What does steal like an artist mean? Steal Like an Artist: 10 Lessons on Creative Expression

Ten tips from AUSTIN KLEON's book "STEP LIKE AN ARTIST", in which the author analyzes how to create something new using the experience and developments of people of the past.

This book was born out of a lecture that Austin Kleon gave at New York University. He gave students ten pieces of advice that he wished he had received when he was an aspiring artist. The text of the lecture hit the Internet and began to spread at incredible speed.

1. Steal like an artist

When an artist is asked where he gets his ideas, the honest artist answers: “I steal them.” There is only what is worthy of being borrowed and what is not.

There is nothing original. When people call something original, they simply haven't figured out where it came from. Every artist knows that nothing comes out of the void(like a physicist, by the way). When you stop trying to be completely original and start paying attention to other people's work, you stop trying to create something out of nothing.

Let you be consoled by the fact that even the idea that you stole was also stolen not in pure form, embellished and reworked. And that's okay.

The book contains quotes David Bowie, Andre Gide, from the Bible - this should make it clear that even this advice was not invented recently, but has existed for a long time.

An analogy with genetics is given. You carry the traits of your parents, but you are a unique individual.

The same thing happens with ideas. Two already existing ideas give birth to a third, unique, inimitable one.

Of course, when we talk about borrowing, we do not mean plagiarism or theft of entire passages, paragraphs, plots or dialogues. You should be interested in the idea.

2. Don't wait to figure it out. Get to work!

Many people make the mistake of believing that they cannot give anything to the world until they understand themselves and understand how the world works. You are already ready. Get down to business.

If you are scared, here is a consolation for you - everyone is scared.

Play creativity until you start creating. Pretend to be an artist, writer, designer until you really become one.

Learn by copying. This is how great artists learn. They copy thousands of times until art will not become a second “I” for them, and only then they begin to create amazing things. However, when copying, always think about how to improve your copy.

Add to it, play with meaning and ideas. Besides, the human hand is not capable of creating a perfect copy; you will still do everything a little differently. Even the Beatles started out doing covers.

It is important to understand two things.When copying, it is important to decide who to copy and what to copy.

Whom- everything is simple here. Whatever you like.
What- don’t steal the style as such, steal the way of thinking.

Besides, if you steal from one, you will be called a plagiarist; if you steal from many, you will be called a creative person.

The next step to a breakthrough in any creativity is imitation. After copying, it is she who comes. It is the failure to copy your ideal that makes you unique. And now you no longer imitate, but transform.

3. Write a book that you would want to read yourself

Best advice: write not about what you know well, but about what you want. Write music that you want to listen to, pictures that you want to look at.

4. Use your hands

The further you are from the computer, the better the ideas become. Writing becomes a purely physical process when you write on a computer. It is important to feel the ink, lay out the papers on the table and sort through them.

Art that comes only from the head cannot be truly good. Involve your body in the work, you should feel it completely. Use your hands.

5. Use side projects and hobbies

Very often it is from third party projects masterpieces grow. They may seem insignificant at first, just a game - this is largely why they shoot.

Hobbies are even better. A hobby is purely for oneself, not for someone else. Therefore, you relax, do not feel fear and are ready to do any stupid things, to go very far in your fantasies.

After all, no one will judge you, this is your world. And so you think, and an amazing idea grows out of your hobby and begins to acquire muscles.

6. Do something good and post it where people will see it.

Soon after completing your education you will realize thatthe world doesn't care about your ideas. It's cruel, but that's how it is.

You need to take two steps.

First- create a project. It's difficult, but remember all the other tips and you'll be able to get it done.

Second- place the project where people will see it. Just 10 years ago this was a huge problem, but now it is not. Post it where it can be appreciated.

Just two simple steps.

7. Geography no longer rules us

You can be happy where you live, and that's great. What's even better is that the people you decide to create projects with may live on the other side of the globe.All life is random.

8. Be a good person

The main thing is not to become famous and rich, but to be happy and surrounded by people who value and love you. Golden Rule It worked before, but now it works even better. Speak well of people, it can't be too much.

9. Be boring

When you are doing a project, be boring and boring, because the work needs to be done. The rest of the time you can be whatever you want.

The image of a bohemian artist using drugs is either fictitious or does not bring any pleasure to those living such a lifestyle. Live simply , start a diary.

Art requires gradual work. Write at least a page a day and you will write a whole book in a year. And you will have a lot of time for entertainment and reasons to enjoy life.

10. Creativity - rejection of unnecessary things

This is especially important in our age information technologies. We have so many temptations that it is very easy to succumb to them and live an aimless life.

