The Paint Book by Miri Flower
| The Paint Book by Miri Flower | |
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| Category: Crafts | |
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Reviewer: Louise Jones
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| Summary: Seventy simple art projects involving paint. Glorious, messy fun. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 128 | Date: October 2014 |
| Publisher: Frances Lincoln | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 978-0711235830 | |
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Craft blogger Miri Flower challenges bored children everywhere with her lovely new series of art books, which utilise basic materials that can be found in most homes. The Paint Book outlines seventy simple projects which encourage kids to get crafty and creative with paints. It's going to get messy, so house-proud parents turn away now...
The book is divided into six sections, which look at different ways that paint can be used to create art effects. We explore printing, special effects and creative painting tools, which can all be used to make striking artwork. Miri also encourages young artists to use more unusual materials, like toy cars, ice and hairbrushes (old ones, of course!). All of my childhood favourites are in here, including those 'magic pictures' where you draw a picture on a piece of paper with a white crayon or candle and then wash over it in watercolour to make it magically appear. I have fond memories of creating 'potato prints' as a child and no-so-fond memories of straw painting at school, which resulted in my sucking the paint up the straw and ending up with a mouthful of red paint! Miri's method is much more sensible and involves blowing the paint around the page rather than drawing it up the straw.
For the really brave, there is even a section on using hands and feet to create art prints, including the very ambitious sounding 'walk paint onto walls'. Following a very messy experience creating this type of artwork with my three young children many years ago, I will probably give this section a wide berth! [Editor's note: I know what happened. I can't stop laughing.]
The author has helpfully graded the projects in terms of difficulty, with grade 1 being the most simple and grade 3 being suitable for older children as they may involve tools. Each project has a dedicated single or double page spread, with handy colour photos that give the artist an idea of how the finished article is supposed to look.
The Paint Book is a beautiful little art book and I loved the fact that young artists can use items readily available in the home rather than having to go to specialist art suppliers. There are some great ideas in the book, and plenty of seasonal ones too. Parents had better put in a bulk order for picture frames and start clearing space on those walls...
Many thanks to the publishers for my review copy.
More great ideas from Miri can be found in The Pencil Book
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You can read more book reviews or buy The Paint Book by Miri Flower at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
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