Drawing Workshop for Kids

by Samara Caughey

Help kids build confidence and find their own creative voice through this collection of 25+ invitations for drawing.

In Drawing Workshop for Kids, art educator Samara Caughey, founder of the highly praised family-centered art studio Purple Twig, shares drawing activities that support the development of creative, confident children ages 7 and up.
 
All kids need to begin engaging in the pleasure of these simple yet inspiring drawing projects are a pencil and paper. Along the way, new materials are introduced, giving kids the opportunity to experiment with new techniques.
  
Each of the three main chapters— drawing from life , drawing from images , and inventive drawing —focuses on techniques to explore , such as observation, mark making, shadow, line, composition, detail, contour, and perspective.
 
Drawing Workshop for Kids  strives to inspire children to investigate drawing and develop their own approach to art, building creativity and confidence.

Genres: Art, Crafts, Childrens, Nonfiction

144 pages, Paperback

Published April 20, 2021

Reviews

[Literary Redhead · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Quarto Publishing’s activity books for children, and DRAWING WORKSHOP FOR KIDS is a perfect example why. Children age 7 and up learn how to draw from life, draw from images, and do imaginative drawing starting with just a pencil and paper at first. There are 25+ drawing activities — all developed to boost children’s creativity and confidence. Written by highly respected art educator Samara Caughey, founder of the Purple Twigs family-focused art studio. A great resource especially during COVID times.

5 of 5 Stars
Pub Date 16 Mar 2021
#DrawingWorkshopforKids #NetGalley

Thanks to the author, Quarto Publishing Group – Quarry, and to NetGalley for the review copy. Opinions are mine.

[Natalie all_books_great_and_small · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received an advance reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

Drawing Workshop for Kids is a fantastic drawing resource book for developing and encouraging children's artistic skills, imagination and creative abilities. With the world covid crisis still going on and so many children being stuck at home, this book is a breath of fresh air and had some brilliant drawing ideas such as shadow drawing, charcoal and rubber drawings and drawing on plaster of Paris. This book has so many great ideas to try and the equipment required isn't expensive to get.
I have three ideas in mind from this book to suggest to the children I work with during this lock down period and also to try with my child at home.
The book is very informative about materials, ways to do the projects, step by step instructions and fantastic photos of the projects being done and completed.

[Alicia Bayer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was looking forward to this book since our family recently purchased a historic church that we're turning into a community arts center, and we plan to have regular free arts classes and activities for kids there. To be honest though, I didn't get a lot out of it and have found far more creative drawing projects on children's art websites for free. This would be a good beginner book for parents and caregivers absolutely new to teaching art/drawing to kids, but I was hoping for more actual instruction and creative new projects. I did do one of the projects with my youngest daughter at the church yesterday and we had fun with it (we drew flowers, cut them out and then pasted them on paper with a cut out vase and paper border), but I adapted it to make it a little more creative. I do like the idea of drawing a little scene and gluing it into a candy tin, but most of the other ideas were just kind of meh to me. I'd recommend this as a library read but it's not something I personally would purchase for our arts center or for a family resource.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for review.

[The Silvan Reverie | Sarah Street · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredible book for the creative child AND for the child who is interested by needs some gentle instruction and ideas. The presentation of the workshop ideas in this book is so incredible -- instructions are detailed and easy to follow without feeling overwhelming. Each activity is presented with magazine-style layouts of full color photographs of the activity in action. It's beautiful and inspiring. The drawing workshop activities are aimed at children 7+ and I think a wide range after that can find value in the lessons here. The book is divided in to two sections: Warm Up Drawings which take maybe 15-30 minutes to do, then Workshops which take longer and may ever work best if done over the course of several days. Recommendations for supplies are clearly indicated and terms and concepts are always clearly defined. I think this would work well for a classroom experience or for individual families!

***Note: I was given a review copy of this book by Quarto Kids. Opinions are my own.

[Annie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Originally posted on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Drawing Workshop for Kids is a facilitator's guide with fun creative projects aimed at primary to middle grade kids. Due out 30th March 2021 from Quarto on their Quarry imprint, it's 144 pages and will be available in paperback and ebook formats.

There are so many benefits to art instruction for everyone, but especially for kids: fine motor control, spatial reasoning, mastery and self confidence, decision making, cultural awareness, and so many more. This manual is developed and curated by the owner/facilitator at The Purple Twig, an art studio and maker's space in Los Angeles which caters to kids and families. I liked the layout of this book as well as the author's encouraging voice. The introduction contains a good overview over benefits to be had from artistic expression alongside a good cross section of suggested tools and supplies.

She moves quickly to specific warm-up drawing exercises such as detail oriented drawings (her example was for drawing eyes from reference photos), drawing oversized large drawings, negative space, drawing rocks/texture, cross hatching and other shading elements, and lots more. Each of the tutorials contains tools and supplies listed along with step-by-step process instruction and many clear color photos.

The second section contains more comprehensive and "finished" projects written to the same format as the warm-up exercises. Each of the tutorials throughout the book also includes an overview of the skills it is meant to help train (detail, perspective, varying marks, using the whole page, volume, collage).

The materials and supplies used in the book will be readily available both at crafts/arts stores as well as online. The author has included a resources and links list as well as a short index.

Five stars. This would be a superlative choice for public or school library acquisition, gifting to a young artist (perhaps bundled with some simple art supplies), as well as for maker's groups, library activity groups, scouting and similar outlets.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Drawing Workshop for Kids
Process Art Experiences for Building Creativity and Confidence
by Samara Caughey
Back of the Book: “Help kids build confidence and find their own creative voice through this collection of 25+ invitations for drawing.