Dedicating yourself to something means giving up other things. This is true for art as well. Understand what you need to include in your life and what you need to let go of.published . If you have any questions about this topic, ask them to the experts and readers of our project .

P.S. And remember, just by changing your consciousness, we are changing the world together! © econet

This is a manifesto for the digital age. This is a positive, original guide, full of illustrations, exercises and examples, the purpose of which is to help the reader tap into the creative side of his character.

Description

You don't need to be a genius, just be yourself! Here the main idea Austin Kleon, young writer and an artist who believes that creativity is present in everything and is accessible to everyone.

There is nothing original in the world, so do not reject other people's influence, collect ideas, think about them again, arrange them in a new way in search of own path. Follow your interests wherever they take you and give freedom to your creative self!

For everyone who tries to bring creativity in your life and in your work.

Here you will find what I have learned from nearly a decade of trying to figure out how art is made. The funny thing is that when I started sharing my knowledge with others, I realized that it would be useful not only for artists. And in general to everyone.

Yes, these ideas are useful for anyone trying to bring creativity into their lives and their work (which should apply to all of us). In other words, this book is for you. Whoever you are, whatever you do.

about the author

Austin Kleon is an artist and writer. Thanks to his extraordinary, bold approach to creativity, he became famous throughout the world. His bestsellers have been translated into 12 languages. They represent original creative aids for those who dream of realizing their ideas in the digital age.

Austin gives lectures and workshops on creativity at Pixar, Google, SXSW, TEDx.

I will say right away that reading the above book brought a lot of positive emotions, and the scale of this mass was so large that I wanted to throw out all the impressions of what I read on 10 pages, no less. Well, okay, I’ll move on to presenting my thoughts briefly.

KKH freed me from the obsessive thought of being an artist in one field or another creative profession does not mean at all that he will be worthy of being called such only if he does something unusual without stealing a couple of other things from anyone good ideas. Quite the contrary, competent transformation of borrowed ideas, styles, tricks from other creators gives a completely new creative product. And it will not be considered some pathetic copy of the masterpiece of its brilliant predecessor.

In order not to be unfounded, I will give an example from my life. Probably many of us are familiar with the oppressive feeling of our unoriginality, that now it is hardly possible to do something, make something unusual, something that no one has done before. Surely such thoughts often occur to many people. So, I’m no exception. I consider myself one of the people who are very interested in various creative directions. About a year ago I became interested in scrapbooking, looked at a lot of information on the Internet, master classes, subscribed to several printed publications for this type of creativity. I thought, now I’ll see what and how and start creating something super unique, because I have enough imagination. But no, that was not the case. After reading 5-6 magazines on scrapbooking, a thought passed through my head in disappointment, dejection, which I want to quote (it comes out twice: the first time it was done by the author of the book KKH) “... there is nothing new under the sun.” What, in fact, disappointed me so much and cut my wings? Much. Take, for example, master classes on creating calendars. I’ve seen so many different options for creating them that it would seem that what else I could come up with to distinguish myself from other scrap craftswomen. But! Using the acquired knowledge in this type of creativity, i.e. scrapbooking and knowledge from another type of creativity (I can’t reveal which one yet), the idea to create an original calendar was immediately born. My new idea on creating a calendar “... is just a vinaigrette, or a mixture, of previous ideas.” More than ever, this quote from the book can be summed up in the above situation from my life.

I got the impression that the author of the book had penetrated my brain and was answering my questions, expressing valuable thoughts about which I was tormented by doubts. Take this quote for example: “Collect books, even if you don’t plan to read them right away... “there is nothing more important than an unread library.” One habit I have is to buy books from time to time, which, as it always seems to me at the time of purchase, I will come home and immediately start reading. But in reality, it sometimes takes a while for many books to get their turn. And for some reason I always feel somehow embarrassed in front of myself. They say I bought it, but I don’t use it. But, as they say, everything has its time. I know for sure that there will certainly be a turn for each of the purchased books.

Despite the fact that the book is very easy to read, it is written accessible language and many of the ideas were already known, yet for myself personally I learned a lot of new things: for the first time I learned that a folder for stolen goods (or, as I would call it “for inspiration”), in the jargon of newspaper reporters, sounds like a “dead woman’s folder.” In general, the contents of the book KKH are presented with a portion good humor. I can’t help but note that the interspersed quotes make me happy famous personalities, links to books.

Chapter entitled “Don't wait until you understand yourself. Get to work!” instills confidence in a novice creator, artist, craftsman.

“You may be scared to start. This is fine." - I agree that the feeling of fear and self-doubt, or rather in what you do, visits very often. IN in this case I don’t mean that I’m afraid to take on this or that business, on the contrary, I try and do it with great pleasure. It's about another fear, the fear of showing off your creations through blogging. For a very long time I didn’t dare to have one, I was hampered by the thought that it wouldn’t be possible to do it beautifully, well, I was afraid of seeming funny. But once you start, even if the first published text and photos will be far from perfect, but over time, when you get into the habit of publishing your work, you acquire the skill of doing it better. Well, very few people will succeed right away; for this you need to get better at it.

Chapter “Try to do everything with your own hands.”

I would like to endlessly give examples and continue to praise the book of KKH. In a word, I recommend it to everyone. This book will be useful to everyone whose work is related to creativity and to those whose profession has nothing to do with it. The profession may not be creative, but the approach to it is quite possible, it’s just that everyone adapts all 10 tips specifically for themselves.

He decides whether something is worth stealing, and then moves on to the next thing. Looking at the world this way, you stop wondering what is good and what is bad. There is only that which is worthy or, conversely, unworthy of being borrowed.

Constantly learn

You need to be curious about the world you live in. Look up word meanings in dictionaries. Follow the links. Go deeper than everyone else - that's the only way you'll come out ahead.

Go to the library

A person surrounded by books always feels some kind of magic. And remember: you don’t start reading a book - it’s the book that leads you. Collect books, even if you don’t plan to read them right away. As director John Waters said, “There is nothing more important than an unread library.”

Copy correctly

Copying is not plagiarism, nor is it an attempt to pass off someone else’s work as your own. Copying is similar to reconstruction. Why copy your heroes and their style? To adopt their way of looking at the world. If you simply skim the surface of someone else's work without understanding its origins, your work will simply be fake.

Wonderful Flaw

We are unable to make perfect copies. It is precisely because we cannot completely copy our heroes that we gain our own life. This is how our evolution happens.

Do it

Paint the picture you would like to see; start a business that you would like to manage; play the music you would like to hear; write a book you would like to read; come up with products that you would like to use - do exactly the thing that you would like to see done.

Steal Like an Artist is a book by Austin Kleon about how to succeed at what you love. I suggest reading a summary of this book online. Only the most important thoughts and key points!

Reading the book “Steal Like an Artist” will be useful not only for artists, and not only for creative people. Take it wider! Our whole life is creativity in its most diverse manifestations. Business, family, achieving goals, career, recreation, hobbies, favorite things - all this is essentially creativity.

What does “Steal like an artist” mean? This is what you will find out now!

Of course, in order to fully understand and experience the book, it would be better to read it in its entirety. Therefore, you can treat this article as a review (or testimonial) before purchasing. And you can immediately take advantage of this information and start applying it in practice.

Steal like an artist. 10 Lessons on Creative Expression

? Steal like an artist!

There is something that is worthy of being borrowed and something that is not. One out of two.

How does an artist view the world? An evaluation mechanism is always working in his head. He decides whether to use it in his painting, and then moves on to something else. After all, everything can be useful. If not today, then tomorrow.

There is nothing original. Do you think anything is original? Most likely, you simply did not calculate the source of the borrowing.

Nothing comes out of nowhere. Any creativity is based on what was created once before. There is nothing completely original. Any new and even unique idea is just a combination of previous ones.

A good example is you. After all, you are a combination of the genes of your parents, and they, accordingly, are a combination of the genes of their parents, and so on. But! Any person is not just the sum of genes, you are more than just the genes of all your ancestors. Do you understand? You are made up of non-unique things, but you are unique!!!

An artist is a collector. But there is no point in collecting everything in your collection. Artists choose only what is truly worthy.

So feel free to find and save cool ones? ideas. The larger your collection, the more unique creations you can collect from it.

And this requires an open mind. Be curious, learn new things on your own or find teachers (authorities), get better at what you like. Find the best of the best. ?

Did you learn something useful? Great. Then be sure to save this. Steal it like a real artist. “Art is theft,” said Pablo Picasso. But don’t pass off what you stole as yours. It is pointless. Instead, make something new from your collection. Create a whole from small pieces. Create something that will evoke completely unique feelings and emotions that have nothing in common with the original sources. This is what “Steal Like an Artist” really means... Just create, friends!

? Don't wait until you understand yourself. Get to work!

Only by starting to do something can you understand yourself better. Otherwise, you will continue to do self-digging.

Yes, there is nothing strange about this. There is something called “imposter syndrome.” This is a psychological trap when a person is unable to accept his own achievements and feels out of place. It seems to him that he is an impostor, that he is about to be exposed.

Do you want to know a terrible secret? Everyone feels it. Even those who create something truly great and global. Creators do not know where the right decisions come from. They're just doing their job.

A good way to overcome impostor syndrome is ? play. Play until you start creating.

Pretend to be someone you're not. Copy who you want to be. Just play the role and one day you will find that you and your role are one.

Don't be afraid to start as a copy. After all, then you will become an original!

No one is born with individual style. We don't know who we are when we are first born. We get to know this world by copying it.

There is nothing wrong with copying. The trick is that the human hand is not capable of creating absolutely exact copy. This is impossible! How do we learn to write? Copying the alphabet. But each of us has our own? handwriting! And so it is in everything.

Thus, no matter what you do, no matter what you copy, it will already have a touch of uniqueness. You just need to decide who and what to copy.

So who should you copy? Of course, those people you want to be like. The main thing is not to steal everything from one person, otherwise you will become just a pale copy. Steal from many people, adding your own - this is the only way you will become a true original!

What to copy? Don't steal the style itself, otherwise you'll just make a fake. Copy the way you think. Find the origins of other people's creativity. Look behind the screen, understand in detail how exactly it all began and how it was prepared. ?

Gradually, copying will be replaced by imitation. This is the next stage of your development. Copying is repetition. Imitation is repetition with adaptation for oneself.

It's like a boxer who first learned all the moves of his idols. But sooner or later he will realize that he cannot reproduce all the techniques with 100% accuracy, since he has a different build. And the boxer will have no choice but to adapt the movements to suit himself, creating his own style.

It is precisely the unsuccessful attempt to become a copy of the ideal that will make you unique!

This flaw of ours - the inability to create a perfect copy - is ultimately what makes us special.

Therefore, you can only be congratulated if you realized that you cannot become an absolute copy of your ideal. Think about it, why is this so? What are your differences? These differences can be yours business card, your style.

Thus, blind copying gives nothing to the world. But it gives you the opportunity to become yourself and then give the world something truly valuable.

? Write a book that you yourself would like to read.

To create a masterpiece, write not about what you know, but about what you love. This rule (like others on this list) applies not only to creativity.

Family, business, career, personal life - in each of these areas you can form a picture of what you like. All that remains is to bring what you like to life!

Don't walk on a familiar road if you walk on it only because circumstances have developed that way. Find a path that makes you happy!

Write a book that you would like to read.
Make a website that you would like to be on.
Develop a game that you yourself would like to play.
Build the career or business of your dreams.
Create the family you would like to live in.

Find out what you love and just do it!

? Try to do everything with your hands.

The computer makes our life easier.

Sitting at a computer, we can create something great.

However, you will be much more effective and productive if you work not only with your head, but also with your hands.

Note from me. Take the same one. It would seem that this is nonsense - it is much more convenient to mark completed tasks in a computer organizer. But when you can feel your progress with your hands, it’s a completely different feeling, a completely different motivation! And so it is with everything in this life.

? Recognize the importance of hobbies and side projects.

Sometimes what we do out of idleness or as a hobby actually turns out to be the work of our whole lives.

Do not waste time on idleness and Often brilliant ideas come to us precisely when we are not doing anything useful.

Also allow yourself to take on multiple projects. Tired of being alone? Switch to another one. And so on in a circle.

Just because you have multiple passions doesn't mean you have to choose just one. Sometimes this switching from one to the other helps create something truly unique.

Never give up on your hobby. Even if it remains just a pleasant pastime, let it be your outlet.

Even if you have a favorite thing to do, a hobby should also be present. This way you will create much better. We all need a break, even from what we love.

Allow yourself to be a multifaceted person. And one day you will realize that all this was not in vain.

? Do your job well and share it with people.

How to become famous?

Relax and take advantage of the fact that no one knows about you yet. After all, in such conditions there is no trust in you. You can do whatever you want. So experiment and do it for your own pleasure. You don’t yet have fans, clients, shareholders and advances to work off. Right now you are absolutely free to choose your path. Take advantage of it!

Well, in order to become famous, you need to do the following:

First, do your job well. It sounds simple, but it is actually quite difficult. There will be defeats. Spit! and become better.

? Forget about geography - it no longer has power over us.

The Internet is a great invention that helps us convey our ideas, find fans, partners and clients around the world.

