Add some of these selections to your child's bookshelf and get them started on a lifetime of artistic creativity.
advertisementby Dan Green
A fun drawing guide for kids (and adults) with step-by-step instructions for drawing simple outlines of 101 different animals--everything from armadillos to zebras! With two animals featured on each page, this book will help you create cute drawings and fun doodles and will provide hours of fun for all.
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This guide shows preschoolers how to draw realistic pictures of 30 different flowers using simple shapes and lines. The clear step-by-step instructions show aspiring artists (or kids who just like to draw) easy ways to draw a sunflower, daisy, rose, tulip, and many more flowers!
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Kings, queens, and ballerinas--oh my! With a wide variety of examples, this step-by-step guide has picture instructions to show your young artist exactly how to draw the person of their choosing. The vivid crayon and marker illustrations are enticing to young children and act as a simple guide for your budding artist.
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From pigs to school buses, this guide has it all. While helping kids learn shapes and fine-motor skills, it also teaches them to draw easy pictures on their own and encourages them to follow directions. Each page provides step-by-step instructions for how to draw simple pictures, and gives kids a space on the page to try it out themselves.
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The first page features all the shapes and lines needed to create trains, trucks, and trolley cars. With Emberley's focus on keeping it simple, anyone can be an artist--including your pint-sized painters--with this guide. Emberley's directions are straightforward: "The bottom row tells what to draw. The top row tells where to put it." Your young artist will be drawing transportation and inspiration in no time!
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With clear and encouraging directions on working with watercolors, this guide book makes the beginners first stroke fun and exciting from the start. A great book for kids who want to try a new medium or for those painting for the very first time,
First Steps uses demos and humor to help any artist paint with watercolors.
Get the book here advertisementAMAZING ARTISTS
advertisementby Joan Holub & Brad Bucks
This colorful book explores the ups and downs of van Gogh's life and art. Let your tour guide "Brad" explain things through funny cartoons alongside reproductions of van Gogh's classic paintings like "Starry Night." The humor within the writing and illustrations makes this book accessible, fun, and informative--and can help kids relate to this amazing artist's life.
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Throughout this book there are reproductions of Picasso's greatest works alongside narrator Simon's own masterpieces, and little blurbs of information about Picasso's life and art. The book gives children a new way of looking at art (and artists!) by presenting the facts of Picasso's life and work in the form of a child's book report. This book is not only great for kids but also for adults trying to understand Picasso's work through the eyes of a child.
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Mary Cassatt's life and artwork are portrayed through the eyes of Claire, a young girl doing a school project on the Impressionist artist. The illustrations are a combination of Cassatt's work, Claire's cartoon drawings, and a few family photos. Details about Cassatt's family life and relationship with Edgar Degas are portrayed as well.
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On her grandmother's birthday, Katie accompanies her to a museum. While there Katie closes her eyes in front of a painting, then opens them to find that she is a guest at Claude Monet's famous painting "The Luncheon." She travels through three more works of art, all the while learning about the styles and subjects of Impressionist paintings.
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With rhyming text and a backdrop of Georges Seurat's famous works of art, this book tells the story of the pointillist artist's life and work.
Sunday with Seurat guides kids through a day that begins at the park, moves to the beach, and ends at the circus, all the while engaging them in Seurat's stunning and fantastical artwork.
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A true tale about Picasso and his famous model, Sylvette, this story takes place in the southern French town of Vallauris. When Picasso moves into a nearby house in the summer of 1954, he is immediately taken with young Sylvette's classic looks and lovely ponytail. After much convincing, the shy girl posed for the first of more than 40 works of Picasso's art. The two became good friends, and Picasso's portraits of Sylvette became world famous.
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When troubled painter Vincent van Gogh moves to a village in the French countryside, young Camille and his family are the only townspeople to befriend him. Based on a true encounter, this sad tale tells the story of van Gogh's inspiration for "Vase with 14 Sunflowers," and many other of his works.
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Leonardo da Vinci was a man of many talents. One of his biggest passions, though, was aviation. As he says to young Zoro in the story, one day "people will sail through the clouds and look down at the world below." When Zoro and mischievous Salai steal Leonardo's flying machine and take it for a spin, they quickly find themselves in trouble. This proves to be helpful in Leonardo's plans to improve his flying machine, and thankfully no one is hurt.
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With much hard work and dedication, young Marie is accepted into the ballet school of her dreams. Everything is going according to plan until her father becomes ill and the family no longer has enough money to keep Marie in ballet class. But then, famous painter Edgar Degas offers to pay her if she will pose for him, but she must promise "to work very hard and not chatter." Of this partnership came "The Little Dancer," the only sculpture of Degas' to be exhibited during his lifetime.
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