I have just completed a book that comprehensively chronicles my twenty-five years or so as a professional fine artist. The Art of Stephen Warde Anderson, Neoclassical Naif consists of a brief personal memoir, a professional history, and a chronological gallery of several hundred images of paintings. I have been working on the book for about nine months, lately spending more than half my time on it. I have tried to make the text interesting and concise. I have attempted to give an overview of my career, a summary of my techniques, and the sources of my inspiration. I avoided talking about every show I ever had or commenting on individual paintings. I have perhaps included more personal information than anyone will want to know, and probably more images than anyone will want to look at.
I regret the photos are not all of a quality I might desire. The recent, digital images are pretty good. Some older prints and slides were professionally scanned, but there are a lot that were poorly photographed. In the end rather than leaving out imperfect images, I thought it was better to show as much work as possible. It was a huge project, finding and organizing the images, editing them to increase brightness and sharpness and cut down on saturation, then converting them to 300dpi and scaling them. (If they don't look right, it won't be through lack of effort on my part.) There are over a hundred pages of illustrations. I haven't counted the images but with an average of five or so on a page, there must be about five hundred, maybe more. Of course, I did leave some out: I've done fifteen hundred pictures.
The book The Art of Stephen Warde Anderson, Neoclassical Naif comes in several editions.
Deluxe Edition 11 x 8.5 paperback, 158 pages, illustrated -- $37.56
Illustrated eBook Edition same as above in eBook form -- $3.99
Text Only Edition 8.26 x 5.83 paperback, 120 pages, no illustrations -- $9.68
Text Only eBook Edition same as above in eBook form -- $1.99
Also for sale is another book which features images of recent paintings available for sale or consignment:
Acrylic Paintings by Stephen Warde Anderson 11 x 8.5, 24 pages -- $13.14
These are all print-on-demand books available from lulu.com. The price of POD books are of necessity high, as there is no cost whatsoever to the author. I have discounted the books for the rest of the year just in case someone wants to buy them. The Deluxe Edition is actually at a maximum discount; I only get 66 cents per book sold -- just letting you know so I'm not accused of being a profiteer! I should mention that the Text Only eBook is formatted for the computer, that is, wide instead of tall, really easy to read once it's sized properly. I may get around to reformatting the Deluxe Edition, but I'm not up right now to the many days of work that will require. I will, probably after the first of the year, get an ISBN for the Deluxe Edition and officially publish it, making it available for sale at retail outlets. As doing this raises the price astronomically, I thought I would make it available for awhile at lulu for a minimal cost.
There is a sense of satisfaction at completing this monumental project, well, relief at least and an eagerness to move on to something else. I have no unrealistic expectations of sales and would not have even if the book were less pricey. I do have a hope that someday I may have sufficient funds to purchase my own books!
You can check out the books, get more info, and see previews at www.lulu.com/spotlight/stephander
I regret the photos are not all of a quality I might desire. The recent, digital images are pretty good. Some older prints and slides were professionally scanned, but there are a lot that were poorly photographed. In the end rather than leaving out imperfect images, I thought it was better to show as much work as possible. It was a huge project, finding and organizing the images, editing them to increase brightness and sharpness and cut down on saturation, then converting them to 300dpi and scaling them. (If they don't look right, it won't be through lack of effort on my part.) There are over a hundred pages of illustrations. I haven't counted the images but with an average of five or so on a page, there must be about five hundred, maybe more. Of course, I did leave some out: I've done fifteen hundred pictures.
The book The Art of Stephen Warde Anderson, Neoclassical Naif comes in several editions.
Deluxe Edition 11 x 8.5 paperback, 158 pages, illustrated -- $37.56
Illustrated eBook Edition same as above in eBook form -- $3.99
Text Only Edition 8.26 x 5.83 paperback, 120 pages, no illustrations -- $9.68
Text Only eBook Edition same as above in eBook form -- $1.99
Also for sale is another book which features images of recent paintings available for sale or consignment:
Acrylic Paintings by Stephen Warde Anderson 11 x 8.5, 24 pages -- $13.14
These are all print-on-demand books available from lulu.com. The price of POD books are of necessity high, as there is no cost whatsoever to the author. I have discounted the books for the rest of the year just in case someone wants to buy them. The Deluxe Edition is actually at a maximum discount; I only get 66 cents per book sold -- just letting you know so I'm not accused of being a profiteer! I should mention that the Text Only eBook is formatted for the computer, that is, wide instead of tall, really easy to read once it's sized properly. I may get around to reformatting the Deluxe Edition, but I'm not up right now to the many days of work that will require. I will, probably after the first of the year, get an ISBN for the Deluxe Edition and officially publish it, making it available for sale at retail outlets. As doing this raises the price astronomically, I thought I would make it available for awhile at lulu for a minimal cost.
There is a sense of satisfaction at completing this monumental project, well, relief at least and an eagerness to move on to something else. I have no unrealistic expectations of sales and would not have even if the book were less pricey. I do have a hope that someday I may have sufficient funds to purchase my own books!
You can check out the books, get more info, and see previews at www.lulu.com/spotlight/stephander
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