A Net in Time

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Art Book Series: Beatrix Potter

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I talked about this gorgeous art book early in December last year.   I just LOVED reviewing this book and find it an absolutely wonderful book that tells us all about Beatrix Potter. 

This lovely book was filled with a mirade of information about Miss Potter, from childhood through to accomplished artist.   It followed her initial interest and her love of her country cottage, the progression of her “little books for little hands”, and multiple of places her art took her.  
Five main chapters:
1. Becoming Beatrix Potter
2. London and the South Coast
3. Scotland
4. The Lake District
5. Wales and Beyond
I freely admit that I was captivated by her pictures of the mushrooms, just totally loved them!

Aren’t they well done?

Equally well done is all the other art that you will find hidden within the pages of this 256 page book, each picture coming with a story of the inspiration behind it and more.   The engaging style of writing taught me so much about Miss Potter.

If you would like to know more of the story behind Beatrix Potter, her books and her wonderful art, this book will do it for you completely 

Amazon.ca
Amazon.com

Art Series: 642 Big Things to Draw

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Do you have a child who likes to draw but sometimes or often comes and says, Mom, I want to draw something but I don’t know what!   Can you tell me what to do draw?

Now…if your child is anything like mine, 99% of the ideas you come up with will be summarily rejected.    I don’t know about you but… I FIND THAT IMMENSELY  frustrating.   Probably shouldn’t, but it is what is right?   Enter in… this wonderful book of ideas.   642 Big Things to Draw.   So many ideas… if a child can’t find something to draw in here, well… do they really want to draw?

Anyways, let me tell you about this book, and I have to tell you books like this are MEANT to be used (unless you are my son who would rather grab an idea and put it on art paper).

This is a fairly big book (9.29 x 10.67) that is filled with pages divided into sections.

Each of those sections has a word or phrase written in it.    With a good amount of space to draw in as well, or if you don’t want to be constrained by space, get a art sketch pad and draw there.  It’s all good.  Just draw and let your mind relax as you bring forth your creative talents.

Everything in this book is large… from jumbo jets, to a zoo, to a giraffe’s neck and Lake Superior.  A bit of everything inbetween.   642 different ideas condensed into 304 pages.   Slapped down into a book where the pages are divided into 1/2’s, thirds, quarters in different configurations.  Keep the mind sharp eh?  🙂

Once a week or so my son and I will grab a book and draw for 15 minutes.   Sometimes we start new projects, other times we continue to work on projects from the week before.  We use this book and others like this book as our sources of inspiration.   It is amazing how simple words can inspire art.

I LOVE IT.

642 Big Things to Draw

Chronicle Books
9.29 x 10.67
304 pages
Ages: all ages can have fun with this book

Reviewed for Raincoast Books.

Affiliate links provided to help you find this great idea starter for doing art.  

Amazon.ca

Amazon.com

Virtual Fridge Link Up

Art Series: Arnold’s Extraordinary Art Museum

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I have to admit, when I first opened this book I thought…okay.. what
kind of a weird little art book is this?  So I read it through, and then
read it again because it intrigued in it’s in weirdness. It’s weirdness turned into a quirky way of  presenting different forms of
art and ended up really intriguing
me.  I think it will intrigue you too.

 You might be asking, what makes this book quirky?

Well, it’s done
in a comic book format, it’s a lovely hardcover book with great colour
throughout from front to back.  The characters are a tad unusual, but
they all have a great attitude and they all work with each other.

Arnold
puts on an art show for his friends.   He is the collector and curator
of the art museum, who wants to share his art collection with his
friends.   He leads them on a marvelous adventure and they all learn
much.

 Imagine if you could go to an art museum where you actually have to
experience the art yourself.. like crawling through a tunnel to get to a
Japanese tea room?  What if you learned how fascinating the colour blue
was and how hard it was to prefect it?

