A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

Art

Art Book: Creative Lettering Sketchbook

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Creative Lettering, I tell yah, I have friends who do this and I am just amazed at how by writing a bible verse creatively, it helps you to ponder that verse just a bit longer.  It’s a good thing to ponder words just a bit longer.. stimulates the mind you know?  🙂

Anyways, as I ponder how creative lettering of verses or sayings helps you ponder them a bit more it has me wondering, if reading it helps, what would actually creating those letters do to your pondering?   Would it help you to think on that passage or quote just a bit more?  It’s a thought you know?

Okay, this book contains 500 stickers, all gathered on pages in the last half of this 64 page sketchbook.  They vary in style and colour which I very much appreciated.  Letters, symbols, animals and more. 

One of the aspects of this Imaginative Illustration Journal that I really like is the teaching, followed by the doing page.  12 lessons with creative pages to practice following, 1-2 pages each.  I like that it’s not all “fill in my design” but leaves room for creative expression.  You can stickers where you want, adding embellishments to make your work all your own.

My Thoughts:

I have to admit that when I first looked at this book I wasn’t wildly impressed. As I stopped to really look at it, I came to appreciate how Marissa Giambrone set this sketchbook up.  First with a teaching page, then with a free form.   Kinda like how I teach my boy a new art form, showing him how to do it, giving lots of examples, and then asking “what will you do with it?”  This book teaches art the way I do.  And that’s a good thing no?

It’s a good book for people of all ages who want to improve their basic ability to make their lettering more creative.  Admittedly, I’d be more inclined to give to a youth 8-15 years rather than an adult, due to initial impression as well as there are more adult oriented lettering books out there that are more expansive than this one.  Though if you just want to fool around on a rainy afternoon, it’ll work regardless your age.  🙂

  
Creative Lettering Sketchbook
Series: Draw, Color and Sticker
An Imaginative Illustration Journal
Marissa Giambrone
Quarry Books
Art Book, Lettering, Sketchbook, How-to, Stickers

Reviewed for: Quarto Books, 64 pages

Where can you find it?  Amazon.

Art Book: Doll Crafts

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Today I have a fun book that has me wanting to build dolls or teach a class about making dolls.   I can’t say that teaching a bunch of girls is way high on my list of things to do… but this book has my inspired to perhaps break out of my comfort zone.  The book “Doll Crafts” by Laurie Carlson. 

Why does this book inspire such confidence in me, an ungirlie girl, who doesn’t like to sew or do dolly type stuff?  The variety of dolls to make.   And the detail they put into describing how to put them together.

And then there’s the patterns and the variety in accessories that even “I” should be able to make.   Clothes and puppies and patterns, houses and glasses and even hair!   It’s a cornucopia of ideas.

Not only that, the table of contents makes it very easy to find what you are looking for.  Two pages, divided into the following sections.   

  • Welcome to the Workshop: doll markers toolbox
  • The Adventure Begins: Dolls (this section is further divided into 15 subsections)
  • Dress them up: Doll Clothes and Accessories
  • Home Sweet Home: Dollhouses

I think about this book, and then consider some of the Popsicle crafts I’ve been seeing on Pinterest lately and I think wouldn’t that make a fun class to teach?

You need to check out some of the details on each page.

My Thoughts: 

Laurie Carlson has done a stellar job of putting together this doll craft book for children.  Clear instructions, lots of patterns, complete materials lists, history of the doll being made, and child friendly language.   Makes it a worthwhile book to get for your creative youngsters, or their parents who want the fun of making dolls for their children.   Can’t you just see your girls (or yourself) enjoying this book?  

Doll Crafts: A kid's guide to making simple dolls,
   clothing, accessories, and houses. 
Laurie Carlson
Chicago Review Press
Crafts, dolls, do it yourself, youth
trade paperback, 138 pages

Reviewed for Chicago Review Press.
  
Where can you find it?:  Amazon Link.

Art Book: Things I Love, an imaginative illustration journal

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Draw, Color, Sticker has put out a sketchbook called Things I love.  This is a book meant to guide you in your search to find your inner doodle.  So join me as I walk you through this imaginative illustration journal.

