Messages from the Real World: A Professional Handbook for the Emerging Artist

Lorraine Douglas is the youth services co-ordinator at the Winnipeg
Public Library.

Godwin, a former professor of art at the University of Saskatchewan and
a painter whose work has been exhibited across Canada and in the United
Kingdom, has written a handbook for the beginning artist. Topics include
the artist’s studio, artists’ tools, carpentry, framing, building a
crate, photographing art, inventorying, and contracts. The book has an
attractive cover, but its interior design is uninspired and its layout
is cluttered. However, the technical drawings accompanying the
instructions on constructing an easel or a crate are superbly executed.

This chatty and highly anecdotal book does not cover certain topics
that could be helpful to the young artist (e.g., creating a résumé or
marketing work on the Internet). Recommended with reservations.