A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

Art

Cartoon Thinking

By Leave a Comment

I was going through the art books on my shelf the other day and pulled this one out, I’ve a few different cartoon books and I was wondering if I needed to keep them all.   Books I have are the How to Draw Comics, and How to Draw with your Funny Bone books. There is only the one shelf for art type books so I constantly need to revisit to see which ones I’ll keep and which to let go. I think that I will retain Dan Holt’s Cartoon Thinking for a while. With actual lessons and a simple black and white methodology, should I ever teach a cartooning class, this book will be useful. 

Cartoon Thinking

From the Cover:

Help students learn about social issues, politics, government, moral dilemmas, the human experience, and how tomake new friends.  Students develop creativity and critical-thinking skills while studying a humourous topic.  They will laugh their way through the class and develop key skills.

You will have nine, two-hour lesson plans that combine the thinking part of cartooning with the art, using motivating instructions, simple handouts, a brief history of cartooning and foreign cartoons, the elements of a cartoon and artistic techniques, and the physical benefits of humour. 

What you get:

Nine chapters laid out in a format to help you teach.  This book is supposed to come with transparencies (which I don’t have) . I would think you could copy the black and white examples and display those.  These nine lessons teach subjects such a perspective, historic cartoons, how to draw, caricatures, lettering, layout, social issues and more.  Each lesson is well packed and is meant to last two hours in a class, and is geared to highschool and up.

cartoon thinking

As you can see, each lesson comes with objectives, items needed, and set out how to teach that particular lesson. This is a class where you do assign homework, and there are tests you can give as well.

Cartoon ThinkingI appreciated that each lesson included full pages of the transparencies that are meant to be used.  I didn’t actually have the transparencies but generally speaking it would be easy to work around this. 

cartoon thinking

My Thoughts: 

One section of this lesson book contains a lesson on how to talk about historical cartoons.  I was looking through and starting thinking that this lesson would be great for looking at the cartoons of the wars.  To find some of those old cartoons (he gives suggestions for key words to search for) and then talk about this with the lad and give him a challenge of creating a cartoon of his own.  Wouldn’t that be a great addition?  

There is so much information in this book it’s worth keeping whether it’s methods of teaching are a bit dated or not. So it will stay on my shelves until I either find something better, or work my way through the material with my lad or other students.

cartoon thinking

Cartoon Thinking
Dan G. Holt
Zephyr Press
Softcover, 9 lessons, 124 pages
Cartoon, Drawing, Education, Art.

Filed Under: Art

Arty Facts: Our Bodies & Art Activities

By Leave a Comment

Are you doing a human body study and looking for art projects to enhance your learning adventures?   Arty Facts is a wonderful book to enhance any study of the human body.  Let me tell you about this excellant art book resource, entitled Our Bodies & Art Activities, that will nicely round out your studies.

arty facts: our bodies & art activities

What do you get:

21 Chapters with titles such as strong bones, taste buds, touch and feel, brainbox and sound catchers, the human body is discussed and art activities suggested for each area of the body.

arty facts: our bodies & art activities

This isn’t just an art book with a little bit of info, it’s also a science book with good information about the body. I found the text geared to grades three and up.  There is much younger children could learn, but for reading independently, probably grade three as a minimum level. 

arty facts: our bodies & art activities

Each page of learning comes with an accompanying art activity.  There is a great range of activities from working with paper Mache, sewing, or drawing etc.    You get to work with paper, glue, buttons, foil, shells, paint, sponges, sequins and more.  Some of the crafts are “Salt Dough Fruit Basket”, “Textured Touch Art”, “Circuit Board Collage” and “Puffing Bellows”.   I found that the crafts ranged in complexity, some being suitable for upper elementary students, and others for lower.  Pick the crafts/art activities that match the level of your students.

arty facts: our bodies & art activities

You’ll notice that the list of needed supplies in done on a red sidebar with pictures and words.  The instructions were clear making it very easy to teach.  There is a materials guide at the close of the book which tells you what some of the materials are and what suitable alternatives could be used.

My thoughts:

I think this is a great book and makes me want to go out and gather a bunch of kids together. Then I can do art and learn about the body at the same time.  This book is great for kinetic learners to cement learning.  I was pleased they didn’t include the Robotic Hand which I often find in stem and art books about the human body. 

arty facts: our bodies & art activities

 

Our Bodies & Art Activities
Editor: Ellen Rodger
Crabtree Publishing
48 pages, softcover,
Art, Kids Crafts, Human Body, Science
Series: Arty Facts.

 

 

Crafty Ideas From Nature

By Leave a Comment

crafty ideas from nature

Crafty Ideas from Nature is a paperback book that gives you more than 30 crafts you can make with nature as a focus.  MOST of the art projects use items you can easily collect from nature.  A few of the art projects are things you can use to decorate trees, represent nature, or are games you can play. Another in the series is crafty ideas from junk.  These books give loads of ideas to help children express their creativity in a wide variety of ways.

crafty ideas from nature

Each project is laden with pictures walking your through the steps.  Each project has a handy materials list. While this list doesn’t give you exact quantities, it gives the needed information.

crafty ideas from nature

Some of the projects are floral cat, candy cone, leaf printing, snowstorm, dried leaf owl, and feather headdress.  There are many others.   A good variety of crafts that cover a variety of age ranges, but generally I’d say from age 8 and up for most of them.

