Member Reviews
This was a really great art book with relly cool ideas I cant wait to try. I feel that the activities are easy enough for even "non artistic" people to enjoy. I can't say much more as the nature of this book there is no plot and character to comment on, but I highly reccoemnd this book. As someone who is incredibly picky on art books Im willing to buy I would buy this one.
A gorgeous book packed with ideas! Great for an art or science classroom that has access to many different supplies. Would make a great gift for a teacher!
Love the photographs! Love the ideas too, although some of them may be a little hard for beginners, most of them are gorgeous and interesting enough for me to try them out. It's been a while since the last time I drew, but flipping over the gorgeous pages of this book make me gave me motivation to try to pick up painting techniques again.
This was useful for references and step by step pictures, but lacked a lot of explanations. The art was cute and simple though
Nature Art Workshop: Tips, Techniques, and Step-by-Step Projects for Creating Nature-Inspired Art by Katie Brooks, Sarah Lorraine Edwards, Allison Hetzell, and Mikko Sumulong is a visual resource for any artist or crafter desiring to combine their art with their love of the nature. Each page inspires artists to look at the world around them in a new light while they learn to create their own nature-inspired art. Four artists guide readers through finding and preparing traditional and natural elements to use in creating fun and unique nature-inspired projects with simple step-by-step instructions. Projects include a pressed-flower ceramic dish, fresh floral crown, and flower-adorned candles, in addition to painted feathers, stones, shells, leaves, and more. A fun, refreshing approach to mixed-media art, Nature Art Workshop proves that you can turn anything into a stunning work of art with the right materials and a bit of imagination.
Nature Art Workshop: Tips, Techniques, and Step-by-Step Projects for Creating Nature-Inspired Art is divided into sections based on the natural supplies that artists and crafters might be interested in using. THe brief information about each artist was interesting to read. I liked that I could browse based on the items I have on hand, the things I want to learn, or just read through the entire book for the full experience. The instructions are clear and understandable, with detailed photographs to help readers follow the steps and achieve the results they are looking for. While not all the projects were of my taste, or what I would consider in my skill set yet, I felt like there was something for all readers that might choose to pick up this title. It has given me some ideas for holiday gift giving this winter, and ideas for new things I want to try. I have not tested any of the projects yet, but I have plans to give several a go as soon as I can.
Nature Art Workshop: Tips, Techniques, and Step-by-Step Projects for Creating Nature-Inspired Art is a great resource for artists and crafters from a variety of skill and interest levels.
This book is most recommended for those who are looking for their perfect hobby and want to explore different materials and techniques that include natural elements like flowers, stones, shells, wood,etc. The projects are simple and most of them can be done with kids. If you want to relax while doing something creative and benefit from some “art therapy”, this book is most appropriate. Some projects are as simple as creating mandala shapes with flower petals or forming shapes with stones (which btw would look fabulous in the garden).
For the well-seasoned crafter: these projects could be too simple for you and you might have tried some of them already (flower crowns, painted wood, pressed flowers) but because it has a wide selection of techniques, you are bound to find something new or at least inspiring. This might be more a source of inspiration for getting you out of an artistic block or as an starting point for creating your own projects. I read this book as an eARC.
Nature Art Workshop is a collaborative project tutorial book from Quarto publishing's Walter Foster imprint. Released 18th Sept 2018, it's 128 pages and available in paperback and ebook formats. The projects are eclectic and varied and include pyrography (woodburning), painting, mindfulness, crafting with found objects (leaves, shells, rocks), candles and more.
Unusually for me, there were a number of projects included which I really wanted to recreate as closely as I could to the pictured tutorials. For me, there's often a very fine line between oh wow! and no way! Each of these tutorials includes step by step materials lists, full color photographs and a picture of the finished project.
The book is a collaboration by 11 listed artists (most with links to their online portfolio sites) and each one provides tutorials for specific projects. There are 32 separate projects grouped into 4 main chapters: Flowers, Stones&Shells, Wood, and Other Natural Elements. There's also a final chapter on Nature-Inspired art which includes some shorter one-page tutorials including screen printing and painting (see the cover). The e-book version includes an interactive table of contents for convenience.
There have been a crop of really high quality art tutorial books from Walter Foster lately. This one is no exception. These would also make a really good supervised art module in a classroom setting for middle/high school students. Some of them could be modified for younger students as well.
