January 31st is Inspire Your Heart With Art Day, while the 30th of January is Draw a Dinosaur Day. So today, with that in mind, here are 5 children’s books to inspire your heart with art. While the audience is young, these books are for everyone, and I know I certainly learned a lot from them. I have enjoyed drawing ever since, well, forever, and while I don’t do it consistently enough, whenever I work on a new drawing, I am always happy!
Drawing is inspiring, uplifting, and fulfilling indeed. It does not matter if you just draw a stick figure or an awesome ‘wow’ artwork, it always leaves the artist feeling better for having done it! And I am always on the lookout for resources to inspire and teach me more. Here are a few such resources/books that will appeal to all ages regardless of their target audiences.
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5 Books to Inspire Your Heart With Art
Disclaimer: I got digital review copies of each of these books from Netgalley originally and these are my honest opinions of the books. Please note that the reviews themselves are based on a more recent reading of the books (either my personal copy – 3 of them, or borrowed from the local library)
Art Masterclass with Gustav Klimt
Art Masterclass with Gustav Klimt by Lucy Brownridge (Author), Hanna Konola (Illustrator) (5 – 7 years, and up)
Learn to make art like the masters with art masterclass! In each book, undertake 12 lessons including drawing, coloring, and sketching activities that are designed to show you how the artist worked. Like Klimt, you’ll use collage to make portraits, create patterns to illustrate your art, and learn how to show the expressions of people in your pictures with a pencil. Then you can use everything you’ve learnt to create your masterpiece on the pull-out poster at the back using the sticker sheet
My Quick Thoughts: This is a very cool series of master artists, and each one, like the description says, takes us through the artist’s life through their work. We learn more about the artist and how/why/what of some of their specific artwork. As we go through the pages learning, we are also creating along with the artist! While I had seen Klimt’s art before, I really had not known much before this book.
The other book I have loved in this series earlier is Art Masterclass with Claude Monet.
Draw-A-Saurus
Draw-A-Saurus: Everything You Need to Know to Draw Your Favorite Dinosaurs by James Silvani (6 – 12 years, and up)
This in-depth yet accessible dinosaur drawing guide combines humor, creativity, and the latest dino research to show artists young and old how to breathe life into drawings of their prehistoric favorites.
My Quick Thoughts: What is not to love about this one?!! Well, I love everything in this book. From the detailed instructions, the dino-facts and learning, to the touch of humor throughout, Draw-a-Saurus is sure to appeal to dino-fans everywhere.
The step-by-step instructions are easy to understand and facts as well as silly and cute observations included across the pages make it even more interesting and fun. Silvani not only shows the basic standard profiles we normally see in such books but also shows how we can add motion or appearance with simple updates, and also gives instructions and tips with examples for cartoonish, whimsical, or dino-with-a-twist appearances.
How to Draw Cool Stuff
How to Draw Cool Stuff: A Drawing Guide for Teachers and Students by Catherine Holmes (all ages)
How to Draw Cool Stuff is suitable for artists of any age benefiting everyone from teachers and students to self-learners and hobbyists. How to Draw Cool Stuff will help you realize your artistic potential and expose you to the pure joy of drawing!
My Quick Thoughts: This is an amazing resource with so much to offer for artists at all levels: from the beginner to the serious artist. While some of the things might prove to be challenging for young children, I also feel that this is a book we can grow with as an artist, and do more with each time we attempt the same drawing or move on to something more challenging or new for us in the book.
Holmes makes this so much more than just a step-by-step how-to-draw with additional information on learning art itself. A know-understand-do section alongside each art project helps students know the basics and understand the concepts used in that before they apply the skills and do the artwork themselves. In addition, a vocabulary guide is provided for projects that is super helpful too.
A Kid’s Guide to Drawing Cartoon Animals
A Kid’s Guide to Drawing Cartoon Animals by Vicki Whiting (Author), Jeff Schinkel (Illustrator) (5 – 10 years, and up)
With step-by-step, trace-and-draw instructions and plenty of room to practice, kids will be able to draw animals all by themselves in no time
My Quick Thoughts: Perfect for young ones learning to draw! This art book features 28 different animals, and each animal has a page of step-by-step instructions followed by a practice page to try for themselves. I love how darkened lines show the addition/current step for the drawing as we go through the steps to the cute end result! The additional basic art-related information at the start of the book and fun animal jokes at the end are sure to appeal to parents and children alike.
Math Art and Drawing Games for Kids
Math Art and Drawing Games for Kids: 40+ Fun Art Projects to Build Amazing Math Skills by Karyn Tripp (7 – 12 years, and up)
In Math Art and Drawing Games for Kids, you’ll find an amazing collection of more than 40 hands-on art activities that make learning about math fun!
My Quick Thoughts: Art + creativity + math + more learning!! Of course, I needed this book. It is impressive, to say the least. I am really not sure where to start or how to go ahead reviewing this book. With art projects split across cool and creative categories like Math With Fine Artists, Art With Graphs and Grids/Numbers and Equations, Edible Math Art, and more, this book offers a way to learn math concepts, learn about artists I had not known about before, and about food science/art, as well as about our world itself!
I might just a whole different post to explore this book but it is sure to be a wonderful resource for parents, teachers homeschoolers, and young (and old) learners of everything. A few of my favorites include Frank Lloyd Wright’s Geometric Stained Glass Art project, dot grid art, mandala drawings, kirigami paper cutting, and the cultural art projects.
Bonus: Tripp also a another book in this series which I just found out about and am having a look at now. From what I have seen so far, it is yet another amazing resource. It is Science Art and Drawing Games for Kids.
Related Reads and More to Inspire Your Heart With Art
To give you an idea of art from the book, here are a few I attempted (please note that I did these with a pen, and each of them within a minute or so)…
And Now, the End of This Post
Dear reader, which of these books appeals most? What would you get for yourself or gift to the (budding) artist you know? (Yes, each of these books make great gifts in fact, and in time for Valentine’s Day too!)…What do you do to inspire your heart with art? Do let me know.
This goes towards It’s Monday, What Are You Reading? over at TeachMentorTexts and the Ultimate Blog Challenge
I’m loving the idea of drawing for inspire your heart with art day. I had just heard about this day from another fellow blogger. I love art but can’t draw to save my life. This year I’m using a bullet journal and for the first time am attempting doodling.
Thank for the book suggestions. I will check them out for my granddaughter.
Vidya, what an awesome post! I quickly emailed the link to a young relative who has kids age 5 and 8. Her daughter likes to draw, but the 5-year-old son, well, we’ll find out. Thanks for all the resources!
Art is very inspiring. I for one love to write poetry.
My son loved dinosaurs and loved drawing them. What a wonderful selection of books.
How to Draw Cool Stuff by Holmes would be my pick as I think the book covers all , going by your description as well as it offers abstract and creative art frames
Great list! Genuine interest in art is very beneficial for kids. It might be a life path, a big hobby or simply an intterest to spark a conversation between people. A good book might definitely help to build it.