The Artist in You

Create Your Own Masterpieces and Learn the Language of Art

Taking some the world's greatest art and artists as its starting point, this visually stunning and absorbing book is a perfect way to get children aged 14 plus into Art and creating their own work. This book is also suitable for adults and Educators.

It has two objectives. One is to introduce the basics of art and the art making process in an easy and accessible way with fun and engaging projects, while exploring various techniques and mediums, including photography and printmaking. Secondly, it introduces much of the basic art terminology to give the reader the vocabulary to discuss and share their appreciation of art.

The authors, both artists and art teachers themselves, convey their enthusiasm with a voice that is simple, direct and full of fun.The projects cover a high level of art education and in fact self-learners, teachers and students of all ages will learn a lot from it. Students who complete these projects will command outstanding abilities and knowledge of the fine arts. Learners will gain important first hand skills and insights into the language of art necessary to work and communicate in this challenging field.

BUY THE BOOK

The Artist is You is currently Available in Hard Cover and Paperback on Amazon.

If you live in the Ottawa area, you can purchase a signed copy of the book in either Hard Cover or Paperback.

Reviews

  • EXACTLY WHAT I WAS HOPING IT WOULD BE: I was hoping this would be a good present for my 13 year old niece who has really got into drawing in the past year. This book is perfect and I'm enjoying it so much I might have to get her another copy so I can keep this one. I don't identify as an artist at all but this book was very unintimidating and let me learn about a lot of artistic styles easily. It gives an overview on each art style it focuses on and then gives a project that you can try based on that style. Well done

    Brent Maguire (Amazon.ca)

  • A BIG STEP TOWARDS DEMYSTIFYING THE WORLD OF ART: This is a nicely produced hardback publication with clear, well written text and plenty of high quality, full colour and black and white illustrations. The bulk of the book consists of chapters on point, line, shape, texture, tone, form, space, and colour. Each of these chapters introduces and explores a specific aspect of making art. For instance, the chapter on form starts by stating: "Although shape and form have much in common, and in everyday language we often substitute one for the other, these two elements have different meanings in art. A shape is the area contained within a line and it is two dimensional, while form refers to a three-dimensional shape shape. A form has volume and occupies space: a circle becomes a sphere, a square becomes a cube and a triangle becomes a cone or pyramid." The authors then go on to discuss how form can be created with the use of shading, linear perspective etc. and show examples to illustrate these ideas. As with the other chapters in the book there follows a couple of projects based on famous works of art, in this chapter, Cezanne's apples and Van Gogh's bedroom are the inspiration. Each project has a list of materials needed and step by step instructions to help the student complete their own version of that piece of art. I feel that this book is more about giving an insight into the language of art along with a basic understanding of techniques and art movements/artists through practical exercises. It is more about demystifying the world of art rather than trotting out the familiar, set pieces on how to paint a landscape or a portrait for example. It is not intended to provide an encyclopaedic reference source but it does provide plenty of links to further reading and resources for those who wish to pursue the subject further. As an art tutor I found this to be an excellent publication.

    Peter F (Amazon.uk)

  • BASIC INTRODUCTION TO SOME ART IDEAS: This A4 size hardcover book The Artist in You from Canada is aimed at 10 - 16 year olds. I think it would be of interest to some pre-teens who are really into making art, and useful for GCSE level art students. Sadly children in England now get so little art teaching in schools and this book only skims over the surface of the elements of art and the detail of techniques. It is attractively illustrated and intersperses elements of art technique such as Point, Texture, Tone etc with examples from famous artists who are noted for using said approaches. They include expected names such as Matisse, Picasso, Klee etc and a few more less well known artists like Banksy and Cassatt. I would have liked to see Hockney in here though especially for his use of colour shading. Overall it is a useful overview of art terms and techniques for young people (or older folk!) who fancy trying their hand at art but it really only scratches the surface.

    Eric Baker (Amazon.uk)