The Art Journey of Lord Gris

Practical info

Author: Lord Gris
Genres: Non-fiction
Sub-genres: Art
Publication year: 2022
Edition: Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-912843-53-4
Blurb: The Art Journey of Lord Gris is brimming with creative inspiration and professional advice from this highly successful artist. Sharing both her personal evolution and trademark techniques, Lord Gris has filled this book with the very best of her character designs, plus detailed tutorials, techniques, and tips for achieving dynamic results.

Personal info

Why I picked it up: I hadn't known this artist before seeing this book in the online shop. It was one of 5 I bought in one go (because that was cheaper), and the art seemed like something I would be interested in.
Status: Finished
Progress: 182/182 pages
Started: 10-10-2024
Finished: 01-11-2024
Rating: 4/5 stars
Reread count: 0
Overall opinion: Not my favourite. It just didn't really speak to me. It kinda felt like it dragged on about her journey and stuff, which feels mean to say because it's clearly such an important part for her, but I was getting bored. I didn't really care for the tutorials, which this books has like 5 or 6 of! Her art is pretty, but I feel like she's one of those artists that applies meaning to the tiniest details, like 'she's standing with her hand pointed at her face, which means she wants you to pay attention to her and she's very narcissistic' or something like that. I don't like that type of stuff. Like she tries to be deep, but it isn't hitting for me. At one point in the book, she says she doesn't do that, or didn't at first, with her concrete girls thing. But now I think she does.

A lot of this book is about her falling in love with acrylic painting and telling you how she does it, but I don't care for paint. Especially not acrylic paint. And she's also one of those that, when asked how to make money as an artist, is just like 'you just gotta keep at it and keep trying and keep posting, it'll come to you eventually!' Which is such an unrealistic and out of touch view that most of these artists have. It's getting annoying. Most of them also started with some kind of client project, or in her case, a random showing at a gallery that was handed to her on a silver platter out of nowhere. They get these jump starts handed to them for seemingly no reason, like how am I supposed to follow that advice? They always talk about how important networking is, but in my area, there isn't really anyone in the field that I want to work in to network with. And they're like 'just make friends, no matter if you're introverted.' I'm not just introverted, I'm also autistic, so 'just making friends and networking' is useless advice to me.