Posted on by TracyC

Drawing Fun

Drawing Fun by Carolyn Davis and Charlene Brown, 1988.

This book is part of the Beginners Art Series, and it teaches children basic drawing skills. The book is designed for readers to try out drawing techniques on their own as they read along and starts with a page that explains the materials they will need.

Because this is a beginning guide, the book begins by explaining that all objects and, therefore, all drawings, are made up of basic shapes. One of the keys to learning how to draw is studying the basic shapes and how they can be combined to create more complex shapes and drawings.

When beginning to draw, the reader should begin by sketching out the general shapes that make up what they’re drawing and then fill in the details.

Many of the drawing activities in the book focus on tracing shapes, drawings, and photos to learn how they are formed and practice drawing skills.

As the book continues, the techniques become more advanced and the drawings become more detailed. It gradually teaches readers how to use shadows and shading to make their drawings appear more realistic and three-dimensional. The subject matter of the drawing exercises ranges from basic apples to more interesting subjects, like teddy bears and people.

The book also explains how to use perspective in drawing to further add a three-dimensional quality.

I like this book because I think it’s a good introduction to a fun, artistic hobby, giving readers good beginning techniques.

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive.

Posted on by TracyC

Patty Paints a Picture

Patty Paints a Picture by Laura Bannon, 1946.

Patty wants to paint a picture of her kitten, Happy, to hang in her room. However, she has trouble creating a painting that truly satisfies her. Her first attempt doesn’t really look like her kitten. Patty is taking an art class at a local museum, and her mother suggests that she take her picture of Happy to her teacher and ask her how to make it better. Through Patty’s efforts to paint a realistic picture of her kitten, she comes to learn more about art.

Patty’s teacher suggests that Patty actually bring her kitten to class so that everyone can observe and paint him. When Patty takes her kitten to her art class, the whole class looks at Happy, pointing out parts of the the cat, like his whiskers and his little padded feet with retractable claws. Every part of Happy, including the shape of his eyes and his powerful back legs that are good for jumping, is suited to making him a good hunter because cats often hunt for their food. Studying the form of the cat helps the children understand how to draw him.

The fun part of the book is when Patty studies all of the different ways her friends in class draw the kitten, seeing how everyone looks at the kitten differently and uses different art styles, some drawn better than others because all the artists are children. The children’s pictures in the book look like pictures that would be painted by real children.

The children in the art class paint the cat in different ways and different imagined settings, indoors and outdoors, depending on their interests and how they see the cat and his personality. The boy who drew Happy in a cartoon style, with a bird in his stomach and a caption, wants to be a cartoonist, which is why his style was a good choice for his painting. Patty, on the other hand, wants her painting to be realistic for the way she sees her kitten.

The book explains how Patty learns new art techniques to make her painting look more realistic. She studies the lines that people use in their paintings and compares them to her cat, seeing that curved lines for the cat’s body make him look more realistic. Patty’s teacher points out that one of the mistakes that she’s made in her first efforts is giving Happy a body more the size of an adult cat than a kitten. A kitten’s body looks smaller when compared to the size of the head. To make her picture more realistic, Patty has to learn to draw her kitten’s body parts and features in the right proportions. Patty also notices that the edges of another girl’s cat painting look fuzzy because she’s painting in watercolor and the edges of her painting are wet and running. Patty likes the fuzziness of that painting, so she decides to use that technique on purpose to make more realistic, fuzzy fur. Her teacher shows her how to use that technique with more control by putting a wet blotter under her paper. I like how the book describes Patty’s observations of both her kitten and other people’s pictures and how she uses them to improve her own painting.

At one point in the story, Happy disappears from the art class, and Patty is afraid that she’s lost her kitten forever. Fortunately, she finds Happy hiding in the art room, taking a nap, and he is fine.

In the end, Patty produces a painting that satisfies her because it really looks like her kitten, the way she sees him.

This is one of those vintage children’s books that I would like to see in print again! It’s a nice story, and I really liked the way the book examines the different ways that people look at art and the styles they use. There’s no wrong way to paint something, but the book explains how learning different techniques can help artists to express themselves and their vision the way they want. Patty knows when she’s doing well at her painting when the picture she paints looks more like the vision she has of her kitten.

You can read this book online in your browser through the HathiTrust Digital Library.

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Bird Wise

Bird Wise by Pamela M. Hickman, illustrations by Judie Shore, 1988.

This is a beginning guide to birds and bird watching for kids. I thought that the guide was very helpful with nice, detailed illustrations. The book explains the appearance, biology, and lives of birds and offers activities to help readers understand and interact with birds.

The first section in the book is about the appearance and body parts of birds. It explains how different birds have differently-shaped beaks and feet and different types of feathers and how the differences help each type of bird eat the foods they like and live in the places where they live. One of the activities for this section is about how to start a feather collection. The book also explains that different birds have different styles of flying.

The section about how birds live explain about different types of bird nests and how they migrate and raise their young. The book explains different methods for making bird feeders and bird houses.

The book profiles certain specific types of birds, including owls (there is an activity about dissecting owl pellets, which I had to do when I was in elementary school), gulls, hummingbirds, and woodpeckers.

In the section about bird watching, the book offers tips for what to look for to identify a bird’s type. It also explains how to make bird blinds to avoid being seen and how to recognize types of bird songs.

The book also contains other helpful information, like how to care for injured birds and how to plant a garden that will attract birds. It also includes a board game that emphasizes some of the lessons about birds in the book.

Overall, I was pleased with the range of information in the book. It was interesting and well-presented.

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive.