The Grown-Up's Guide to Making Art with Kids

The book begins with materials and info on the color wheel and mixing colors. Then it moves into Drawing Tutorial lessons (i.e. How to Draw Animals) that are fairly detailed, followed by a corresponding project for parents and kids to work on together using some of the info learned. I would say the drawing lessons are most applicable for older elementary school kids and beyond - as an adult who struggles with drawing, they provide great info for me. I think younger kids who are not art-obsessed might get frustrated with the complexity. While some of the projects do include other styles of art (painting, collages, paper folding), the bulk of the book is focused on drawing. Everything is very detailed and includes step by step photos. This book is a great resource for adults and kids alike who are interested in drawing.
I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is a cute book breaking down drawing basics for you so you can both draw and teach tour kids to draw as well. Each section has a fun activity that children can help create and then use to fuel tehir information. I wish i had this book when I was working with kids.

I have a couple of grandchildren who love art and already attend art classes. I myself am not very artistic but do enjoy having a try. Between the grandchildren and myself, i'm sure we shall have great fun together. The book itself is nicely set out with the type of tools used, including crayons, pencils and paint and various projects. Recommended.

My thanks to Netgalley and the Publishers for my copy. This is my honest review, freely given.

This isn’t the prettiest book, but it is beautiful in its ability to inspire families to action. Too many art books for families focus on aesthetic over instruction. Their covers might fit in perfectly on your Instagram feed but the projects themselves wouldn’t fit into real life. The Grown-Up's Guide to Making Art with Kids is the polar opposite, with a short and affordable list of supplies and simple models your children will confidently attempt to replicate in their own styles.

How do I know? My six-year-old glanced my way while I was browsing The Grown-Up's Guide, and immediately picked up a pencil and started drawing. It wasn’t long before we’d made cars, dinosaurs and pink flamingos. The painting projects only take a bit more setup and cleanup too. One or two require some cutting and measuring for setup, and even then it’s minimal. This book is a blessing for busy parents (and for parents with artistic kids but no skills of their own).

Subtitled "25+ fun and easy projects to inspire you and the little ones in your life" this book was just what it claimed to be, although I have to say this is an artist working here so she might well make many of the rest of us look less than stellar; that said, she does generously offer tips hints and shortcuts to improving our work.

The book has a clickable "Tables of Contents" but there's actually only one table. I never got 'table of Contents' although many books use it. It's really a list of contents, isn't it?! That's why I never bother with such a thing, but this one does offer an easy jump to any chosen chapter. You don't get that in a print book! LOL! There's no jump back to the content page though, in case you jump to the wrong chapter, but the slide bar at the bottom will get you into easy swiping distance.

The book charts a steady course between a drawing tutorial and then a connected project, and so on, and you don't need a professional set-up for this; just some inexpensive paints you can buy at any big store, and/or some colored markers or pencils, or even crayons, along with some paper or card stock you can get from cardboard food packaging if you want. The important thing isn't the high quality materials, but the creativity, fun, confidence-building and sense of accomplishment children will feel when you work though these projects with them. I'm behind that 100%.

The book opens with some discussion of colors and how to work with them and mix them. There's a glossary at the back which explains some terms, although I'd take issue with the comment about orientation - which merely means which way your painting surface lies - if it's wider than it is tall, then it's landscape - imagine a sweeping vista. If it's taller than it is wide, then it's portrait. You'll know this if you take pictures with your phone, and that's my point - the last sentence claims orientation has nothing to do with the subject of the painting, but I disagree with that. Perhaps children won't much care, but to me letting them see that the orientation of the finished image can contribute a lot to how that image is perceived when it's done isn't a wasted endeavor. Anyone who's tipped their phone to the side or held it straight-up to take that picture understands this. It's the same with a painting, but that's a quibble.

The book covers animals, people, flora (if you haven't met flora you have no business being an artist!), buildings, and robots! The projects are a delight, and includes pop-up image like you might find in some children's book, and a shadow puppet theater - and many more. Don't feel dissuaded when you see how easily this artist throws together a sweet image. With practice and following her instructions, you'll get there, and even if you don't your kids will be inspired to strive for the little bit better look to their own work. I commend this as a worthy read.

On a slight downer, just as an advisory, I think this was yet another book designed as a print version, but of which I only get to see the ebook version, and even on a medium-sized iPad, some of the image labels were dissociated from the image they discussed. I think this is because the label came before the image instead of after it and wasn't tied to it, so I'd read, for example, "A cow has a similar structure, with slightly different shapes" but this would appear underneath the sketch outline of the horse. I had to swipe to the next page to see a sketch of the cow. This potentially may offer some confusion when following the step-by-step instructions for some of the projects, but with diligence, you'll master them.

This is a beautiful book which is both captivating and creative. It is bold, bright, encouraging and full of inspiration. It discusses materials, mixing colours, before presenting a range of projects., Each project is accompanied by clear visuals, a 'tools and materials' list, and a step-by-step instruction layout. This is a really fun project which is a great addition to any family.

