Resources: great books on ink and color projects

Books on ink and color projects:

1. Brookes, Mona – Drawing with Children: A Creative Method for Adult Beginners, Too – Putnam Books (New York) 1996. This is the classic book for helping children learn to drawn and sketch. Definitely useful for adults to follow too.
2. Brookes, Mona – Drawing with Older Children and Teens: A Creative Method for Adult Beginners, Too – Putnam Books (New York) 1991. Although written for an older crowd than Brookes’ first book, this adds to the information so both are very useful for learning to draw (and having fun at the same time).
3. Diehn, Gwen – Books for Kids to Make: Making Books that Fly, Fold, Wrap, Hide, Pop Up, Twist & Turn – Lark Books (New York) 2006. Diehn is the doyenne of making books and journals; this one is a great one to use with kids because the instructions are so clear and the projects are so unique.
4. Fletcher, Ralph – How to Write Your Life Story – Harper Collins (New York) 2007. This little paperback is packed with great ideas and activities to help children (and adults) write their autobiographies. He also has written Poetry Matters: Writing a Poem from the Inside Out, A Writer’s Notebook: Unlocking the Writer Within You and How Writers Work: Finding a Process that Works for You as well as other books on writing – all aimed at children and nurturing their writing. Fletcher really knows how to get kids trying out this form of creativity.
5. Kaye, Peggy – Games for Writing: Playful Ways to Help Your Child Learn to Write – A book of games for children from kindergarten to third grade – Noonday Press (New York). 1995. This book has great games to spark creativity in younger children and help them learn to love to play with words and writing. I love Kaye’s books, but this one is the best of all.
6. Muller, Brunhild – Painting with Children – Floris Books (Edinburgh, Scotland) 2001. This is the classic, Waldorf-style book on using watercolors and teaching children how to paint with lots of freedom and creativity. This really expands the creative aspects of painting.
7. Pensiero, Janet – Totally Cool Journals, Notebooks and Diaries – Sterling Publishing (New York). 2003. This well-illustrated book has great ideas for creating your own notebooks or journals. Geared to kids, the ideas are fun and relatively easy for the 8-12 year old crowd to do on their own. My daughter loves this book.
8. Phaidon Press Editors – The Art Book – Phaidon Press (New York) 2005. This is the book that spawned the two by Amanda Renshaw and is geared to adults, but children will also find it interesting as it reproduces 500 pieces of art in as much detail as possible – a great survey of art from a solely visual perspective.
9. Renshaw, Amanda (et alia) – The Art Book for Children and The Art Book for Children Book 2 – Phaidon Press (New York). 2005. These books are great for showing beautiful works of art, breaking them down and then asking questions to draw out reactions for children. There are also suggested activities for kids to try to learn more about techniques, composition and colors.
10. Sayre, Henry – Cave Paintings to Picasso: The Inside Scoop on 50 Art Masterpieces – Chronicle Books (San Francisco, CA). 2004. This is a great “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery” book in that the chosen artworks are given lots of closeups so the kids can really see the work. Lots of great information complements the pictures – this is a great book for artist study and imitation of technique.