Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
Squiggles: A Really Giant Drawing and painting book
Nonfiction Drawing Book
For ages 7 and up
Chronicle Books, 2007 ISBN: 978-0811861519
There are lots of different kinds of artists who create in diverse ways, and who infuse their art with their own emotions. There is one thing that all artists have in common though, "all artists like to play." They doodle on a phone book while they chat with a friend; they capture an image on a napkin in a restaurant; and they create little pictures in the margins of notebooks. This book was designed for these artists who are always looking for new ways to create pictures.
For this book Taro Gomi has come up with hundreds of drawing exercises that artists of all ages will enjoy trying. He begins with a very basic picture of a little girl and he asks his readers to design a t-shirt by drawing "something that breathes fire" on the little girl's shirt.
After presenting his readers with several opportunities to design t-shirts ,Taro Gomi goes on to have "an adventure." Readers will see wavy line and a few stick like trees on the page in front of them. This will form the foundation for a scene showing people "climbing mountains, camping, picnicking, maybe even skiing." The author encourages his audience to "add some trees, flowers, and animals."
Each section in this wonderful book lasts for several pages and artists can really get into each subject, creating a collection of drawings or paintings that form an eclectic collection or that flow into one another in an interesting way.
All in all this is the kind of book that artists of all ages will dip into again and again.
