This Book Will Make You An Artist (2024)

This is a brilliant book on how to get children engaged in creating art in the styles of many of history's greatest artists. A great book to get little ones started in engaging with art history.

You can read a short bio of different artists throughout history and then try their style of art for yourself. There are instructions and lists of art supplies for trying out the art styles of Frida Kahlo, Katsushika Hokusai, Claude Monet, Vincent Van Gogh, and a dozen more! You can try a silhouette like Moses Williams. You can paint tiny little dots like Georges Seurat. You can make a collage like Henri Matisse.

I did not care for this book, because it focused too much on modern artists, instead of traditional and classical artists. Modern art just doesn't appeal to my own personal taste in art, so I did not enjoy this book very much.

I was distressed to see that this children's book has Leonardo Da Vinci's famous sketch of the human male anatomy. Nudity is not appropriate for a children's book!

Other than that, the illustrations are really cute and the art activities look like a lot of fun!

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the author/ publisher in exchange for a free and honest review. All the opinions stated here are my own true thoughts, and are not influenced by anyone.

I loved several things about This Book Will Make You an Artist by Ruth Millington and Ellen Surrey. First, the premise is that you will discover different artists' techniques and styles throughout history by making the art. Second, the artists come from the past and present and many different countries. I dare say there are more women featured in this book than men.

After introductory material, the book goes through history starting with cave paintings through to murals by Esther Mahlangu using one page to describe the art style or artist and another page with directions for creating a similar piece of artwork. For example, with the cave paintings, the author describes the materials our ancestors would have used to create the few red and black colors. In the "Now it's Your Turn" section, young artists create colored paint by adding spices like turmeric, cinnamon, or cumin to white paint. Another example focuses on string sculptures by Judith Scott. We learn about fiber art and young artists create their own three-dimensional sculptures. The author even teaches about Dada art where young artists make and perform found word poems.

This is a must-read for aspiring artists who want to learn about different styles and artists and try their hand at each one of them. The history of the artists/movements is concise and informative with keywords bolded and included in the glossary. The directions to create the artwork are clear with drawings of what materials are needed and for key steps. An illustration of each artist's/style's famous work appears on the page.

This book will make you an artist and it will make you an art aficionado, too.

I received an advanced reader copy of this book through LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program in exchange for an honest review.

This book draws upon the works of 25 of the world’s best-known artists, and for each one the author provides a little history, and a lot of explanation about how to employ their styles in creating a work of art.

The suggestions are so imaginative and fun to do - parents and teachers will appreciate all the activities that can be generated from this book to keep kids (and adults!) busy for hours. Learning about techniques such as pointillism, impasto, collage, and woodblock printing will also give readers a new appreciation for all kinds of art, and why the seminal works featured in the book have become so famous.

Bright, colorful gouache illustrations by Ellen Surrey are playful as well as informative, and manage to shout out support and enthusiasm to add to the encouraging message of the book.

Evaluation: The effusive praise for this book I have seen by other reviewers is well justified. It has so many positive aspects, with the best in my opinion being to show how anyone and everyone can actually be creative, even if you thought it was impossible!
My only quibble: it is definitely not just for kids, but for anyone who wants a little help with creative endeavors. It’s too bad it will undoubtedly be featured only in the “kids” section of bookstores and libraries.

This book is fantastic! It showcases a range of artists from different time periods and countries and explains who they were, why their art was so good, what style of art they developed or were heavily focused on and does it all in child friendly terms and language.

I am an art teacher and find this a valuable resource. It gives the background of the artists in an appropriate way and each artist is couples with instructions on how to produce your own art in the style of this artist. The art suggestions are great activities and I'll be trying a few out in my classroom for sure. There are even art styles that I see regularly taught in schools but didn't know the artist behind them or the artist that is famous for using them. I'll definitely be crediting them in the future.

The art covered is a wide range of styles and using quite a few mediums. From textiles, to paint, to paper and sculpture. Would highly recommend that you add a copy to your classroom library.

Thanks to Netgalley and the author and publisher for a temporary copy in exchange for an honest review.

What a fun book! There are 25 different art projects, listed from older art to newer art. Most are based on the art of a specific artist but a few are just art in general - such as hand prints on the wall for cave painting and mosaics for Roman art. The book is nicely diverse, including many women artists and representing different countries and abilities. There are lots of illustrations and the biographical information on each art or art form is brief. Just little dabs of information.

The introduction discusses creating your own art studio and different materials that you might need in your studio.

This is definitely more than just a pen/pencil and paper project book! For example, the hand prints project incorporates spices mixed with white paint for the prints. And print making involves drawing a picture and then adding string to the outlines. And another project involves carving a bar of soap. Lots of hands on activities to keep a young artist occupied while expanding their artistic horizons!

Thanks to Sîan at Nosy Crow for this copy. Published 1st February 2024.

I did giggle a little as I consider myself a quite dreadful artist.
However, the details of each artist are detailed and interesting. In addition, it is then followed by numbered instructions detailing how you can make your own version of the artists work. There is all sorts of art in the book from cave paintings and mosaics (now those I can do!) to surreal paintings like Salvador Dali. But all the instructions are clear and children could easily copy them. My favourite has to be mosaics - I've walked round enough Italian buildings to know I love them.

This book is beautifully illustrated by Ellen Surrey, with the artist and their work and the instructions all fully illustrated. Our art teachers at school are going to love this book. Our library is quite new and we want very much to encourage children in with good books like this.

I had not heard of this book until I saw it as a Junior Library Guild selection. I looked up the author and I am loving her art! I would love to check out more books by this publisher for my library.

For this book, first of all, I love the artists selected Yayoi Kusama, Judith Scott, Katsushika Hokusai (the wave!!) and so many that they ask about and might know - but I love these others they may not know. I also love how there are ideas on each page with unique ideas of ways students can create similar art.

This Book Will Make You an Artist is a brilliant combination of art history and art projects that will teach kids about different techniques in many different kids of art from painting to performance art to sculpture. At the same time they will be learning about the artists and movements that have built the art world into what it is today. The projects vary in complexity but all use readily available art supplies. I am definitely adding this book to my library's collection before summer. I'm hoping we can use some of the art projects in our summer program.

I love this book so much! I learned about many artists and I love the guidance to make your own art. The illustrations are so fun. Any art class or elementary school library could benefit from this. I am a stay-at-home mom, and plan to add this to my shelf as well. Very well done.

Thank you NetGalley and Nosy Crow for this advanced copy. All opinions are my own.