didn't even imagine. The drawing looks simple, but not too much (you should look at some French "comics" sometimes, you can't help but wonder how it got published...), it has a perfect balance between simplicity and being just enough to look pro imo.
That being said, let's talk about the part that really interested me. Motivation. I'm a real sucker when it comes to motivation, and I'm a queen of procrastination. There were some points that did come to my mind when trying to get rid of that procrastination problem, but some others were quite new to me. I think reading this book is a great inspiration (even if I'm still having trouble getting myself to do it, I'm too deep down into procrastination hell).
To sum up: a must-read, not only for artists, but for anyone pursuing a dream like me.
But as, if I remember correctly, McCranie wrote himself in the description of his Kickstarter project for this book, it may be targeted to artists, but it can also be useful to people with any kind of big goal. That latest reason was mine to pick this book: for the part about motivation mostly.
Now, as I read the book entirely, I think it gives a great insight in the life of artists and their struggles, some that I didn't even imagine. The drawing looks simple, but not too much (you should look at some French "comics" sometimes, you can't help but wonder how it got published...), it has a perfect balance between simplicity and being just enough to look pro imo.
That being said, let's talk about the part that really interested me. Motivation. I'm a real sucker when it comes to motivation, and I'm a queen of procrastination. There were some points that did come to my mind when trying to get rid of that procrastination problem, but some others were quite new to me. I think reading this book is a great inspiration (even if I'm still having trouble getting myself to do it, I'm too deep down into procrastination hell).
To sum up: a must-read, not only for artists, but for anyone pursuing a dream like me.
June 18, 2014
I was really excited to get my copy of this comic book! I was in the middle of a struggle to finish one of my artistic projects and I thought his book was exactly what I needed to give me a kick a in the butt. You know... give me tricks and advises on how to get everything in order in my brain and to be ready to sit down and finally finish that goddamn project!
The illustrations are cute and Stephen writes many good advises in there, but... unfortunately, for me, it felt like the target audience was "amateur" rather than people with a couple of years of experience. I think I was looking for something more complete, with more details. Even though it does have some depth, it still felt like surface to me. I did take some notes, I did get some new perspectives on creativity and ideas how to be more productive... But most of what was written in the book were things I already knew. Maybe my expectations were too high? *shrugs* No idea.
One story short : it's a nice and simple comic book, well written, on a complicated subject and it is a good introduction to the matter for somebody starting an artistic project.
The illustrations are cute and Stephen writes many good advises in there, but... unfortunately, for me, it felt like the target audience was "amateur" rather than people with a couple of years of experience. I think I was looking for something more complete, with more details. Even though it does have some depth, it still felt like surface to me. I did take some notes, I did get some new perspectives on creativity and ideas how to be more productive... But most of what was written in the book were things I already knew. Maybe my expectations were too high? *shrugs* No idea.
One story short : it's a nice and simple comic book, well written, on a complicated subject and it is a good introduction to the matter for somebody starting an artistic project.
August 12, 2015
Being an artist that came directly out of art school, I spent two years trying to find work in my field before deciding that if I wanted to pursue art, I would have to do it freelance. My boyfriend at the time gave me this book because I had fallen into a deep depression. When I began to read, I was astonished at how this book managed to describe all the failure I was feeling and gave me steps on how to pick myself back up again. I put the book down for a while when I got to the parts that dealt with success, but picked it back up several months later when I finally found myself again.
This book is so much more than an artist resource, its a life raft for any new artist that feels like they are sinking into the depths. More than that, it's also a lesson on humility and other life lessons for successful artists, a caution note on how to keep from getting too cocky. It's a description on how to keep learning. There's also some very interesting ideas communicated in which, McCranie has unknowingly dismantled the driving idea of "concept" that modern art relies on (p. 106).
This book is an incredible eye opener, and a must read for any artist.
This book is so much more than an artist resource, its a life raft for any new artist that feels like they are sinking into the depths. More than that, it's also a lesson on humility and other life lessons for successful artists, a caution note on how to keep from getting too cocky. It's a description on how to keep learning. There's also some very interesting ideas communicated in which, McCranie has unknowingly dismantled the driving idea of "concept" that modern art relies on (p. 106).
This book is an incredible eye opener, and a must read for any artist.
June 23, 2014
Most of the information in this book isn't anything many of us don't already know if we have been struggling artists for any time at all, but it's presented beautifully and is a splendid reminder for anyone working in a sometimes disheartening creative field. A great graduation gift for those with artistic dreams.
March 31, 2016
This was a fantastic graphic non-fiction book. I loved how simple and profound the author presented the lessons he had learned in his life so far. How they were specifically dealing with art, but can be applied to any area of life. The chapter dealing with beating the Internet obsession was good. Really, the whole book is worth the read.
July 8, 2015
This was an amazing and uplifting guide to artistic growth and self motivation! The art is quite good, but the author's message and suggestions were perfect, and have motivated me to start working on a few projects that I've been neglecting. 100% recommended!
January 6, 2016
Este libro explora ideas y da consejos sobre la productividad sostenible. Es fácil de leer, ameno y muy útil, de esos libros que conviene tener a mano para echarles un vistazo de vez en cuando.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews