Conscious Creativity: The Workbook

An interesting ,"outside the box" view on creativity.

This book is developed around the idea of conscious creativity, of taking things around you and using them as part of a creative endeavor with not specific end other than creativity itself. It's full of ideas, suggestions and exercises, many of them surprising. It's a great book for visual creatives, for poets, writers, for people who enjoy textiles, it features complex exercises, especially those regarding synesthesia.

Don't let the blank pages and the quirky suggestions fool you, if you think creativity is a muscle and requires exercise, this might be the perfect book for you.

This is a bit like Wreck This Journal, only prettier. (I also enjoyed Wreck This Journal.) The book contains various exercises that attempt to help you to be more creative by breaking the rules, experiment, celebrating randomness and looking at ordinary things differently. The world around us is full of shapes, colors and textures, and creativity takes many forms.

The photography of this book is simply gorgeous.

I read a digital ARC from Netgalley but getting the paper version would make more sense than an e-book as many of the exercises and prompts here require the physical book page as a starting point. It's probably better to squirt fruit juice on a book than on the laptop. Although there are no rules and if you prefer to unleash your creativity somewhere else that's okay too.

*Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with a complimentary eARC for review purposes*

if you liked "wreck this journal" you will love this, it feels like WTJ's older sister. with more details on why you are doing the tasks

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a great book!

The digital version is a little harder to navigate but it's a good book!

There's activities that include picking plants, tearing out book pages, and writing exercises. There's cutting things out and folding pages and all sorts of fun things! Some are short projects and some are over months. There's a nice variety of mindful exercises and things to take you out of the ordinary schedule.

It's a fun book with lots of creative tasks!

Conscious Creativity: The Workbook is such a unique book that gives so much back to the creator! It is a book about creating without an agenda, creating intuitively and seeing where that process takes you. It offers a comprehensive suggested supply list great for sparking the imagination, and plenty of enriching exercises. You are encouraged to make the book your own, adding page numbers, tearing out pages, writing your name on the front of the book, etc. It is a workbook meant to be used and written in and on to enhance the creative experience & help you get more out of the book.
There are numerous experiments and exercises unlike any I have seen in other art books before (and I am an artist and art teacher myself, so I have read and looked at a lot of them!), and I would recommend it to anyone who is searching for a creativity boost. You don't have to do the exercises all at once, you can just pick out a couple here or there when you have a chance, and go with them! I have had a bit of a creative block lately, and the prompts here are helping to ease me out of it. Thank you for this book!

What a wonderful book! Full of gorgeous, inspiring images to accompany its playful suggestions, it's perfect for anyone who wants to explore or kick-start their creativity.

Really enjoyed this workbook, its absolutely a must have for anyone like myself who is super creative loves to create but often finds themselves stuck colouring in the lines or following instructions one by one. Conscious Creativity will break you out of those normal restrictions and really let you open your Pandora's box of creativity.

A book about experimenting and expressing creativity. I love books like this. I enjoy looking over exercises, claiming some to work through and others to ignore. I have several such books on my ‘e’ shelf.

Abstract was my favorite chapter, followed closely by Color. When I do my photography, I like looking through the lens, finding patterns and abstraction. As I read through the exercises in this book, I noted a couple of exercises that really appealed to me. One was the pyramid exercise from the Color chapter, as well as a couple from the Abstract chapter.

Really, there were a lot of smart exercises in all the chapters. I highly recommend it, and I highly recommend that you cut up the pages, glue, scribble, dame and wet this workbook and have fun doing it.

This book was an ARC and was provided in exchange for this review.

So this is my first time seeing a journal like this. I guess it’s meant for people who may be having a creativity roadblock and it gets the juices flowing again. In digital form it’s much harder for me to be creative so I suggest you buy this in paperback.

What did I like? So this was an unexpected workbook, and really it’s just about how creative you want to be. I thought it would be more crafty but it’s geared toward creative. An interesting idea for sure since this was my first peek at one.

Would I recommend or buy? It’s a creative idea and if your looking for more ways to do that then this is ideal. I’m not that creative but it was definitely enlightening.

I received a copy to read and voluntarily left a review.

A fun book to keep and grow in creativity. Inspirational for those who need a kick in the pants when they are having a hard time feeling or being creative, like me. Great exercises and tips.

This visually stunning book will inspire you to experiment and take creative chances. Stanton's book is divided into 7 sections:

* creating with no agenda
* random practice
* seeing, finding and observing
* texture
* colour
* The senses and synesthesia
* abstract

Each section highlights a few practices you can try that challenge you to think differently, be curious and have fun while trying new ways to approach creativity.

I couldn't even pick a section that was my favorite because each of them have their unique joys and there is so much inspiration in each section. I loved looking at all of her examples. I loved each of the provocations.

This book reminded me of Keri Smith's books in idea and concept and how daring it is, but this journal is much more visual and it was absolutely stunning to look at. I cannot recommend it enough.

with gratitude to Quarto Publishing Group and netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

The subtitle says it all: experiment, explore, create! I might also add the word express. If you’re looking for a way to let your innate creativity bubble forth, this is IT! And if you don’t think you’re creative? This is still the book for you, because it will loosen you up, help you let go of your left brained rational thinking, and move you towards fearless creating In a fun and non-threatening way. I am going to be giving this as gifts to my many friends this holiday season!

Throw all conventional artistic boundaries out the window! I loved the challenges offered in this collection of creativity exercises. I love art, but am also bound by lines, symmetry, patterns and expectations. This workbook was a wonderful stretch for me to break outside of those lines in an effort to loose the creative in me. All senses are invited and there is absolutely no right or wrong. It’s a perfect exercise for someone trying to expand their creativity.
I received a complimentary copy from the publisher via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are my own, freely given.

This was a fun book that helps you grow in creativity. The digital version is a little limiting, so I would suggest buying a physical copy to get the most out of it. Still, there were a lot of great exercises and tips that got my creative juices flowing!

This is a beautiful, fun workbook to stretch your creativity. It's gorgeously illustrated with bright and colorful stock images and packed with prompts very similar to "wreck this journal" kind of things with a little more focus on artists and artistry. In all honesty, I got a little tired of all the pages I was supposed to rip out and do something with (leave it in the pocket of clothing in a store, for instance) that struck me as more random and less artistic, but even those were still fun.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for review.

This inspiring book is filled with unusual exercises to help you become more creative. Focusing on the senses, texture, paper and mixing materials, this is a book which you can open at any page if you're stuck for ideas. Some activities are extremely simple, such as the observation ones, but others require more thought, such as making a collage. The beautiful photos will make you want to start straightaway!

I received this free ebook from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

A gorgeous place to get messy! A perfect companion for those who loved her original book, Conscious Creativity, or an excellent stepping stone to discovering her first book (which has been life changing for me!)

A real workbook for opening up to creativity. Lots of exercises, using many different mediums and ideas to find a way into creativity
The spark are introduced by random practices, texture, colour, observation abstract and more and it is a practical book
A good starting point

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.