This is a fun book for a grown-up and child to explore, spending time together while getting creative. Made up primarily of drawing tips and instructions, my favorite parts were the art project ideas, like the "crazy creatures" where you make paint blobs and use your imagination to turn them into critters! Also, in our Pinterest world, I enjoyed that the photos were projects that were also kid-friendly and looked like they were made by children. A great book to have on hand to inspire junior (and older!) artists.

I would recommend this book to anyone who would like to explore some ideas for art projects with kids, but doesn't have much art experience or feels intimidated by it. The images, and the ideas, are quite basic and the instructions go back to the building blocks of art knowledge (as in primary colors and type of pencils). While this is not the book to find mind-blowing inspiration, it will do nicely as a practical starting point for those who want a non-intimidating source of ideas for rainy days, playdates, or scout meetings.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Every parent should get this book for themselves/their children. My kids and I love it!!

This book is an awesome guide for teacher or parents, or anyone who is trying to help kids with art but isn't super artistically inclined. I find that not having learned some basic techniques when I was younger makes it much more difficult to explain to kids when painting or drawing. The book is nicely set up with the different styles as well as what materials work best for which craft.

The Grown-Up's Guide to Making Art with Kids is a fun tutorial guide for teachers, parents, and other resource people full of ideas for drawing with kids. Released 7th May 2019 by Quarto on their Walter Foster imprint, it's 128 pages and available in paperback and ebook formats.

This is a book absolutely full of exuberant step by step tutorials for drawing any number of creatures and objects with a whimsical style which will appeal to kids and in a manner which anyone can do. This includes the 'I can't draw a stick figure' people out there.

The books introduction (circa 17% of the page content) covers materials and a little bit of color theory, with tips and extra info highlighted in sidebars. The following chapters are paired in an alternating format with the first chapter covering how to draw animals, moving objects, buildings, people etc, and the following containing a step-by-step project tutorial incorporating the items from the previous chapter. The project tutorials include pop-up scenes, collages, shadow puppets, a map, and several others.

I am not familiar with many art books aimed specifically at adults in a context of drawing in a way to please and appeal to the small people in their lives. This one is excellent and would make a superlative support book for classroom teachers, facilitators, homeschoolers, librarians, parents, babysitters, camp staff, etc.

Five stars. This is a really useful and appealing book for all ages.

This is a brilliant book for teaching children to draw, and fostering an early love of art. The instructions are so easy to follow that any child will see that they can draw, and are good at it. The skills taught are transferrable and everyone can use the shape method to try to draw anything. It is a book that all parents should have as not only will they be helping their children develop the skill to draw, they will be developing it themselves. I loved the variation in subjects and I loved the book overall. Brilliant.

I am a bit torn on this book. I loved the idea and how it is broken down, but I wasn't entirely impressed with the actual art creations. It may just not have been my particular taste, though I think many would enjoy it. It does look like the author put a lot of work into it! There are various step by step directions to draw various animals and more. I did like the projects spread throughout.

This book was beautifully laid out and colourful and appealing, however the pages were not cluttered and this made everything easy to follow.
There is not an overwhelming amount of resources needed for the projects which made it feel instantly useable.
I found the step by step instructions really improved my confidence in drawing items but the kids didn’t always find them the easiest to follow and needed encouraged to keep practising.
Some great ideas for use in the classroom and also at home.

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC of this book! I love making arts and crafts and I'm glad that my children have inherited my love for this hobby. When reading this book, I tried to picture myself and my kids (in particular my 8-year-old artsy-craftsy girl) working on the projects described in the book. My favorites were the big tree and the floor map projects. Some of the other projects seemed a little too advanced for all of my children (e.g., the people and teaching them about perspective), including the 8-year-old who is already pretty advanced in her skills. So I wouldn't call the projects easy unless it is specified more, i.e., "easy for older kids" or similar qualifiers.
Overall, this is a good book, but needs some improvement.

Every home with children needs this easy to understand art book.

It shows how to make a variety of art projects with children. I loved that it explained tertiary colors and how they are made. It shows the placement of primary, secondary and tertiary colors on the color wheel which makes it easier to show a child what colors go with what others.

It shows how to draw crazy creatures, dinosaurs and fish. That is just what boys like (and some girls too). The section on drawing people is broken down into features such as type of hair, facial hair, body type, etc.

My favorite was the paper doll garland. I haven’t seen that since I was little and was reminded of good times doing art projects as a child.

Many of the projects can be spontaneous as the items needed for the projects are typically kept on hand. They require things such as crayons, markers, scissors, or paper. Others that need more complicated can be planned.

My grandson and I have a standing date once a week and he always wants to do “projects.” I can’t wait to try the leaf rubbings in the fall!


I received an ARC from Quarto Publishing Group through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affects my opinion or rating of this book.

This was a fun, informative guide to making art! My kids loved learning how to draw and it was a fun thing to do on a rainy afternoon. The guide was straightforward and easy to follow with great illustrations.

I love the idea of this book. I was hoping to get more ideas of projects I could do with my kids. This book contained a lot of ideas of animals to draw but not much beyond that. My kids aren’t all that interested in drawing realistic animals but they love painting and general mess-making. If your kids want to learn how to draw realistically, this book may be a good place to start.