Instagram • Austin Kleon: Instagram As An Artist's Sketchbook

Austin Kleon: Instagram As An Artist’s Sketchbook

Name: Austin Kleon, @austinkleon

Bio: A writer who draws.

Location: Austin,Texas.

Austin Kleon (@austinkleon) is a writer who draws. His first book, Newspaper Blackout, is a collection of poetry made by redacting newspaper articles with a permanent marker, leaving only a few words behind. His Instagram photos offer a behind-the-scenes look into an artist’s life: you’ll see notes on index cards and Photoshop illustrations showing the process behind creating a book, as well as doodles and one-off pieces that might never been seen anywhere else.

This is a full-page broadsheet blackout that I posted while leading a blackout poetry workshop at the Dallas Museum of Art. I actually never really did anything with this piece. It’s an example of how I use Instagram as more of a sketchbook — a place to house doodles and one-off pieces that I might not put anywhere else.

This is a “dummy book” I made to show the team at Workman Publishing what I was thinking for the cover and design for my new book, Steal Like An Artist. I’ve used Instagram as a scrapbook to give people a kind of “behind the scenes” look at making it — everything from my original notes on index cards to my Photoshop screen of the illustrations. I’m sure I’ll be posting pictures this spring from the 20-city book tour, too.

This is my wife holding up a gigantic Newspaper Blackout print to demonstrate its scale. That’s our dachshund, Milo, at her feet. I have a theory that dogs help sell art. Not sure if it’s true, but they certainly lead to more likes!

The photo at the top of this post is from austinkleon.com.