Monday 27 February 2012

Art ideas for older children - revisited

Both the children continue to produce large piles of drawings and paintings.  It is what they usually do after school during the week: get home, make a cup of tea and settle down with some drawing.

After I wrote my earlier post on art ideas for children last month, I've had so many comments and emails from people sharing what books and resources their children love - they have been so helpful and interesting.  Have a look in the comments of my earlier post for some of them. The Ed Emberley books in particular seem to be loved and used by everybody.

I decided to buy a manga book and some manga pens for C and O first. I bought Manga For the Beginner - Chibis by Christopher Hart and some promarker pens.

Manga for the beginner - chibis by Christopher Hart
Manga for the Beginner by Christopher Hart

Manga promarkers
Manga promarkers

It was like opening floodgates!  They both produced page after page of manga drawings, and still do so most days.

Livvy's manga
O's manga

I ended up buying a second manga book, so that they didn't have to share, and went for Super-Cute Chibis by Joanna Zhou, which is also excellent.  I also bought more promarkers, but have my eye on the manga pens by Faber-Castell too, which look very good and come in a good range of colours.  You can buy both the promarkers and the Faber Castell manga pens at branches of Hobbycraft and most independent art shops, as well as online.

Super-Cute Chibis by Joanna Zhou
Super Cute Chibis by Joanna Zhou

From Super-Cute Chibis by Joanna Zhou
From Super Cute Chibis by Joanna Zhou

From Super-Cute Chibis by Joanna Zhou
From Super Cute Chibis by Joanna Zhou

Cam's manga
C's manga

Other than manga, other successes have included How To Draw Fantasy Art Warriors, Heroes and Monsters which I bought for C, thinking he might like drawing things similar to his Warhammer figures.  I was right - he loves this book and has been really inspired by it.  The author, Mark Bergin, has a whole range of 'How To Draw' books out in the same series, which look excellent.  C wants to get the Trees and Woodland one next.

Fantasy Art by Mark Burgh
How to Draw Fantasy Art Warriors, Heroes & Monsters by Mark Bergin

For O, we bought Let's Draw Happy People by Sachiko Umoto which is just so lovely.  Again, I am planning on getting the other books in the series by the same author.  This book is an English translation of a Japanese book, and I find it very reminiscent, visually, of the Japanese craft books I own.  O adores it, and it lives permanently propped open on her desk.

From Let's Draw Happy People by Sachiko Umoto
 

From Let's Draw Happy People by Sachiko Umoto
 


Livvy's happy people
O's happy people

Do you have any more art or craft book recommendations for older children?  What books do your children enjoy?

4 comments:

  1. Thanks for the recommendations - I've recently bought the bubble writing one for my 12 year old for his birthday I think he'll like it. Pro-markers are expensive I have a couple doubled up from my card making if you would like them just let me know I'll let you know what doubles I have and if they are any good to you I would happily send them to you xx

    ReplyDelete
  2. oh those happy people are fabulous!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh their drawings! And I am v. envious of the markers, but doubt I would put them to such good use.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Their drawings are fabulous! And I want that happy people book for myself - it looks adorable :o) x

    ReplyDelete

Even though I often do not have the time to reply to everybody, I really appreciate all your comments so much - thank you for taking the time to read my blog and share your thoughts on what I've written.