This Book Will Make You An Artist

This book WILL make you an artist! This non-fiction book is full of ideas to create your own masterpieces inspired by your favourite artists. On every double page spread, we learn about a different style of art or meet a different artist. Every page gives us ideas of art we can do to mimic that of the artist.

We learn all about so many styles of art, for example: 'The Invisible Man' Liu Bolin and how we, too, can use art to camouflage, and Janet Sobel who adopted a style called 'drip painting' by pouring, splashing, spilling, and flicking paint. As you can imagine, some suggested activities will certainly get messy, but others are very different and use much less material to create masterpieces. For example, using black paper to create silhouettes like Moses Williams.

This Book Will Make You An Artist is so perfect for any school and library setting. There are so many artists in this book that many children will study at school, including: Leonardo Da Vinci, Claude Monet, Vincent Van Gogh, Henri Matisse (a personal favourite!), Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol and so many more talents.

This book is very useful for any teachers who are planning the art curriculum for their school. They will be given interesting and memorable information about artists as well as receiving practical ideas to bring the style of art to life in the classroom. We encourage our children so often to be writers and mathematicians both at home and in school, but nourishing other skills such as being an artist allows our children to express themselves freely. We are artists!

64 pages / Reviewed by Jessica Bunney, teacher

Suggested Reading Age 5+

This is a lovely book! This Book Will Make You an Artist presents 25 artists from around the world and gives you a step by step guide on how to create art like them. Starting with the earliest artists - the prehistoric cave dwellers - and moving right up to modern day, we have a great selection of artists and projects that will introduce children to different styles and and media; they might never have heard of many of the artists included.

This book will also be the perfect starting point for any primary teacher who is not an art specialist, but needs a step-by-step guide on how to teach a certain style of art work. This is a foolproof way of sounding like an expert without having to spend hours on research!

Written by Ruth Millington, an eminent art historian, and illustrated by a very talented artist Ellen Surrey, this book is bright, colourful and appealing. It presents information in bitesize chunks that even the most reluctant reader can engage with to create their own versions of these iconic styles. All art subject leaders and school libraries need this book!

64 pages / Reviewed by Wendy Kelly, teacher

Suggested Reading Age 7+

This Book Will Make You An Artist is a bright and captivating book that proves that anyone, anywhere, can become an artist. With just a few simple resources that can easily be sourced, this book guides you through works of many famous artists.

Learn about pointillism and create artwork inspired by George Seurat. Find out that Leonardo Da Vinci wasn't just a famous painter, but also an inventor, musician, mathematician and scientist, and then learn to draw people using his method of proportions. Get crafty and wrap a string sculpture like Judith Scott. Did you know, she wrapped many everyday items, but also covered herself in ribbons, scarves and fabric to make a sculpture of her own head!

Splash paint, carve sculptures and have fun with a variety of art and techniques. Learn about the work, life and history of famous artists. This is a perfect book to use with children to expand their knowledge of artists, artwork and to extend their creativity.

64 pages / Reviewed by Maria Faithorn, teacher

Suggested Reading Age 7+

This Book Will Make You An Artist, written by Ruth Millington and illustrated by Ellen Surrey, is a comprehensive book looking at all the amazing artists that have existed through time. It includes the classics, such as Leonardo da Vinci and Pablo Picasso, but also introduces the young reader to some maybe lesser known artists, such as Judith Scott and Moses Williams.

It really is a celebration of different cultural ideas expressed through the diversity of art and creation. The art presented ranges from collage to print making, mosaic to painting. Each page is visually interesting with a good balance of pictures, artist information and step-by-step instruction to create an individual piece of artwork in the style of a chosen artist.

This book would appeal to a wide range of young readers and it's a superb resource to have to support primary school projects. Perfectly executed, balanced, and above all, inspirational. One for every classroom or home bookshelf alike.

64 pages / Reviewed by Louise Gahan, teacher

Suggested Reading Age 7+