Just a really well made, well photographed volume full of really appealing projects.
Five stars, I really enjoyed this one.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
Admittedly, I am unsure where to start. When I originally requested to read Nature Art Workshop I had an ulterior motive. My husband and I just sold our home to begin building our forever home. However, in between we would be living on a piece of property in a RV. With that thought in mind, I knew I would be surrounded by nature and I did not want to be cooped inside. This book truly came to the rescue. Broken down in easy to find sections, you can choose whether you want to craft with flowers, rocks, wood, and so on. The crafts are wonderfully photographed and the instructions very easy to follow. Not to mention, I showed my sons this book and even they found themselves interested in trying out some of the crafts! Highly recommend for anyone looking to get outdoors and craft.
This book was a mixed bag for me. There were a few projects that appealed to me but a lot of them seemed like filler or just seemed kind of meaningless. A surprising number of the projects are not for anything you keep -- for instance, arrange fresh flowers and petals in a spiral and take a picture of it, or arrange rocks with a negative space in the middle of them and take a picture of that. Others don't seem to have much of a real use. The painted acorns, for instance, are cute but so tiny that they'd just become clutter in my house. The blurb at the top of that project says you could string some in a garland but doesn't tell you how to do that, and it also says you "could even make a pendant" but doesn't tell you how to do that either.
Other projects struck me as (sorry) pretty tacky. The painted shells and wood slices in particular reminded me of the mass produced hotel room paintings they used to sell in parking lots or of gas station souvenirs I used to see when I was a kid in Maine in the early 80's. The wood burning information was helpful and interesting if you plan to take up wood burning, but none of the projects impressed me enough to buy a wood burner. And other projects hardly seemed like projects at all -- Buy a wooden planter and use a calligraphy pen to write a word on it? That seems kind of like cheating to list that as a nature project. Also, quite a few of the projects involve painting and those who don't consider themselves good at painting may feel limited by that.
There were a few projects that did inspire me. I have always loved leaf roses (fall leaves rolled up into rose bud shapes). They have been around for decades and you can find instructions all over the net, but it's a nice inclusion in a nature craft book. The painted rocks were pretty (some of them) and made me want to do that, though the book "Rock Art" inspired me a lot more in that department. I did love the watercolor feathers (paint feather designs in watercolor, let dry, use white goache paint to paint an intricate design on them and then paint a phrase between the feathers). I'm not sure the tutorial gave me enough information to do it properly but I loved the look of it. It's worth noting that it was not a project that actually used nature though, just one "inspired by nature" -- you paint feathers onto paper and decorate them with a second kind of paint. Many of my favorite projects were like that-- just using art materials to paint different elements of nature like a moth or a feather.
The book is filled with lots of full color pictures. The chapters are flowers, shells, wood, rocks and other materials. A different artist handles each chapter. Each chapter has about 4 or 5 projects, and some of those are the temporary type (make a design with this material, take a picture or just walk away because you enjoyed making it). The illustrations are often even nicer than the projects. For instance, the wooden planter box tutorial had watercolor succulents painted all over the page that didn't seem to have anything to do with the project but made the whole thing much more artistically pleasing. The colors of the book in general are pretty and pleasing, which really elevate the book (kudos to whoever was in charge of that).
This would be a great book to take out of the library for craft inspiration, especially with kids who love to craft and for nature lovers.
I was able to read a temporary digital ARC of this book for the purpose of review.
Unique ideas for creating art inspired from nature. The techniques were simple but fun and easy for a variety of ages.
This was a great book especially if you are into drawing and art as hobbies. I like to dabble sometimes and this book was a great help.
I spend a lot of time outdoors - it is my favorite way of relaxing. I simply go for a walk, perhaps take my camera and do some photography on my way. When I picked up "Nature Art Workshop", I got excited about a possibility of finding another creative outlet relating to my time outdoors, allowing me to preserve some of my experiences for the days when the weather or other activities keep me indoors.
The projects in "Nature Art Workshop" are of great variety. They are either based on collected items: stones, feathers, petals etc. or are only nature-inspired. Or are a combination of both. They vary in their difficulty. Some consist of simply arranging objects like shells or flowers, on the surface to create a display or a unique centerpiece. More elaborate involve painting on small surfaces like shells or wood slices. Although the step-by-step instruction allows following almost as paint-by-the-numbers.