My Thoughts:

Crafty Ideas from Nature gives some great ideas to help children express their creativity using what they find in the great outdoors.  It would be an excellent addition to any nature study that you engage your students in. The ideas presented lend themselves to a variety of crafts and should stimulate your ideas, as well as ideas in the children around you. 

crafty ideas from nature

 

Crafty Ideas from Nature
Myrna Daitz
Shirley Williams
Exley Giftbooks
softcover, 48 pages

Click on image to go to Amazon.

Plastic Canvas: Cars and Trucks

By Leave a Comment

The other day (couple months back) I was out kicking around and saw some plastic canvas creations.  They were rather well done and it spurred me on to see if I still had any plastic canvas around.  I found some, but no yarn or thread to do it to be found, and then well.. life got a bit hectic.  

In the process of packing/unpacking I found this plastic canvas book and tucked it away with my arts/crafts books.   Ergo, when I was searching for an art book for today I stumbled upon it and since it brings back happy memories for me why not! 

What happy memories you ask?

I remember sitting with my mom and a group of girls learning how to do plastic canvas.  I still recall the peals of laughter rolling around the table, the conversation lightening quick, the questions and answers, the fights over who got the yarn next and can you pass me the scissors.   

After I earned the badge, I found myself continuing to work with plastic canvas, cutting, shaping, learning new techniques.  Then college came along and life got busy and I set it aside.   I still look back at this crafting skill with fond memories.  And I keep my limited supplies around but I honestly don’t know if I will ever get back into it.

THOUGH…

This book with the cute cars intrigues me.  Wouldn’t they be fun to make for a little boy or girl?

Plastic canvas cars and trucksAfter learning how to make wheels we are taught how to make seven different vehicles

  • big rig
  • pickup
  • bluemobile
  • antique coupe
  • yellow sports car
  • pink convertible
  • gasoline tanker

Plastic canvas cars and trucksWhat do you think?

Good toys for girls and boys?   Fun to make you think?   Perhaps I should get re-inspired. 🙂

Living Maps

By Leave a Comment

People often talk about a city as if she were a person, Adam Dant takes that notion and thought… what if I could draw a map of a city showing her personality?   From that we get the book Living Maps, a look into the heart and history of 28 cities from around the world.

Living Maps

From the cover:

This collection of maps explores the unique personalities of 28 cities around the world, shedding light on the strange and marvelous ways in which humans interact with the places they call home. Artist and creative cartographer Adam Dant dissects Manhattan in an anatomical diagram, traces the form of a Picasso nude in the streets of Monaco, and transforms the crisscrossing paths of boats on the Bosporus into the nerves of Istanbul. Dant draws on the history, culture, and geography of each city and on the beguiling aesthetic of antique maps to create gorgeous works of cartographic art. Witty, insightful, and adorned with a gold foil-stamped cover, this book will capture the imaginations of travelers, map enthusiasts, history buffs, and dreamers.

What you get:

The author has three page introduction explaining the origin of the maps (Dr. London) and the thoughts behind the making of them.  Rearranged and displayed for us from the crumbling pages of old books.

living maps

Each city is introduced with four smaller images, and one larger one depicting different aspects of th ecity.  Brief text accompanies each of the smaller images.

Living Maps

The next page presents us with a full-colour image of the city personified.  The images were well put together, presented in different formats, some on a tile background, others laid out on paper, and others appeared as simple outlines with city streets, others had smaller images running around the edges of the maps.  A good variety in typology.

Living maps

My thoughts:

I have to admit, I’m not sure what I think of this book.   Part of me is intrigued, but there is also a solid part of me that is a bit freaked out.  I don’t quite understand it myself.  The map of Edinburgh showing the mix between the old and the new had me intrigued, and Venice with the lion… I liked those, they made me think…. yet the maps of London and Tokyo had me quickly turning the pages saying nope, nope, not that. 

The freaked out moments had me not wanting to turn back to the book despite my intrigue with the rest of the book.  So it’s hard for me to get past the negative to reach the positive, but I am admittedly a person that is easily freaked out by the unusual.    And frankly, seeing a city personified is a bit unusual in the drawn form. 

At the same time, I have inklings of the possibilities for an art class (not one taught by me) where students are challenged to see the personality of an object, city, thought pattern and then find a way to express that in a visual form.  This book could prove to be an inspiration for that type of class.

living maps

 

Living Maps: An Atlas of Cities Personified
Adam Dant
Chronicle Books
Hardcover, 128 pages
Art, Geography, History, Maps
Reviewed for Raincoast Books.

