Books by people I know and admire.
Are you a published Author or Illustrator? I have always admired and supported friends who have published their work, and in this post I want to share some of my favourites.
As I was building this stack of books, I realised how fortunate I am to be surrounded by some extremely talented women. These books are like friends living on my bookshelf. I haven’t published a book, but it is a dream of mine one day to have a book that sits on my shelf with all of these. I have friends who have been working on their deadlines for their publishers, so I know how much work goes into preparing a book.
HERE is the link to the Video Flip-through of the books on my shelf. (I know I always love to see how books look on the inside too)
Let’s start by introducing you to
, a great friend from LA. She has her own Podcast , is a book editor and reviewer and teaches too. She’s has a Substack called (Books Are My People) . She has published a couple of Books, these are two novels. The one on the left is of short stories, I haven’t it read yet. These are the ones I have below.You can purchase these two great reads of “Unruly Creature” and “Strays”. HERE & HERE.
Moving on to my friend the lovely
’s two books (she has more & is working on another) . Samantha lives in NYC with her family. I’m sure you all know her, but if you don’t, she has classes on Drawing over on Skillshare, a Substack newsletter , which she runs , and she’s on Instagram. I was fortunate to spend time with in Oaxaca this year… you can read a little about our week HERE .You can purchase these two books HERE & HERE. They’re a fantastic help to anyone who is interested in recording their daily meanderings.
Next , my friend , the sweet
. I have known Jennifer on line for many years, and again meeting her in person and travelling to Oaxaca with her was such a pleasure. We also have taught classes over on Creative Bug.I love these books by
(AKA August Wren) , I remember they were my go to for a daily drawing/painting practice with my daughter ( 9 years ago). My daughter loved that she could choose whatever prompt which inspired her from Jennifer’s books.Jennifer has worked in the art and design World all her life. She has a beautiful way with paint which creates magic on a sketchbook page or canvas. She teaches around the world with
.You can purchase these books HERE & HERE.
and I were also in Oaxaca together. She’s an amazing artist and it’s been great getting to know her and call her a friend. I have always painted along side Gayle and Jennifer when they have their online Paint Sessions. They have another one coming up in May.has been working with Vital Voices for the past year or 2 in creating this amazing book of all her portraits she painted for an exhibition with Vital Voices.
You can purchase it HERE.
Have you met Arouna Khounnoraj ? She’s the creator behind Bookhou and all these (and more- I don’t think I have them all) books.
I have a huge admiration for Arounna and all that she has done. She’s an inspiration - she’s always stayed true to her brand and what she believes in… her work is wonderful, I have been collecting her handmade goods for years now.
I want to make all the projects , but as am seriously thinking about starting to work through some of the beautiful pages in Winter Celebrations.
You can purchase her books HERE, HERE, HERE & HERE.
Courtney Cerruti is the wonderful creator behind these and more books. She’s also the creative editor for Creative Bug and was the reason for my class on Creative Bug - 31 Days of Portaits. Courtney was such a wonderful host when I went down to San Francisco to film in 2018.
She has many classes on Creative Bug on her own.
You can purchase these Books HERE, HERE and HERE.
While we’re on the Creative Bug topic, Missy Dunaway has also taught classes over there, and has this beautiful book published with her travel paintings. I love how she approaches painting with Acrylic Inks… I had her as a guest on my Live IG , you can watch us paint a scene from out our windows HERE.
Click HERE to purchase her book.
Another Creative Bug teacher is Lisa Congdon. I honestly am not sure how Lisa finds the time to do all that she does. She’s an inspiration. Oh and I have her Elements book too but gave it to my daughter for help with her Chemistry course. She has other books too.
Lisa Solomon, another Creative Bug teacher, and creator of this beautiful book “A Field Guid to Color” and many more! Lisa has a wonderful demeanour whilst teaching…and it shines through in her books.
At the beginning of the Pandemic I would set weekly then monthly challenges for my morning #charsartclass . One of the challenges was to draw a book stack, we did this a couple of times. Then someone said, have you seen Jane Mount’s book Bibliphile?
I hadn’t and I immediately bought it. It’s beautifully illustrated.
Jane has a Substack account but I don’t believe she’s posted.
Next I have Cynthia Cliff’s books Pie for Breakfast and The Wild Garden. Both written and illustrated by Cynthia. I love these so much, actually I love all her work.
Next, an amazing illustrator called Carson Ellis (I’m sure you all know her work) who I discovered when I first bought The Wildwood Series by Colin Meloy for my kids back in 2013. Carson Ellis who also writes
here on . She then released “Home” and recently illustrated “what is Love” - both incredible but I love Home so much!These next books are sooooo wonderful, they’re by
- she’s not super active over here on Substack. You can find her on Instagram.Last but not least , illustrator Dina Mirtalipova has a few books published , I have this one. “Imagine a Forest” - I am in love with her colours and beautiful folklore style paintings.
I have others but I’ll save them for another time, I’ll have to make a post when friends like
’s and ’s books come out next year… being a book illustrator and /or author takes a lot of work, patience and time for a book to be published and sold in bookstores.If you have any recommendations of friends of yours who have any books published, please comment below.
PLEASE NOTE * If you love reading , definitely follow from Books Are My People as she does weekly recommendations as well as a Podcast where she interviews Authors. (she aslo recently started a Book Club online)
Thanks for reading ALL the way to the end.
x
Char.
Beautiful inspiring books!
Love this, Charlotte. Thank you for including me in this great list of creative books.