The first half of this book is done in four page sets.  One two page set with completed illustrations so you can fill in the colours and let your mind wander about how you might like to set up the page, the next two page spread gets you started off, but then allows you to recreate the first two page spread or to change it to suit your personal tastes.

Color, Draw, Create… add stickers… there’s 500 of them in the last half of the book to add. These stickers are designed to coordinate with the pages in the book.  Done up in with a lot of pink, blue and yellow. Simple drawings to enhance the drawings already there.

My thoughts:

I honestly don’t know what age this is geared for, and so it’s hard for me to judge the sketchbook well.  The drawings in it are simplistic and yet a bit complicated so at first glance I might think it’s geared for children, but then at a second glance I think perhaps good for older individuals.  So it’s really hard to say.  My younger sister thought it was a book geared for students age 5-9 years.  Just the right age to get them started, with stickers to inspire them on their journey.  🙂

Things I love Sketchbook: An Imaginative Illustration Journal
Series: Draw, Color & Sticker
Caralyn Gavin
Quarry Books
Softcover, 64 pages
Art, drawing, artist, 

Review for: Quarto Group

 

Art Book: Maya Lin – Thinking With Her Hands

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Have you ever visited the Vietnam Memorial in Washington D.C.?   Have you seen it’s mirrored surfaces and how it brings the past toward the present, bringing unity?  In Maya Lin: Thinking With Her Hands, we learn the story of the artist behind this memorial.

This was a very interesting book to read, it was fascinating to see into the mind of a young woman as she worked on her skills in architecture and design, seeing her reasoning behind why she builds memorials the way she does.   I just love stories about the why of how people do things, it’s always a fascinating look into the mind and will of another person.  I thought it clever the way the chapters were labeled with building mediums. 🙂

We are brought from her early life, onwards to her current projects.  Well-written text with good illustrations brought her life and her work into clarity.  Written on a level for middle school and high school students to easily read and understand. As an adult, I was able to read through the book in about an hour.

I loved the graphics…all the real life pictures along with the occasional topographical map, brought her work to understanding in my mind, about the effort involved to bring her concepts to life.  She built so many sculptures, and takes her time working to truly understand the project before making a decision about how to approach it.  I appreciated the fact that she used all sorts of mediums to convey her thoughts.. moulding the ground, building with various materials, utilizing water, weather, and more. 

The typeface used was a clear and not muddied, very easy to read.  You need to check out a map she was working with to create a sculpture using the earth?  Neat eh?

One of the elements I most appreciated was how they showed Maya Lin’s determination to have her work presented in the way she deemed best WHILE she took her opponents thoughts into perspective.  Not forcing her own way, but using their thoughts to improve her own work.   It shows humility combined with skill.. and that’s a good thing to have eh?

My Thoughts:

This would be an excellent book to have any middle schooler read and think about it. It’s good to see how people think about how their past can affect their future, and how even a school project can get you noticed. Maya Lin took a chance and succeeded. Taking in advise from others and knowing how to stick to your goals and ideas, and how to modify them if needed. It would be a nice add-on to a study of the Vietnam War as well as other memorials scattered around the United States. 

Maya Lin: Thinking with her hands
Susan Goldman Rubin
Chronicle Books 
Age 10+
112 pages, hardcover
Biography, art, Architect, architecture
Middle School

Reviewed for Raincoast Books.

Where can you buy it?  

Amazon link.

Art Books off Weebly Account

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Okay, I have been doing art books on my blog in life FOREVER.  🙂   I love reviewing art books, there are so many options out there it’s amazing.  Some books are good, others are meh, but it’s good to review them eh?

I haven’t been able to figure out how to get my weebly posts over here at this point so I thought I’d just a link here and then people can go there to look if they have an art book they want to look at.  Who knows, maybe some day I’ll do an actual page just simply listing them off.. that’d be kinda neat too eh?

Anyways, art books from my weebly account can be found here.  Also here.