Find it on Amazon.

 

 

disclosure

 

Building with Paper

By Leave a Comment

Building with Paper

Building with Paper is a neat book that gives you specific projects in working with paper.  

You can build a Paper Town, Bridges, Boats, Castles & Forts, and a Stadium. 

You get clear instructions

building with paper

With excellent drawings

building with paper

Each Section is clearly delineated with a face page.

building with paper

My thoughts:

My son went through a period where he was constantly building things with paper. I had him look through this book to see if it was good and he said “yes, I would have liked this book two years ago”.  It teaches not only the folding and building, but how to put the pieces together so they hold together well.   Papercraft boat anyone?   The one in the book looks like it would float well and possibly even hold a small figurine making for a lovely play time that you make yourself.   It would be fun to do as co-op class don’t you think?  Building a castle together?  HA!  that would simply be a hoot!

Observe, Collect, Draw

By Leave a Comment

Observe, Collect, Draw is a journal to help you learn more about yourself (by collecting data) in order that you may become more connected to who you are.  Doing this will enable you to be the creative, talented person that you are.    So if you are an artist, or writer, or sculptor, you can bring forth your talents more easily.  🙂  This is my review. 

Observe, Collect, Draw - a visual journal

From the back cover:

A guided journal with a fresh approach to the trend of journal-as-tool-for-self-examination. The journal is delightfully illustrated in the authors’ trademark style-accessible, whimsical, detailed. Blending inspiring examples with engaging instruction, this journal asks: What do we learn about ourselves when we measure our gratitude, confidence, and distraction levels? What do our collections say about who we are: our books, music, the clothes we wear? Observe, Collect, Draw! functions as a mini-course in information design, as accessible to beginners as it is engaging to seasoned info designers.

Observe, Collect, Draw - a visual journal

The Nitty Gritty

Three main Sections to this journal

Part one: learning to see.  This is where you overcome your fear of the blank page while learning more about using the data you have as material. 

Part two: Observing, Collecting, Drawing.   Immersing yourself in the world of data by following guided exercises to observe, acknowledge, count and draw.

Part three: Crafting your visual language.  You’ll find open ended ideas for drawing with the data you have collected, following your own rules and using your own style.   Your work, done your way, using your own style and rules. 

Observe, Collect, Draw - a visual journalThroughout the pages you will find whimsical drawings starting with learning what Data is.  Data is simply getting the math about the things that are in your life: plants, people, food, events, interactions, it’s all just data.  It tells us who we are and what we do.  What’s important to us is shown to us in the data we collect about our lives. 

You can then take that data and turn it into a useful form.

Like when a person enjoys a beautiful sunset and takes those colours and turns into a painting, necklace or rug. 

The goal of this journal is to help you figure out what the data is in your life, so that you can in turn take that data and be the artist you are meant to be. To that end, guided exercises are given to help you collect data. 

For instance, grab up your camera/phone.  Take a look at the pictures that are on it.  Now map out what’s on it, animals could be blue, people red, houses orange… Whatever.  Just map it out.  Colour code and use dots and shadings to show connections.   This gives you data. 

Observe, Collect, Draw - a visual journalYou not only look at the good things of your life, but you also get into the harder things in life, like figuring out what makes you complain.  What you complain about?  Who do you complain to?   It’s all data. 

Observe, Collect, Draw - a visual journalThe more you document your life, the more data you can mine, which gives you more information you can turn into artistic endeavors.  Once you have worked your way through all 35 exercises, you are invited to then draw.  First you analyze the data you have collected, find the stories of your life, then experiment with how those stories look using colour, lines, images, and before you know it you have a data image.  Once you have that, you work your way through 12 additional exercises, or if you will, drawing prompts.

These drawing prompts include things like the animals you see, your holiday souvenir, your family, small talk, social media and more. 

My Thoughts:

I wasn’t too sure about this book when I first got it.  It’s like HUH?   I’m supposed to examine my life so that it makes my art better?  Who in the world has time for that?!?!?!?  But as I went through it, it started to make sense.  The more you know about yourself and the way you put things together, the more you can bring yourself out in the art that you produce.  It’s not a bad thing that, is it?  

Is it worth getting?  I think so. It’s good to stop and think about the things you do sometimes, helps a body to become more aware of personal foibles, strengths, interests they perhaps weren’t aware of, and gives ideas to talk about.. for instance today I was thinking about how much I like mint tea… making MY OWN mint tea, and then wondered if I could inspire others to like mint tea. This I thought about because of a page in this book.   Good yes?  Indeed. 

Observe, Collect, Draw - a visual journal

 

Observe, Collect, Draw! A Visual Journal.
Giorgia Lupi
Stefanie Posavec
Princeton Architectural Press
Softcover, 160 pages
Journal, Art, Self-discovery
Reviewed for Raincoast Books.

Other Giorgia Lupi books you might be interested in
Dear Data.
Dear Data Postcard kit.

disclosure