A few years ago, we fell in love with artist Marion Deuchars’ smart, fun activity book Let’s Make Some Great Art, which teaches kids about twelve great masters and encourages them to imitate their styles all over the pages. I’m thrilled to find a follow-up book for kids, Draw Paint Print Like the Great Artists, with more than 200 pages of creative inspiration for kids to absorb–and, best of all, draw, paint, or print all over.
What makes this Marion Deuchars book so inviting is that it doesn’t look like a stuffy art manual, a boring composition book, or even an art workbook. In fact, it reminds me more of that tween favorite Wreck this Journal, with pages that are begging a reader to come in and do just that.
In Deuchars’ new book, kids read blurbs about 18 artists like Joan Miro and Salvador Dali, plus, names that may be new to them like Sonia Delaunay, and Emily Kngwarreye. After they learn a bit about what makes each artist tick, then see how the author interprets their work in her own style, kids are invited to come up with their own interpretations, creating projects like photomontages, foam printing and self portraits.
As with Let’s Make Some Great Art, this creative activity book has no right or wrong way of doing things. You can even do them multiple times, since there are a ton of different projects based on what supplies you have on hand, how messy you want things to get, and how much time you have. Kids don’t even have to start at the beginning if they don’t want. Just like the featured artists here, who all know a thing or two about doing things on their own terms.
Find Marion Deuchars’ book Draw Paint Print Like the Great Artists at our affiliate Amazon or your local indie bookseller.
We love art for kids! Our archives have more recommendations, including additional activity books.
Looks like an interesting book. I love the Dali project. Does it have an age range and was there anything 3-D work or mostly just interacting with the book itselt?
Hi Dawn,
The publisher lists the ages as 8-12 which seems about right, though it could go even a little older since the projects are really interesting. Younger kids may need some help with the reading and instructions.
Most of the projects are done on the pages in the book itself, but they aren’t just coloring ideas. There are also some projects that have you cutting out shapes or bits of newspapers from outside of the book, or painting sticks that you acquire yourself to make clapsicks.
A great gift idea would be to get the book and pull together all the materials needed to do the projects inside and bundle them together into one big gift for an art-loving child.