Austin Kleon's Blog

I have been drawing succulents. As I explain in my letter, “For no good reason”:

I continue to wear down my new Caran d’Ache pastels. Right now I’m drawing succulents that I see on my morning walks onto old sheet music and pages from thrifted books. I’m not sure what I’m doing or why I’m doing it or what I’m going to do with these drawings. “It’s a good way to do stuff,” Ralph Steadman says. “For no good reason.”

Not included in that letter is my attempt at a much larger drawing:

In my letter “Just cut stuff” I wrote about working on the copyedits of the manuscript for Don’t Call It Art, and how you don’t have to rewrite what’s not there:

Whenever I find myself snagged on a suggested edit, the first thing I ask myself is: Does this even need to be here?

I find the easiest thing to do with something that isn’t working in a piece of writing is to just cut it out completely.

In my letter “All publishing is self-publishing,” I shared my 3 tips for self-editing:

The best edi...

I’ve often joked that if I were to write a parenting book I’d call it Parent Like A Librarian.

At the library, there are strict rules for behavior that create an environment in which anyone can learn, but there is no agenda, no plan — only time, space, and resources.

The librarian is there to serve whoever comes through the door by connecting them with what they need.

The librarian creates and maintains a collection of materials, makes spaces in which people can work and study, and curates prog...

As a followup to my letter, “Your hobby looks exhausting!” I wrote another letter, “Your routine sounds exhausting!” about why we care what creative people do with their days:

Maybe your own personal routine should look exhausting to someone else! What sets you free — the more it’s really yours — should probably look like torture to someone else.

Read the rest here.

In the first episode of Civilisation (1969), “The Skin of our Teeth,” Kenneth Clark takes on why the Roman Empire fell:

“However complex and solid it seems, civilisation is actually quite fragile. It can be destroyed. What are its enemies? Well, first of all fear — fear of war, fear of invasion, fear of plague… fears that make it simply not worthwhile constructing things, or planting trees or even planning next year’s crops. And fear of the supernatural, which means that you daren’t question an...

Here is a page from my pocket notebook of Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen discussing a new picture-book version of “Hansel and Gretel,” which was made by Stephen King adding words to Maurice Sendak’s designs for an opera.

JON: I’d say the illustrator is in the business of reacting to the text, doing work the manuscript doesn’t do. This can mean providing new information, adding a different tone or even subverting the words a little.

MAC: It’s this fluid, playful dynamic between text and image that...

I came across this photo of me from a Laity Lodge retreat back in February and it made me laugh. I look exactly how I feel when I’m trying to figure something out.

These photos are from a block-printing workshop led by designer Dana Tanamachi. (I wrote a little bit more about it here.) Looking back on a few seasons ago, it’s fun to think about how that block-printing seed was planted and led to a whole flurry of activity afterwards…

I’ve been experimenting with color drawings in the studio using fancy crayons on top of block printing ink.

Here are items #1 and #2 from Friday’s letter, “Somebody needs to know the time”:

1. I did a lot of design work on the next book this week, a lot of it constrained by what you can do in black and white on a 6″x6″ page. To take a break from greyscale, I’ve been doing a bunch of color drawings in the studio on old pages of sheet music. I’m using a set of Caran d’Ache Classic Neocolor II Wat...

Here’s another new monthly mixtape made from a sealed, pre-recorded cassette I got for 99 cents at End of an Ear. I tape over the cassette’s protection tabs and then I tape over the music and then I tape over the artwork.

This one is a sequel to my Oahu mixtape from last summer. (Like many sequels, it’s probably not as good as the original.)

You can listen on Spotify, Apple Music, or YouTube.

Upon returning from vacation, I solicited travel tips from my readers and shared a bunch of the stuff I saw/read/listened to on our trip to the Pacific.

I’m still recovering from a family trip to Hawaii. I survived a surf lesson and a tsunami! Watched a dozen sunsets. Built sand castles. Swam with sea turtles. Befriended lizards. Dodged roosters. Drank mai tais. Despite (or maybe because of) all that, I don’t think I had a single creative thought while I was out there, and my brains only came b...