Drawing Workshop for Kids: Process Art Experiences for Building Creativity and Confidence

by Samara Caughey

Help kids build confidence and find their own creative voice through this collection of 25+ invitations for drawing.

In Drawing Workshop for Kids, art educator Samara Caughey, founder of the highly praised family-centered art studio Purple Twig, shares drawing activities that support the development of creative, confident children ages 7 and up.
 
All kids need to begin engaging in the pleasure of these simple yet inspiring drawing projects are a pencil and paper. Along the way, new materials are introduced, giving kids the opportunity to experiment with new techniques.
  
Each of the three main chapters—drawing from life, drawing from images, and inventive drawing—focuses on techniques to explore, such as observation, mark making, shadow, line, composition, detail, contour, and perspective.
 
Drawing Workshop for Kids strives to inspire children to investigate drawing and develop their own approach to art, building creativity and confidence.

• ISBN13: 9781631599439
• Publish Date: 20 April 2021 (first published 23 February 2021)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Quarry Books
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 144
• Language: English

Reviews

[annieb123]

Originally posted on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Drawing Workshop for Kids is a facilitator's guide with fun creative projects aimed at primary to middle grade kids. Due out 30th March 2021 from Quarto on their Quarry imprint, it's 144 pages and will be available in paperback and ebook formats.

There are so many benefits to art instruction for everyone, but especially for kids: fine motor control, spatial reasoning, mastery and self confidence, decision making, cultural awareness, and so many more. This manual is developed and curated by the owner/facilitator at The Purple Twig, an art studio and maker's space in Los Angeles which caters to kids and families. I liked the layout of this book as well as the author's encouraging voice. The introduction contains a good overview over benefits to be had from artistic expression alongside a good cross section of suggested tools and supplies.

She moves quickly to specific warm-up drawing exercises such as detail oriented drawings (her example was for drawing eyes from reference photos), drawing oversized large drawings, negative space, drawing rocks/texture, cross hatching and other shading elements, and lots more. Each of the tutorials contains tools and supplies listed along with step-by-step process instruction and many clear color photos.

The second section contains more comprehensive and "finished" projects written to the same format as the warm-up exercises. Each of the tutorials throughout the book also includes an overview of the skills it is meant to help train (detail, perspective, varying marks, using the whole page, volume, collage).

The materials and supplies used in the book will be readily available both at crafts/arts stores as well as online. The author has included a resources and links list as well as a short index.

Five stars. This would be a superlative choice for public or school library acquisition, gifting to a young artist (perhaps bundled with some simple art supplies), as well as for maker's groups, library activity groups, scouting and similar outlets.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.