Could you see a urinal as
a piece of art?  Find it interesting to learn why ultramarine was used
so often in pictures of the Madonna?  What about seeing the shadows or
spaces of objects as the intrigue of artists?   I learned so much from
this book, it was very neat.

At the close of the book, images of
the actual art used and where they are found is depicted.   Some of the
pieces were quite interesting, some more so after the reasoning behind
them was given.

 It was so interesting to learn more about the different forms that art
can take and some of the history and thought that go on behind them. 
There is more to art than what you can just see.

I do have to tell you that I used this book with my art class….and they were delighted.  This book really resonated with my art students.   Check out the art project they came up.  🙂

They started with circles and exploring that space, then someone got the bright idea of exploring what they can do with their hands, and then …what if we mixed colours together and swirled them around, and what if we drop lids upside and … it kinda went on and on from there.   It was a great finish off for our art class as the students had learned to work together and feed off each others ideas.  

 Arnold’s Extraordinary Art Museum

Written/Illustrated by:
Catherine Ingram and Jim Stoten

Published by: Laurence King

Size: 10.1 x 12.06 Â·

64 pages
Ages 7 and up

Reviewed For: Raincoast Books.

Amazon affiliate links are provided for your ease of finding this
quirky book.  It doesn’t affect your bottom line and blesses my heart
more than you know.  🙂   No pressure, but if you are intrigued by the
book, get it!  Links are below.
 Amazon.ca: Arnold’s Extraordinary Art Museum

Amazon.com: Arnold’s Extraordinary Art Museum

Art Series: Designing with Pixar

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YES! It’s time for another Art Books from My House to Yours. I really need to take the time to provide you with links to all of them, but not today. 🙂 Today’s book is Designing With Pixar: 45 Activities to create your own characters, worlds and stories.

 Anyways, when I first saw this 80 page I wondered at its usefulness, and then I really started looking at it.

The author Ms. Emily Haynes takes the beloved pixar characters and uses them to help children design better characters, worlds and stories. I’m going to be using this book with my lad to help him once he finishes his story, to turn it into a book. 🙂 Won’t that be cool?

Using pixar characters we are drawn into determining colours for characters skin, hair, clothing etc.   How do those colours make you feel, what do they draw out of you.

We are then led to think about shapes, how does the shape of the character change your thoughts about them.   Often the words “Imagine if….”

What makes your character(s) interesting?   How would you draw them to show those interests?

I won’t say this book is huge and very in-depth, but it does excite the curiousity.   What if Nemo wasn’t orange and white, would it have affected how we thought of him?   What if he’d been a moray eel instead?   Or if Brave’s Merida had long blond tresses rather than a wild mass of long red-haired curls?

Colour and shape influence what we think and feel about characters (and perhaps about the people around us… like the book we are listening to right now where the main character likes to dress in greys and browns so she won’t be noticed).   Could such a character be drawn and how would you draw such a person?

It’s a simple and yet intriguing concept don’t you think?

This book comes with a ton of pages to write and colour on.  To Design your set and to think through changes you would make to movies they have put together.     You see this book is the result of work done by Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum and Pixar Animation Studios when they worked to put together an exhibit.    The exhibit was all about Pixar’s design process.   Research, Iteration and collaboration.   A Story need to have appeal and believability. 

Research – when you look to the world to help inspire your own work.
Iteration – playing with colours and shapes to create your own worlds and characters
Collaboration – working with other people to help tell a story.

The goal of the book: to help people tell their own stories.

To that end, they use their own characters, such as Eve from Wall-E

We are asked to imagine that she has met an alien intruder, what does he look like, his shape and colour?   Does the mean friend or foe?

Emotions can be different colours, like red for anger, green for digust.

What colours could other emotions be?   Like Joy  or Sadness or excitement?

So grab up this book, this inventive activity book that draws you into the world of Pixar and discovery, talk and think about what colours and shapes evoke in your and others.  Work together, create your own stories and worlds.

