Shaping your book idea

This lesson discussed the various publishing routes' pro's and cons. We needed to answer True or False to the following statements.

• I want my book to be available to the public no matter what. True. I want to encourage people to paint on location even though they think they don't paint very well. As a minor goal, I also want to promote the Milwaukee Sketch Club. I also want to learn how to write a book. I've never done that before. I think it will be interesting.
• I'm writing my book primarily for a small audience of family and friends. False. Initially that is probably who will read it but I would like to inspire people I don't even know to paint on location.
• I want to hold a physical copy of my book in my hands. False. However, I think my audience may like a physical copy.
• Being traditionally published would validate me as a writer or expert in my field. True. However right now that is not my goal for writing this book.
• I want to make all the decisions about my book. True
• Finding a publisher for my book would be worth waiting a few years. False. I want to get this book published as soon as possible so I can start on my next one.
• I want to get my book out there as quickly and cheaply as possible. True

Then we did research to shape our book idea. We needed to find out how popular is our topic, is there an audience for it? How can we make our book stand out from other similar books? What are the authors' credentials? We used online book sellers to search for similar books.

Researching your book idea, what did you find?

I've actually been researching and reading books on this for awhile. However, I redid the online research for this class regarding "painting on location."

I searched various keywords; painting on location, plein air painting, urban sketching, painting as a pastime.

I looked at online bookstore categories which are not very specific for Art. Books>Arts & Photography>Painting>Landscape (799). However, in winter we sometime paint indoors. Also we paint cityscapes too.

Lot of books on art but only found maybe 3 that might be similar to the book that I am thinking of:

• Plein Air Painting; The Drama by Charlene Brown
• Oil Painting as a Pastime by Winston Churchill
• Painting En Plein Air by Ev Hales

In general, painting on location books fall into these categories.

• How to and painting techniques by working artists (e.g. Painting on Location, Secrets to Plein Air Painting by David Curtis. Painting En Plein Air by Ev Hales. A lot of these type of books) Credentials: working artists, may or may not be formally trained.
• Compilation of works by one or many artists (living or deceased) working in a specific location or locations (Painting Sedona by Michael Chesley Johnson, Painting Indiana III by Indiana Plein Air Painters Association and Indiana Landmarks, Plein Air Painters of California, the North edited by Ruth Lilly Westphal, Painting the Middle East by Ann Zwicker Kerr; the Art of Urban Sketching by Gabriel Campanario.) Credentials: Amateurs to working artists
• Memoirs (Painting as a pastime by Winston Churchill, Plein Air Painting; The Drama by Charlene Brown.) Credentials: Mostly amateurs.
• Academic/ textbook (Understanding Architecture Through Drawing by Brian Edwards) Credentials: Professors.

I think my idea is unique enough to stand out, plus I probably have a built in audience of people who might be interested in this book as long as it is well written, humorous, and has pictures.

My possible book is not tied to a particular time period. However, it seems that plein air painting and urban sketching is getting more popular. Perhaps due to the large number of baby boomers retiring and taking up hobbies they put aside to earn a living?

Then after our research we came up with a
Book Idea Statement: A fun book on how to start painting on location as a pastime.

Differentiating Book Idea Assignment
Can you narrow your topic? A fun book on how to start painting on location as a pastime

Consider which aspects of your subject are the most interesting to you. I enjoy sketching and painting with friends or by myself on location whenever and however I can. I'd like to share some insights on how to easily do this. I'd like to encourage people to sketch and paint even if there are not a formally trained artist and think they can't draw. Practice helps you improve. Painting on location helps you understand a subject better. It also generates energy and enthusiasm for painting that may carry over to your indoor painting.

Also think about how your approach, point of view, or writing style might help your book stand out. Not sure about this. A lot of books are written in 1st person? Pictures are important for my audience.

What would make a fresh and unique contribution to your topic or genre? Simple methods allowing people to start sketching and painting on location without buying more art materials.*

What can you bring to your subject that no one else can? My experience as an urban sketcher and plein air painter.

A quick thought to jot down.

*Regarding painting materials.

• Ask yourself what do you like to use right now? 
• If you're not sure or don't have any art materials, then ask yourself how confident are you in your drawing skills? How do you feel about your drawing skills? If you're really confident use pencil, ballpoint or other pens, markers, kid's prange watercolor set. You can combine media.
• If you're not confident about your drawing skills use a pencil, charcoal, conte crayon, a set of regular pastels over pastel paper, or a set of acrylics on canvas paper. All fairly cheap and you can keep going over your drawing/painting until you get pleasing shapes. Then if you don't like it,  you don't feel bad about throwing it away. 
• I read somewhere that you need to do 1,000 paintings until you improve so don't get discouraged. The process is more important than the result. Sometimes the result can surprise you. I sometimes dislike the painting the day I do it but it's OK or pretty good when I look at it the next day.