art instruction books for "kids"

[DaveyJJ]

Hi all,

My nine year old is loving to draw and showing some passable skill for his age. I want to continue to encourage him myself, but am also looking for a decent book that he can work through to hlep him advance his skills beyond what he does now. He loves to read and self-learn.

That said, I am looking for something more advanced than some of the kid art activity books you can normally find (i.e., "if you can draw an "H" and a circle and some triangles, you can draw a lion!") and the more advanced stuff you might give a late teen.

He's smart for his age so I'd rather err on the older side if need be. But something that isn't going to put him off and looks too complex.

So I appeal to folks here ... what book(s) would you recommend?

[DaveyJJ]

If this wasn't posted in the right spot, can an administrator move it, please?

Also, anyone have any thoughts? 61 views and no one has any ideas?

[MightyApplejacks]

"How to Draw Everything" by Barrington Barber?

It starts very basically, on how to hold the pencil without tensing too much, on drawing with precision, straight lines, circles (learning to reaaally concentrate attention on the pencil, and where it goes) as a beginning exercise..

..then moves on to drawing objects in the house, ellipses, using negative space to help 'space things out' properly, learning shadows on simple forms and using light sources, and to draw animals in one chapter I believe (learning how to observe the 'shapes' in all things, which he'll be able to pick up earlier on). All very basic but helpful stuff on drawing technique! Hope it's of use- I nabbed it cheap from The Works (a book/stationary shop in my country), you might be able to get it cheap on the Internet? I don't know..

There's loooooads more of course that eventually goes into figure drawing, but this is how it starts. It has a handful of 'pictoral guides' that show how things are being done (like framing a landscape with forefingers and thumbs, or using card with a rectangle hole cut out, and even goes into how to build up a drawing of a complex object), which is a good balance for when things get a bit wordy. I don't think the words are hard from what I can see, though naturally there'll be some terms to pick up along the way.

Hope this helps!

[Elwell]

moved

[Arshes Nei]

How about Loomis, Fun with a Pencil. While they're only online, why not print one out for him?

[QueenGwenevere]

Hmm, well, for what it's worth, I got some decent mileage out of "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" when I was about that age...

I remember I also had fun with "Cartooning the Head and Figure" by Jack Hamm, which has a bunch of practical pointers while also being pretty entertaining and accessible.

[Parka81]

I would recommend these two books below. The drawing projects are short and fun.

Keys to Drawing


Keys to Drawing with Imagination

[Serpian]

I think Drawing Lessons From the Great Masters by Robert Beverly Hale is an excellent book for explaining what really makes drawings work. It might be a bit difficult, but with a little help from an adult if the child doesn't understand something, I think this might be a good, advanced, book. I know I've read it several times and still learn something new from it.

[DaveyJJ]

Thanks for all the suggestions! I'd completely forgotten about Jack Hamm. Barber's How to Draw Everything is tough to get ahold of, but I'm finding the others easy and have got a couple enroute for the holidays. Thanks, all.

[armando]

It depends on what he's drawing. If he's into stuff like comics and cartoons the way I would encourage him would be to get him a really cool fountain pen, like a rotring artpen or something like that, and some black markers. I'd also get a big box of replacement ink cartridges and large sketchbooks like 11x14, I believe looking at that ammo would fire him up to draw. Another thing I would do is if he copies panels from comics, I'd scan them then blow them up to full page size, it's good for kids to draw big.
I'm skeptical about the use of reading anything on art at that age, all the books I've seen suck in one way or another, it's better not to be limited by over-simplified concepts at too early an age.

[MidgardSerpent]

I think Drawing Lessons From the Great Masters by Robert Beverly Hale is an excellent book for explaining what really makes drawings work. It might be a bit difficult, but with a little help from an adult if the child doesn't understand something, I think this might be a good, advanced, book. I know I've read it several times and still learn something new from it.

I think it's best to tackle that book when you've already have some drawing experience and already studied your basic anatomy, which a lot of teenagers/adults haven't even done yet, so imo it's pretty much pointless to use this for even a fairly advanced 9 year old, and whether he has guidance or not.

Great book though.

[Raffix]

can we see his drawings?

[Kamber Parrk]

Rudy De Reyna's How To Draw What You See isn't a terribly hard book to read-- and it's a good one!

[armando]

I just remembered this book: http://books.google.com/books?id=7aI...page&q&f=false This book was specifically made for teaching youngsters, I believe an adult should help the youngster through it, and is one of the few that will not mislead with half informed theories.

[Mr.Thorne]

Any drawing book can work in theory though i personaly suggest QueenGwenevere choice as well as maybe getting books like "The art of basic drawing" and such that are easy to get into and practice with help given.

Man i wish i started when i was 9 years old.