The Best and Newest Art Books in January 2012 - and Urban Sketchers

Starting a New Year seems like a good time to make some changes to my monthly posts about Makingamark's Top Ten Art Books and The Best New Art Books for the previous month.

I'm going to continue to post a link to both the updated websites on this blog - generally in the "who's made a mark this week?" post.  However the detailed review will in future take place on Making A Mark Reviews (tomorrow) - and I'll also include a link to that post here on Making A Mark.

The Art Book that's making a BIG Impression

The Best New Art Book in January 2012 is The Art of Urban Sketching: Drawing On Location Around The World which at the end of January had secured the #10 in the top 100 books in the Arts and Design Category on Amazon (which now includes music) - BEFORE it had even been published.

It's now up to #8 and is also

• #1 in Books > Arts & Photography > Painting
• #1 in Books > Arts & Photography > Drawing
• #3 in Books > Arts & Photography > Other Media

Congratulations are due to Gabi Campanario (The Sketch Journalist) who authored the book and the 100 Urban Sketchers (Urban Sketchers) who participated in its production.

The last time I saw anything like this was when James Gurney's Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter was published at the end of 2010 - and it then topped the charts for the whole of 2011 and still remains a firm favourite.

The one sad note is I still haven't seen The Art of Urban Sketching.  It published on Wednesday 1st February but I got a note to say delivery of mine is delayed.  I guess that's what happens when you've got a popular book which lots of people want. :(

A new Making A Mark project

The other reason for making changes as to where the review of the best and newest art books is located is because I've got a new Making A Mark project brewing - and it relates to art books.

The Amazon charts are beginning to become swamped by author driven books - however the problem is they are of extremely variable quality.

I'm going to be looking at how artists are driving the publication of books they have authored - in the many and various different ways it is now possible to publish a book.

The aim is to look at the pros and cons of different approaches and to try and identify some lessons learned for those who'd like to try and do the same thing.

If you've ever produced a book and would like to be part of the project survey please email me and let me know.  Who knows you may feature as one of the interviews I'll be doing with James Gurney et al...... :)