The School of Art by Teal Triggs and Daniel Frost (Wide Eyed Editions)

Right from the kick-off it doesn't insult a child's intelligence by telling them what a pencil is, what a pen is, how a paintbrush works. It starts off by introducing a set of characters - Professors no less, at the prodigious imaginary school of art in the book.

We meet Professors of form and function, of ideas, of making, and our personal fave The Professor of Ideas who is a genius when it comes to pulling amazing creations and theories out of her imagination.

Each of the five professors demonstrates a particular topic over 40 different subjects, and each work together to compliment each other to give guided workshops for the reader to get busy on with their own art materials (which can be absolutely anything you like!)

We love a book that encourages children to sprawl out on the floor with all their pens, pencils, crayons, felt-tips, charcoal, chalks - anything to hand, then takes those materials to plant the seed of creativity in their minds as they try different techniques and methods to produce wondrous works of art. For Charlotte, it was great to find examples of different ways to achieve light and shade, to really bring drawings to life and make things look more realistic.

The characters help children absorb the 'lessons' and there's no dumbing down at all, no hard and fast rules shoved up their noses and we really loved that approach. It's like having 5 of the best art tutors to hand to help you improve your skills! Fabulous stuff!

Charlotte's best bit: Learning more about shading and tone, and making objects look 3D

Daddy's Favourite bit: A fabulous fun resource to dip into for improving your art skills and inspiring wonderful creative explorations!






(Kindly sent to us for review by Wide Eyed Editions)