Although wood carving is a more elaborate technique and not broadly known, the related projects take the disproportional amount of space in the book. The technique, tools, and other materials are described in detail. It caused a few other projects not make it into the final book- but no worries, they can be downloaded separately, for free, on the book website.
The one thing I found missing from the book was some kind of Resources section. I could use a list of numerous art supplies used in proposed projects, like brushes, palettes, paint (what kind of paint? is there only one kind?). For beginners, who do not have the most basic art supplies at home, going to the art store can be a daunting and discouraging task. Another thing I found useful in similar books was a template section, allowing the more involved shapes to be copied, preferably at the correct scale. After all, not everybody can sketch even such a simple thing as a bunch of herbs.
While I can not wait for spring flowers to try some of the easy projects in "Nature Art Workshop", I am excited that I was reminded of simple roses made of colorful fallen leaves. I suppose many people are familiar with this one from their Social Media streams. I still cannot wait to do it again this year, following the steps in the book. Perhaps I will do another project with remaining leaves?
A paradise of colors to my eyes. Simple and artistic.
This book is perfect for those who want to do projects that include elements of nature, such as flowers, stones and shells, and wood. Every project has simple and clear explanation on how to do it and the images are beautiful. All the chapters are interesting with very creative ideas, always maintaining a simple vision. I hadn’t yet seen the first chapter and the motivation to do all that was enormous.
It’s a great combination of art and nature.
Some of the best times I had teaching my children over our years of homeschooling were outside in nature.
We did the nature walk scavenger hunt thing, we spread a blanket on the beach and learned about sea life, we even sat in a big hole in the backyard to learn literature analysis. Those really were some of the most fantastic moments with my kids.
There is just something about nature and forests that allows your child to really learn and explore.
I recently read three fabulous books that can help you teach your children math and art using a nature theme. These are books you can use with your little ones to learn math and appreciate nature. You can also use them with your elementary aged children to do those wonderful crafting and art projects that really make the memories. And you can use these books with middle ages and even high schoolers who love to get out and smell that crisp fall air in the woods.
Nature Art Workshop
Nature Art Workshop is a collaboration between authors Allison Hetzell, Mikko Sumulong, Katie Brooks, and Sarah Lorraine Edwards to create a complete set of art lessons in a paperback book. This book is not just a drawing course. Many crafting techniques are combined to allow you and your child to explore and recreate the wonders of nature. Lessons range from creating a crown out of flowers your child picks, to painting feathers and acorns. The focus of each project is making art with nature using the actual materials, not just drawing pictures of them. This is a delightful hands-on book that will be one you pull out time and again to create art with your children!
Author:Allison Hetzell, Mikko Sumulong, Katie Brooks, and Sarah Lorraine Edwards
Format: Paperback, 128 Pages
ISBN:9781633225756
Publisher: Walter Foster
What could be better than getting out into nature along with children? Using nature's bounty, FREE craft supplies, to create your own beautiful works of art. The wonderful projects included will not limit you. This is a jumping off book, which inspires you to be creative with whatever you find as you explore nature's beauty and bounty.
Written by friends, this is a book that should be shared with loved ones.
It also makes a great gift
This book is great for anyone who likes to create and craft with natural and found objects. There instruction are very easy to follow and there are plenty of pictures included.
I loved this book. Full of nature inspired things to make. New ideas clearly explained with good pictures. Many thanks to all the creative people involved. This was a pre publication view of a book I now have on my wish list.
A really fantastic books for adults and children alike. There was plenty to do with a 2 year old under supervision, with clear instructions and images. This book would be a perfect addition to a child's bug hunting/foraging bags and features tonnes of ideas to do outside.
A lovely book with easy to follow instructions, sure to make even the most hesitant beginner eager to create.
I was pleasantly surprised by how inspiring this book was. I have a pretty big collection of books I keep for creative inspiration and this one is a delightful addition! I was immediately inspired to go out and collect flowers to dry to use in the collage and mandala projects the book described. Unfortunately, it's near the end of the growing season around here so I'll have to wait till next spring. But I definitely enjoyed this book and I plan to pull it out before my next hike to get some more ideas.