Pictures, pictures wonderful pictures. You open up a picture book or walk into an art gallery or look out the window at the world around you and everywherre there are sights to see and enjoy. Whether you are walking in a forest, splashing in a lake, looking at the design of a house, eyeing a new bike or working on some art of your own, there are things to stop and see and appreciate.
There are also things going on behind the scenes that deliver the pretty or exciting picture to us. There are tools you can use to make something amazing of your own. You might want to color a picture with crayons or paint a watercolor picture or make a collage or squish up some fabulous clay.
Whatever you see, whatever you make for your own it can be useful to understand some of the nuts and bolts of what your brain is seeing. What makes the picture pretty? What makes the painting exciting? Why do we like it? How does an artist do that amazing thing?
Here is a guide to art for beginners. Here are the parts of art explained for our youngest artists. Using authentic artwork from young artists, the concepts of line, shape, texture, space, color and feelings are revealed. Young artists can see the differences between curvy lines and straight lines and between close spaces and faraway spaces. How would your picture look if you drew a zigzag line instead or a narrow line?
Blank pages follow each concept and children are invited to draw their own pictures in the book... their own pictures in a real book. How cool is that?
Early elementary teachers may find this a great tool to use to show children the differences in the way pictures are made. Perhaps the class could make a book of its own using all the art parts they have befriended.
Suggestions for parents interested in taking their children deeper into the wonder of the art around them are included.
978-0997200706 26 pages Ages 4-8
Recommended by: Barb Langridge, abookandahug.com
