Looking for some creative inspiration? You’ve come to the right place. Check out our picks for the best audiobooks for artists below…
The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity
Julia Cameron
Whether you’re an artist, musician, or actor, you have to know where to go to get back the creativity you know is inside of you, and this audiobook is a step in the right direction. With a 12-week program that can unleash the creativity you always knew you had, this step-by-step method can help you with any type of creative block you’re experiencing and does a great job of increasing your self-confidence so that you can move forward and start to write, act, or sing like you did before the block became a part of your life.
The Artist’s Journey: The Wake of the Hero’s Journey and the Lifelong Pursuit of Meaning
Steven Pressfield
Whether you’re a literal artist or simply want to find true meaning in your life, this book is for you. Regardless of what you chose as a career, you need a certain amount of creativity to succeed, and this book can help with that endeavor. Once you get past the sabotage and resistance that is a part of many people’s lives, you can do some amazing things, so the choice of being successful and happy is really up to you.
Real Artists Don’t Starve: Timeless Strategies for Thriving in the New Creative Age
Jeff Goins
If you’ve chosen the creative path for a career, this book gives you tips on how to avoid being a “starving artist.” You can indeed become a creative being and still pay the bills, and this book gives you the tools to do just that. Some of those tips include taking strategic instead of reckless risks, participating in an apprenticeship under an expert, stealing from your influences, and learning how to make the money you need to make more art. Its tips are practical and easy to follow, meaning you can become an artist faster than you might think.
Daily Rituals: How Artists Work
Mason Currey
There is no doubt that when you want to make a living as an artist, you need rituals and habits to make that happen. Most people have to work regular jobs while writing or composing, so this book describes tips that allow you to do both successfully. It also includes tips by some of the most notable artists on the planet, including Descartes, Thomas Wolfe, Leo Tolstoy, Woody Allen, Charles Darwin, and even Anne Rice. Learn from the masters with this well-laid-out, very informative audiobook.
The Lives of the Artists
Giorgio Vasari
When it comes to Italian Renaissance art, a few names always pop up, including Giotto, DaVinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael. This book gives you short biographies of these and many other artists, and it includes the stories behind nearly 40 artists that you’ve likely already been curious about. This is a great addition to your collection of books on artists, and it is both entertaining and educational. It is a real gem that you will never regret purchasing.
The Artist’s Way at Work: Riding the Dragon
Mark Bryan, et al.
After interviewing hundreds of business people from all walks of life, the authors of this book then came up with a specific program that can help anyone fulfill their dreams, start a new business, or walk into a more creative career to show off their talents. If you need to stay creative while experiencing criticism, apply your strengths to the job you’re doing, or overcome depression at the workplace, this book is for you. The tips presented in the book come from the corporate, creative, and entrepreneurial world and include just what you need to jump start and fulfill your dreams.
Make Art Make Money: Lessons from Jim Henson on Fueling Your Creative Career
Elizabeth Hyde Stevens
If you want to learn from the master how to make money while practicing your art, this is the book for you. Part self-help, part manifesto, and part history, the book goes into detail on how Jim Henson took his talent and parlayed it into a multi-million-dollar career. Included are 10 principles that apply to both his art and his business practices that can give you just the impetus you need to move forward and become successful in your own right.
The James Joyce BBC Radio Collection
James Joyce
Not only does this audiobook include three radio masterpieces by James Joyce, but it also gives you a biographical account of his life. If you’re a James Joyce fan, you need this audiobook because it includes three readings by the author: Ulysses, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and Dubliners, not to mention James Joyce – A Biography. As you listen, you can learn about this amazing artist and enjoy some of his best works, making this one audiobook you’ll be glad you added to your collection.
The Wealthy Creative: 24 Successful Artists and Writers Share Their Winning Habits
Genevieve Parker Hill
This book is chock full of advice and information from all types of artists who are making a very lucrative career out of their art. From artists to designers and even authors, the advice is practical and effective because it comes straight from people who are now successfully working in their field. In this audiobook, you’ll learn how to take advantage of the relationships that promise to help you in your career endeavors, the right ways to think about money and earning power, and how to treat the all-important audience, which you need to succeed in any artistic business.
Portrait of an Artist: A Biography of Georgia O’Keeffe
Laurie Lisle
If you’re a fan of Georgia O’Keeffe, you need this book. It goes into detail about both her personal and her professional life, providing you with a lot of the information you likely didn’t know. Listen to how she came to paint sensuous flowers and bleached bones against red earth and sky, and about her much older husband and photographer Alfred Stieglitz. This was not just an extraordinary artist, but an independent and fearless individual who definitely made an impact on the art world, and now you can learn why this is so.
How to Be a Voice-Over Artist from Anywhere: A Beginner’s Guide
Andrea Erickson
Big money can be made doing voice-overs, and if you’re curious how it can be done, this audiobook is for you. Written and narrated by an artist who makes good money doing voice-overs, it gives you practical tips to get started regardless of your level of experience or where you live. Even if you’re a beginner and have never done anything like this before, the book gives you tips that are easy to follow so that soon, you, too, can be making money doing voice-overs.
Loren Weisman
If you’re interested in any type of career in the music business, this book will tell you everything you need to know to get started. Included are details about marketing yourself, building up your career, performing to the best of your ability, and even producing your own music so that it sounds the way you want it to. This is a must-have audiobook for anyone who wishes to take a passion and turn it into a lucrative career, so it is a great book for any would-be music artist to own.
The Most Productive People in History
Michael Rank
From artists to inventors and even successful entrepreneurs, this audiobook goes into detail about how they worked and why they were so successful. It includes information on Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, and Handel, as well as lesser-known artists such as Georg Philipp Telemann, Ibn Sina, and many others. From Benjamin Franklin to Theodore Roosevelt and Archimedes, to name a few, the book provides you with inside information that will inspire and impress you, and it can even give you the motivation to move forward yourself with your dreams.
Identity Unknown: Rediscovering Seven American Women Artists
Donna Seaman
Regardless of who your favorite female artist is, it’s likely you’ve wondered how they got started and what drove them to continue on until they were successful at their craft. Now, a lot of your questions can be answered thanks to this book. Most of these artists were successful at a time when women weren’t encouraged to have careers, making their achievements even more extraordinary. Explore information about artists such as Joan Brown, Christina Ramberg, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Frida Kahlo, among others, and get some details on how you can be like them and succeed in the art world yourself.
The Queen: Aretha Franklin
Mikal Gilmore
If you love her voice, now you can learn her story through this magnificent audiobook. She recorded her first album at the age of 14 and produced more than 50 Top 40 hits, and you can learn all about her humble beginnings and how she got as far as she did as an adult. Aretha didn’t just stand by a microphone and sing; she gave the song her all and made it her own, and you’ll understand how and why she did this if you listen to this audiobook.
