I had did this for the previous class, "Publishing Your Ebook." as part of an assignment but condensed it for this class.
- My reader (or audience): I started out thinking that it would be woman in her 50, children mostly out of the house, able to now pursue passions and hobbies that were put aside to raise a family and earn a living.
- Perhaps some college or college degree. Her interests are art, outdoors, sketching, and painting.
- However, after reading excerpts from Winston Churchill's out of print book, "Oil painting as a Pastime", I started thinking maybe I could be more general: Adults interested in painting or sketching on location as a pastime.
Here's the previous class's assignment
Reader Profile:
- Female, in her 50's, children mostly out of the house, able to now pursue passions and hobbies that were put aside to raise family and earn a living.
- Possibly some college or college degree.
- Her interests are art, outdoors, sketching, and painting.
- Content to focus on beginning artist or returning to art after 20+ years artist who likes the outdoors.
- Cover and title should make plein air painting (painting outdoors) look fun.
- Cover, title, and book design could appeal to a moderate - more affluent populations.
- Pricing may not impact sales greatly. (I did look at plein air paiting books to get ideas for price, content, and cover design.)
Subtitle: How to Paint Outdoors for the Terrified, Beginning, Plein Air Artist. A lot of nonfiction books have a subtitle. I notice a lot of people are afraid to paint outside because they think people are going to make fun of their sketching and painting so I want to address the fear aspect. I've found that people are very curious and tend to say that they are not "artistic". I think being "artistic" is highly overrated. I believe that art is a skill like handwriting that anyone with the will and desire can learn. I base this belief on Betty Edwards book, "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain." Based on my observations of local artists, I also think that successful artists keep working on improving themselves and don't give up. You also don't need to be insane to be an artist and to paint with feeling.
Cover: Bold color background with title on top, attractive scenery picture in middle 3rd and tilted picture of an artist(s) plein air painting overlapping scenery pictures. (Need to add credits, get model waivers?)
Book descriptions of various lengths (See how they build on each other?)
One line: Plein air painting involves just two things; choosing your sketching or painting tools, and your location.
Short description: Plein air painting involves just two things; choosing your sketching or painting tools, and your location. This book gives a practical and humorous approach to plein air painting (painting outdoors) for the absolute beginner.
Long description:
Plein air painting involves just two things; choosing your sketching or painting tools, and your location. This book gives a practical and humorous approach to plein air painting (painting outdoors) for the absolute beginner.
First you will learn how to decide which materials you want to schlepp along (carry and use) when you plein air paint. Then you will learn how to choose the best locations based on how and what you want to paint, along with other considerations like weather, bugs, and bathrooms.
Get the confidence and sills you need to get out of the studio and plein air paint.
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OK, back to the current course.
Transforming your angle to a title
I actually wrote down notes as I went though this chapter to try different angles on for size.
How many ways can you bait your hook?
Playful painting on location, Fearless painting on location, Returning to painting, Loving painting on location, Feel the fear and paint on location anyway, escape to painting on location, Relax and paint on vacation, Enhance your experience by painting on vacation, Paint as a tourist in your home town, Experience your hometown like a tourist while painting on location.
My angle is to encourage anyone to paint on location because it is a fun and easy way to improve your painting skills. Also you get to meet some nice and interesting people too.
Currently my working title is "Don't Cry Over Spilt Paint, How to Sketch and Paint on Location for the Beginning Artist."
Then I tried to match a title to page 5 approaches to coming up for a catchy title:
- Emotions: Stop worrying about painting on location;
- Intrigue: Secrets you may not know about painting on location (too long) The secret to painting on location, (Just do it!);
- Shock: Forgot the brushes, just use sticks!;
- Spell out results: Stop worrying about other people and just paint on location;
- Capture the Mood: Don't cry over spilt paint;
- Use popular words: Best Tricks for painting on location, New strategies for painting on location, Don't paint on location for money, (numbers) 6 ways to paint on location.
Right now my working title of the book is Don't Cry Over Spilt Paint, Painting on Location for the Beginning Painter.
Style will be very basic art vocabulary that a beginning artist may know but I will define and use pictures for specific terms that a beginner may not know. Sentence structure will be short so it's easy to read as artists can be visual (picture) people. (When I read an art book, I generally just look at the pictures, especially if there is too much small writing.) Once I get the rough draft done, I need to plan out the necessary pictures.
I would like the tone to be natural, neutral, humorous (if possible, to show the fun of painting on location), and maybe nurturing. I probably won't do creative nonfiction unless it illustrates a point very quickly and doesn't use too many words.
Ok, finished just in the nick of time. Timer went off and I have to leave! Bye.
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