I just got Uneversaurus
I just got Uneversaurus
Well, while I'm at it, here are a few favorite things that always make me smile in the FLAX catalog/store. I have long loved the rainbow watch. I wish it was an adult size!
I recently reviewed a number of books on "printmaking techniques" in preparation for a monoprinting project I was planning to do with a group of 20 kindergarteners. I've monoprinted before, but I wondered if there were other things I could be doing and adding to my own technique that would work with kids and in the classroom setting. I ended up getting really excited about printmaking - especially by the idea of cutting my own lino blocks or even cutting erasers to make custom stamps. The following titles are ones I found most useful, most inspiring, and most comprehensive for the average (maybe at-home) artist.
by Gwen Diehn
by Melvyn Petterson and Colin Gale
by Judy Martin
- great information/resource and the examples of sample artwork with hand lettering are quite wonderful and beautiful.
(by Margaret Hodges [Author] and Trina Schart Hyman [Illustrator]) - second from this team that we've read. We just discovered this one. It's wonderful for those with knightly interests - not aimed at the youngest crowd... longer story. But excellent retelling and illustration.
(by the same duo noted above) - when we first got this one last year, we had to read it repeatedly, many times, to satisfy the initial enthusiasm for it. Beautiful artwork; great medieval story.
- If, like us, your child has exhausted the Magic Treehouse series, almost finished the A to Z Mysteries, and is looking for something new, give Nate the Great a try. The stories are a bit shorter than the other two series - but perfect for early reading-on-my-own time - or great for a quick half hour sit with them in your lap and share a mystery moments. Second half of the book (in some versions) has activities prompted by the story (I assumed all versions had this - but the library ones don't - they are nice, hardback, and with full-color illustration - so, versions vary!).
.
This is simply a beautiful and awe-inspiring book - and a liberating one, too. Reading Creative License was like standing aboard a ship at night and seeing the lights exploding all around me… shards of color and life and possibility falling everywhere... but not falling somewhere else. Falling right there in front of me where I could reach out and grab them. That's what Danny offers... a blueprint... a map... a way for everyone to start right now… wherever you are… whatever's going on in your life... whatever materials you may have...
And, you start with a few common objects… including a "mug." Danny helps you slow down with drawings where you look so carefully at an object as you draw it… tracing it's lines and edges with your eyes and hand… as you commit its nooks and crannies and pits to the page … that you come to "know" it differently. Draw a bagel. Draw your medicine cabinet. Danny says "draw collections," "Draw series," "draw what is sitting around you." He says, "Make lists." He says look at each page in your sketchbook as a composition. He offers reasons "why" you should journal. He tells you what creativity will do for you. He shows you how to find time in your busy day to draw and journal...
And through it all, all the pep talks and logic and reasoning are tons of Danny's drawings… and they are simply fabulous. From a sketch of the books by his bed to a watercolor of his watercolor box to a sketch of a guitar or his son's first drum kit to a watercolor of a woman on a bench in the park, Danny's drawings and paintings - his journal entries - are alive and fresh and real. They are a wonderful record of life... a record that hinges upon careful observation and drawings of everyday things that surround us and that make up our moments, our experiences, and our days… a record anchored with personal reflection and annotation. And creating this kind of record is what Danny is helping, encouraging, and pushing readers to do. This is, hands-down, one of the most inspiring books I've ever read - and it's inspiring both in terms of narrative and example. It's the perfect package.
Calling all creative types! Regardless of what your medium is... regardless of how much time you currently have to a lot to your art... Regardless of how talented you think you are... Twyla Tharp's The Creative Habit is a book you have to read.
Tharp takes as her premise the fact that despite the contributions of some DNA, creativity boils down to hard work… and that with the right approach, the right habits, the right routines, the right strategies, and the right attitude... anyone can be successful and creative... The book begins with a fascinating overview of Mozart and then launches into a wonderful section on routine and the importance of routine. But she doesn't stop there. Tharp tackles all kinds of obstacles (real and perceived) that stand in the way of our creativity. She talks about the powers of imitation, she talks about strategies for storing records, she talks about scratching for ideas, she talks about finding the "Spine" or central idea upon which any project hinges...
The narrative of the book is amazing, both in terms of the personal details you get about Tharp's life and processes, and in terms of the numerous anecdotes and examples from the lives and histories of other creative people which have been masterfully woven throughout the book. There's something wonderful and unbelievably, almost surreally, compelling about Tharp's narrative voice... there's something about the level of commitment to her craft and to her vision that seeps through every nook and cranny and around every red and grey word and every dark grey exercise block that is simply riveting.
Supporting the narrative of each chapter are sets of exercises that Tharp outlines as a way to kickstart the process if you're stuck... as a way to move beyond doubt and fear and whatever is standing in your way... as a way of finding ideas... as ways of digging deeper into the process...
(The Creative Habit was reviewed as part of The Creative Mom Podcast, Episode 13)
]]>