Don’t think that if you live in (.), you won’t achieve anything. Yes, this was the case before (although even then there were exceptions to the rules). But now, when with one click of the mouse you can change the world, such an excuse does not work.

But this does not mean that you need to sit in one place without changing anything around you. Therefore, it will be useful to at least spend some time in other places. Even short trips will be useful, because at this time the world seems new, different, special, and in such circumstances our brain begins to work more intensely, fresh ideas. ?

New people around also contribute to new ideas. Moreover, people can be on the same wavelength as you, or completely different, with different interests and a completely different way of life.

Thus, the world around us is full of possibilities. Take advantage of it!

? Be good (the whole world is a big village).

Make friends and ignore your enemies. You can only be as good as the people around you. Now you have the opportunity to communicate online with the best people- with someone who has achieved more than you. Take advantage of this great opportunity! By communicating with the best, you become the best yourself.

And if it turns out that now you are the best, then don’t be proud of it, but find those who are better than you today. Is this the only way to ensure consistency? development.

If something in the world around you makes you angry (for example, unfair criticism), then don’t waste time on it. Instead, use that anger as fuel to become a better person.

There is no point in looking for someone's approval. No matter how brilliant your work is, not everyone will appreciate it. Moreover, you are almost certainly or even with . Score it. Learn to feel comfortable in such an environment. The secret of this skill is simple - be too busy to waste your time on anything negative. Get busy and don't notice it.

And also collect laudatory reviews. Even if you decide not to seek anyone's approval, still collect all the nice things people say about you and your work. For what? The euphoria of success quickly passes, and sometimes difficult times come. And then (when you need support more than ever) you will get these positive reviews and you will understand that you are going in the right direction. This really helps a lot!

? Be boring (that's the only way to get your job done).

What you love requires. If you waste it on all sorts of nonsense, it will be difficult to achieve success.

Try not to quit your main job if you have just decided to get into creativity or business. Of course for some people it will be effective way development (we drive ourselves into a situation of “we can’t help but do it”; in the end it turns out that we have no choice but to achieve success). But it's still stressful. ?

The daily routine is very important. Having a schedule often brings more benefits than availability large quantity free time. So even if you still have to go to work, but you consistently allocate time for your favorite thing, it is far from a fact that you will be less effective.

So the main thing is regularity. Just think, you can write a book quickly and easily if you write just 1 page a day. In a year you can create a full-fledged book! And we're not just talking about books here. Do what develops you for a long time and you will see incredible progress. For you it will seem like slow development, but for the people around you you will be a superman.

Is that why it's so important? plan your days, weeks, months and years. Set a plan and steadily move towards your goal. big Adventure starts with a small step!

It is equally important to write down what happened. It will be much easier for you to analyze your life and work, you will be able to objectively see what seems invisible at first glance. ?

And there’s no need to talk about how important a good ❤️️ marriage is. After all, you choose the person who will have the strongest influence on your entire life. later life.

? Think of creativity as the ability to subtract.

We live in an age of information overload. Therefore, now it is imperative to be able to get rid of unnecessary things and leave what really matters.

Don't try to use all resources. This is simply impossible. Most likely, it will even plunge you into a stupor. Try creating artificial restrictions for yourself. All the time allotted for it is spent on work.

Therefore, act in conditions of limited resources. By limiting ourselves, we become freer, no matter how strange it may sound.

My review of the book “Steal Like an Artist”

The book will be useful not only for artists, but also for all creative and non-creative people who want to succeed in their favorite business.

You will learn how to become a Creator with a capital C.

Steal like an artist is detailed instructions how to do what you love. Whether you're starting a business or writing a book (or doing something else, it doesn't matter) - 10 lessons creative self-expression from Austin Kleon will come in handy.

Some of these tips may seem obvious to you or simply not feasible in your particular case. This is fine. Use only what you are passionate about. After all, creativity is freedom, including the freedom to choose.

Despite the provocative title, the book also refutes it. There's no point in stealing. You can only create! With such a provocation, the author tries to free us from prejudices and stereotypes. And he does it very well.

The main idea of the book is You don't need to be a genius, just be yourself. And then everything will definitely work out.

The book itself is short - 150 pages. Contains many examples, quotes and illustrations. If you want to dive deeper into the world of creativity and inspiration, then it makes sense to buy this book. Also the book will a great gift? for those who love high-quality and creative things.

Sometimes it is very difficult to select what really works, what can really help. In an age of information overload, you have to dig through a mountain of slag to find a diamond. So, the book “Steal Like an Artist” is, if not a diamond, then certainly a diamond. I recommend!