Designing with Pixar: 45 Activities to create your own characters, worlds and stories.

Michael Bierut
by (artist) ‘Cooper Hewitt
foreword by John Lasseter 
Text by Emily Haynes
Size is 8 x 10 inches.
 80 pages.
Geared for ages 6-9 (but I see the age spread as higher)
Affiliate links provided for ease in finding this book for yourself.   Thanks for your support.
Amazon.ca: Designing with Pixar: 45 Activities to Create Your Own Characters, Worlds, and Stories
Amazon.com: Designing with Pixar: 45 Activities to Create Your Own Characters, Worlds, and Stories

Art Series: Draw, Paint, Print like the Great Artists

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Don’t you love when you find a book that works great for a class you want to teach?   When I first saw this book “Draw  Paint Print like the Great Artists” by Marion Denchars I thought THIS book will be awesome to use in an art classes with a group of children.

And you know what… IT WAS!   🙂

I have to tell you how much fun we had with this 224 page book.   18
different artists that we could discuss it was hard to break it down to
just 6 classes.

One of the artists we learned about was Sonia Delaunay, was a Ukrainian-French artist who work explodes with colourful shapes in unexpected rhythms and patterns.   She loves to do abstract art.    Her work was always infused with abstract, geometric, and brightly coloured patterns.

Check out some of the work the children did.

I just love how the children took the ideas they learned and let them play out in their own ways.  Circles, layers, rectangles, and more.  I was particularly impressed with this one.

The young person who made this is a very shy quiet lad.   He needed a certain amount of prompting and quiet encouragement to attempt his hand.   Circles didn’t appeal to this lad, and he seemed rather uncertain so I read out the description of Ms. Delaunay s work about how it showed geometric shapes.  That peeked his interest so I said.. you know geometic shapes like circles and triangles, and rectangles and squares…and he was off to the races.  🙂   It was SO delightful to see this young fellow grab hold and figure out how to make it all work.     He was bravely different and I love it.  THIS is what I love about teaching art classes, and books like this that inspire and give ideas… I love them.

This is such a great book to use.

If you just want to use it within your family that would be very doable, or if you want to gift a child, this book is meant to used and worked with.

Pages where you can make a self portrait, do aboriginal drawing, learn to use space and so much more.

 
 

 

 

The set up is fairly simple.
Learn about the artist.  See examples of their style.   Learn how to copy that style.  Pages are given if using with an individual student to use, or you can just take the information and talk to a class of children and teach it.  This is a marvellous resource that I plan to use again with another class. 

I will continue to use it with my son in his schooling as well.. but art with a class is SO MUCH FUN.   Ideas that are spawned off each other… it’s amazing to see the encouragement given, the delight in a child’s eyes when they learn something new and accomplish it and the variety AND sense of pride that doing your own thing, while meeting the challenge of an artists gives.

It’s why I like teaching art to children… in my own way.  🙂 

Now I would be remiss if I failed to tell you where I got this great book, it comes my way courtesy of Raincoast Books.  224 pages, 18 artists, great for children 8-12 (or older), published by Laurence King and is about 8 x 11 inches.  Printed on heavier paper to withstand the rigors of being used by an artist.

Children’s Bible Studies

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Children’s Bible studies

325 bible studies of the entire Bible free to download and use for nonprofit use. Each study features quizzes, puzzles, and a picture to color. Free Adobe Acrobat is required to view.

Keys for Kids

Unlocking God’s Word for young faith
You can learn more about God’s love every day! Read a fun story and hide God’s Word in your heart with the Key Verseof the day. Check out today’s Key, or look for your favorite story in the archives!

Uncle Noah’s Children’s bible study I thought this site interesting. It Even has studies for little children…non-readers. Most sites don’t do that.

I’ve been familiar with Calvary Chapel’s stuff for years now. I’ve often used it as inspiration when doing Children’s bulletin’s.

This Geocities site looks promising. I’ll have to check it out more sometime.