Art Book: Meet Cindy Sherman

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Cindy Sherman, an chameleon of a person who is also an artist and a photographer… likes to do things in her own way, allowing people to interpret her art in their own way.   In this book children are invited to see her art and say what they think of it.    Today I invite you to bring YOUR students along to interpret her art in their own way as well.  Meet Cindy Sherman: Artist, Photographer, Chameleon.

I half expect Cindy and I might get along as I also like to let individuals do art in their own way.  Giving parameters and lessons and letting them live out their vision of how they think it can be worked out.   It’s what makes art fun.  I thoroughly enjoyed reading the comments from different children about her work, some of them making up stories to go behind what they see, others describing colours and attitudes, and still others describing their emotion at the image.   That mix in attitudes and emotion intrigue me when it comes to introducing children to art. 

We are introduced to Cindy Sherman in all her many forms, and her life as she explored art.   Starting a child playing dress up to an adult experienced in her craft. A child could easily read this book as the language is written at a good level for upper elementary and middle school students.  We read of the work she did and HOW she went about achieving her ends.. from scouring thrift stores, to covering the walls of her room with images from the past, getting friends to help her take pictures in different locations.   She explores what makes a person…can a person wearing a wig and beard dressed in men’s clothes really be the same as the lady wearing a lovely dress and done up all nice?

Now, all this said, I can’t say I really appreciate all of her work, but I do appreciate the sentiment behind her work and therefore, should I ever see her work it gives me a glimpse into her mindset and therefore helps me appreciate what her aim is.   People being people without worrying about the window-dressing.  🙂

Cindy is a persistent lady with a vision of what she wants to accomplish in her art.  This book is well worth giving any prospective art student as an encouragement to them to continue in their endeavors. 

  
Meet Cindy Sherman: Artist, Photographer, Chameleon
Jan Greenburg & Sandra Jordan
Roaring Book Press
64 pages, ages 7-12
art, softcover, opinion, artist, middle school

Reviewed for: Raincoast Books.

Art Book: Star Wars Build-A-Scene

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This Star Wars build-a-scene kit is perfect for the Star Wars fan in your life.   My lad is an avid paper crafter and was quite delighted when this kit made it’s way into our home. 

Three builds are included in this kit:

  • Episode III Revenge of the Sith
  • Episode IV A New Hope
  • Episode VII The Force Awakens

Each build in the book is predicated by a write up of what the build is about and how it was filmed.  Pictures from the movie are included, as well as concept scenes making this a well-rounded kit.  Not just a build but an informational kit.   Once this informational write up (about 5 pages) is completed you are given a list of supplies.  Common items like glue, paint brush, etc are listed, as well as instruction on how to do the build.  Mountain and valley folds, gluing and letting dry, and so forth.  The creators want you to be successful in doing the build, so take your time and read through all the instructions before starting. 

You will find that the sheets are perforated well on a thicker paper, but not board paper thick.  Just a nice quality paper for doing papercraft builds.  The individual pieces are well numbered.

Take your time, carefully build, read and re-read the instructions as needed, and you can complete these three scenes.   I’d say this kit is better for the older teen to adult builder as it is fiddly and you need the patience to take your time doing the build.My Thoughts:

Honestly.. we tried.. well.. my son tried!  I started, ran into problems, he tried hard to fix my oops, and well… he lost heart.  This is not a build for the inexperienced.  My son is an avid paper crafter and knows how to work with glue and paper really well .. but my mess up just brought him to a stall.  Unwilling he was to try another build, partially because he didn’t want to make me feel bad, but trying to fix my oops just disheartened him.   Adult builders.. take heart though.  if you are a good paper crafter and have the requisite patience, this kit will work really well for you.  It’s a great kit, and being able to build what you’ve seen on the big screen is wonderful. 

Star Wars Build-a-Scene.
Benjamin Harper
Claudio Dias
Three builds in one kit.Disney/Lucasfilms
48 page booklet, kit, 
Hands-on, papercraft, Star Wars, model

Reviewed for: Quarto Group

Where to find: Amazon.com