In Drawing Workshop for Kids, art educator Samara Caughey, founder of the highly praised family-centered art studio Purple Twig, shares drawing activities that support the development of creative, confident children ages 7 and up.
All kids need to begin engaging in the pleasure of these simple yet inspiring drawing projects are a pencil and paper. Along the way, new materials are introduced, giving kids the opportunity to experiment with new techniques.
Each of the three main chapters—drawing from life, drawing from images, and inventive drawing—focuses on techniques to explore, such as observation, mark making, shadow, line, composition, detail, contour, and perspective.
Drawing Workshop for Kids strives to inspire children to investigate drawing and develop their own approach to art, building creativity and confidence.”
Impressions: I think this was a helpful resource for homeschool families who are looking for art curriculum and projects. This book was educational and fun with colorful pictures and easy to follow instructions. The supplies for most of the activities were items that most families with kids would have or easy to purchase. I look forward to using these activities with my two little artists!
I received a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review shared here.

[April Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a cool book! I loved that the focus is on not giving kids too much instruction- guide them, but let them choose what to do, how to create their art. Caughey starts the book with the usual list of suggested materials, but I appreciated the explanations of things like different weights of paper, types of pencils and what they'll do, things like that. There are warmup exercises to help kids learn about different techniques of making art- adding shadows, making different types of marks (dots, dashes, cross hatch...), using perspective, then we go into the various workshops, which honestly look like a lot of fun, and I'd like to try them myself. Seriously, I wanna take her classes too, I loved her style of teaching throughout the book, she's very open and encouraging, good at helping her students explore the materials and seeing what can be done with them, and great at helping students find their inner artist! This book is aimed at instructing kids, but any adult involved is going to learn a lot too, and I feel like so many of the projects in this book could easily be adapted (or wouldn't even need to be adapted) for teens and adults; the eraser drawings are fairly simple, but look so cool, I like the blind contour drawing exercise, the half and half project, sfumato, making plaster paper! There's a lot of mixed media fun in here. This is a great book for educators, homeschoolers, parents, or just anyone who wants to explore their artistic side.

#DrawingWorkshopforKids #NetGalley

[Katie Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm so happy to have discovered this book and thank you to NetGalley for the advance online copy. 'Drawing Workshop for Kids' is aimed at children aged 7 and above but I my daughter who is 6 (almost 7) loves drawing and art and has already got stuck in to some of the great exercises, This book has a grown-up feel which I love. There are lots of great ideas that I would happily sit down and try alongside my daughter. Our favourite exercise so far has been the 'half and half' project where you cut part of a magazine image out and draw the rest on a piece of paper. My daughter created the most wonderful picture of a castle. As we begin another lockdown in the UK, I am looking forward to trying more of the exercises in this book including drawing eyes, shadow drawing and 3d birds. Whilst aimed at children, I'd say this is also a great book for adults, who perhaps love art but haven't done it for a while, to get back into it. Brilliant.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really great book. Makes the process of drawing fun for kids. I like process element of this book. My only feedback is quick teacher demos are often needed for drawing lesson marking making experiments/expectations for class lessons or at least from artists kids, YouTube artists, etc. Demonstrations with the expectation to make the drawings your own. There was a typo in the about watercolor paper saying cold press is smoother than hot press paper which is actually the reverse. I am sure it is just a typo. Everything else is amazing. Great for new artists that want to learn to finally draw from real life. Not a lot of drawing from imagination here if that is what your kid is into but maybe that could be mixed into these drawings from life? Like the surrealist artists?

[Vicky · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic starter book for children and adults wanting to learn to draw or to brush up there techniques.
I have been looking for a clear and concise book that would be on a level for my Ten year old granddaughter and this is the book. I purchased it the day it came available for me to review in person with my local helper who is a talented budding artist. She rated it a 10 star plus and so did I and I have no artistic ability at all and I was able to do better than my normal stick figures!

I definitely would recommend this and I purchased this book and am sending one to my granddaughter.

[Sally Mander · Rating 4 out of 5]

Drawing Workshop for Kids by Samara Caughey

This book inspires creativity in children or people of all ages. It shows you that there is no wrong way to draw, from scribbles to shadows to drawing on different textures.

This shows you how to use different techniques to draw tiny or larger objects. If all else fails, keep on drawing. It's a book for children around age 10 or 12.

Thank you to NetGalley for the complimentary copy, I was under no obligation to post a review.

[Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful descriptions of art classes for children. Oh, can I please be one of your students @samaracuaghey ? Lovely classes, gorgeous photography, perfect explanations. Rarely does one find a book so well composed.

[Amelia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tho originally made for kids, I wanted to introduce myself into the arts and try new skills— this is a very fun interactive book with lots of practical easy lessons I’ll continue to do and pass on to my children. A must have for any mother!

[April Chauvin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a very good book for drawing for kids they will really love this book and it is perfect for the little ones wanting to learn how to draw , It has excellent resources and tools for kids.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't praise this essential workshop book enough. Well done and beautiful.

[Tina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super colourful, full of ideas, inspiration and fun activities.

[Reelika Kullerkan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Väga äge kunstiprojektide raamat. Autor on hingega asja juures, ära on seletatud, miks ta lastega just sel viisil tegutseb, mida see neile õpetab ja mis põhiline, ta ei näita lastele liiga palju ette vaid innustab lapsi ise loovad olema. Harrastatakse nii pimejoonistamist kui lõika-kleebi tehnikaid. Ei ole ülearu palju vahendeid vaja ning palju tuuakse tuppa loodust ning pannakse see pildile.