November 29, 2006 @ 7:51 am | Filed under: Art, Best Gifts for Homeschoolers

In the comments yesterday, Faith of Dumb Ox Academy wrote:

Thanks Lissa! This is perfect timing. We have been doing ten minutes of
drawing at our Family school (or what the kids call Breakfast school).
My kids are very intimidated by drawing and all claim they can’t, so we
decided from now until Christmas we’d draw every morning for ten
minutes. These little exercises will fit perfectly into our new routine.

My kids have all enjoyed and been quite inspired by the I Can Draw series published by Usborne Books. Here’s an excerpt from a long piece about drawing books I wrote for Bonny Glen last year—

These are some drawing books my kids are nuts about. The Usborne
ones NEVER stay on the shelf; someone is always using one, it seems.
They’re also fond of the Draw Write Now series, but we’ve always
ignored the Write part. They just like the step-by-step instructions
for drawing things like the Statue of Liberty and buffalo. (We only
have a couple of them, but I’m assuming the others are just as good.)

I Can Draw Animals

I Can Draw People

I Can Crayon

On The Farm, Kids & Critters, Storybook Characters (Draw Write Now, Book 1)

Christopher Columbus, Autumn Harvest, The Weather (Draw Write Now, Book 2)

Native Americans, North America, The Pilgrims (Draw Write Now, Book 3)

The Polar Regions, The Arctic, The Antarctic (Draw Write Now, Book 4)

The United States, From Sea to Sea, Moving Forward (Draw Write Now, Book 5)

Animals & Habitats — On Land, Ponds & Rivers, Oceans (Draw Write Now, Book 6)

Animals of the World, Part 1: Tropical Forests, Northern Forests, Forests Down Under (Draw Write Now, Book 7)

Animals of the World, Part 2: Savannas, Grasslands, Mountains and Deserts (Draw Write Now, Book

Mark Kistler’s Draw Squad

And these are two books that I’ve been using to improve my own
skills a little…I especially love the snippets of advice Claire
Walker Leslie gives for drawing trees, plants, birds, etc. She has a
knack for pointing out just the right way to approach the tricky bits
that don’t come naturally to me, like how to make a tree branch look
like it’s really curving out of a trunk.

Keeping a Nature Journal: Discover a Whole New Way of Seeing the World Around You

The Usborne Complete Book of Drawing

There’s also a highly rated video program called Draw Today which I’ve got on my own Christmas wish list! Have any of you tried it out?

As for stuff with which to draw, I tackled that topic too on Bonny Glen a while back.

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1. Denise says:

   Ah good topic. I wonder what Michelle would say her favorite art instruction/inspiration books are. And, I wonder if her ideas are the same as mine. Hmmm. I shall go find out! Thanks very much!

   Posted on November 29th, 2006 at 9:12 am

2. helene says:

   Thank you for this post. I just purchased 4 of the books for my very crafty 4 year old for Christmas. Her usual crafting generally involves smothering a household object in miles of scotch tape. Now maybe with these books I can harness some of that artistic enthusiasm and channel it into some real projects that have a prettier outcome!

   Posted on November 29th, 2006 at 8:10 pm

3. Faith says:

   Thanks again, Lissa, for the great list of books!

   Posted on December 2nd, 2006 at 6:39 am

4. Kathryn says:

   Ooh yes! Those Usborne books! They got used and used and used here too.

   Posted on December 3rd, 2006 at 5:00 pm

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