A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

Art Books

Art Book: How to Draw Comics

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Want to learn how to draw comics, all the ins and outs and how to’s?   Ilya gives us the motion, adventure, suspense, action, pacing, character, mood and drama that is comics.   Presented in a comic book form, How to Draw Comics is bound to not only delight, but teach budding Cartoon Artists new skills in comic drawing. 

ILYA presents a very informative book written in a compelling style for comic artists.  This oversized trade paperback starts off by showing us how comics are art with attitude and humour.  🙂 

Each concept is brought to us in comic form. I loved the clear illustrations, as well as the explanation as to why some older comics were hard to read. Controlling the ink was a task for highly skilled individuals, so sometimes it got messy and hard to read the printing. 

Step by Step instructions, in comic book format, lead the reader through the skills needed to be a successful comic book artist. Learn how to develop your own style as you learn the principles and techniques of creating cartoons, graphic novels and manga. Learn the differences between these styles of cartooning.   Learn to create action, show mood and pacing, development of your characters and so much more. 

My Thoughts:

Fantastic book for those looking to develop their skills in writing comics. Doesn’t matter if you are 8 or 9, How to Draw Comics is a great guide to cultivating your skills and mastering the art of comic making. Ilya uses a wide variety of styles to convey technique and principle, often using humour to do so.  It’s a wonderful book for anyone to learn comic timing, creating cliffhangers, and movement. ​

How to Draw Comics
Ilya
Chicago Review Press
128 pages
Art, Art book, Comics, Cartoons
Trade Paperback, Full colour

Reviewed for: Chicago Review Press

Where to buy: Amazon.

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: How to Build Lego Cars

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Do you love building with Lego?   Do you see it for the art form that it is?  Yes, it’s STEM and building and engineering, but … it is also an art form.   You can really see it in these magnificantcars that Peter Blackert helps you design in How to Build Brick Cars.

Oh…these aren’t your standard lego cars…these are master builder cars that go on to inspire you to model your own creations.
15 different cars which work you up from basic to expert, teaching you the skills you need to design your own lego models of the sports, race, and muscle cars you see around you every day.

You get to build cars such as the Ford Raptor, Datsun Coupe, Ferrari 250, Porsche 911 and so many more.  15 cars all told.

You will find detailed parts lists as well as information about the car being built.  The parts list is in full colour with numbers written alongside.  I didn’t find those numbers worked well with the Lego Store, so they might be with another area?  I don’t know.  BUT I do know you could go into any Lego Store with this book and they could help you find any pieces that you need, with the picture is on the page along with colour.  Easy peasy!

After the opening section you get into the meat of the build.  Full colour illustrations walk you step by step through the build. As long as you are paying attention (and don’t skip steps) you can complete your build.

My thoughts:
This is a great book for any lego enthusiast.  Getting help to make the car of your dreams?  What more could you ask for.  The detailed instruction ensure that anyone who can follow lego instructions can complete these builds…just as long as you have all the lego parts at hand.    Go ahead, create some lego art!

How to Build Brick Cars: Detailed Lego Designs for Sports cars, race cars, and muscle cars.
Peter Blackert
MotorBooks
192 Pages
Paperback, oversized
Lego, creator, build, master builder, animals, design

Reviewed for: Quarto Group.

Where can I find it?

How to Build Brick Cars.    Amazon.ca   Or   Amazon.com.

This post may contain affiliate links – using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool – thank you! ©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time . We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites

Art Book: Beasts from Bricks

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Oh, who doesn’t like to build with lego?  I spent hours as a child playing with lego and have had lots of fun playing with my boy child…though the older he gets the more he keeps himself busy with other things and plays less with his mama.  BUT this book is cool!  Making animals from around the world, using the designs in Beasts from Bricks.  It’s great!


15 different animals which take you through the different continents of the world, teaching you the skills you need to design your own lego models of various animals you can meet in your life (or perhaps WISH you could meet in real life).

You get to build animals such as the African Elephant, Indian rhinocerous, Suffolk sheep, walrus, jack rabbit, anteater and a wombat (as well as others).   I loved that each new animals was introduced to us along with why the author builder created them.

You will find detailed parts lists along with a colour key.  The parts list is in full colour with numbers written alongside.  I didn’t find those numbers worked well with the Lego Store, so they might be with another area?  I don’t know.  BUT I do know you could go into any Lego Store with this book and they could help you find any pieces that you need, since the picture is on the page along with it’s colour.  Easy peasy!

After the opening section you get into the meat of the build.  Full colour illustrations walk you step by step through the build. As long as you are paying attention (and don’t skip steps) you can complete your build.  You may even find yourself inspired to find other animals you can build.  Sometimes to just be changing the colour (as in making a white sheep black, or multi coloured), or by using the skills you have been taught to come up with your own designs.  Who knows what you’ll be able to build eh?

Little things I liked: Each animal is colour coded, so you know all the blue is one animal, different builds he’s made pictured at the back of book, clear instructions, image of finished animal, and the pedestal each animal is placed on so you aren’t limited to stance or flat surfaces.

My Thoughts:
Get this book.  Have fun learning about and then building animals from all over the world. It’ll be great fun, you know it!  🙂

Beasts from bricks
Ekow Nimako
Quarry books
144 pages
Softcover, oversized
Lego, building, STEM, animals, engineering

Reviewed for: Quarto Group

Where can I find it?
Beasts from bricks.  Amazon.ca    Or    Amazon.com.

This post may contain affiliate links – using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool – thank you! ©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time . We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites