Tag: illustration

How To Draw a Strawberry

15 Minute Art Drawing: Learn How to Draw, Colour and Shade – written and illustrated by Jessica Smith
Hardie Grant Books, 2023

I have many books that teach aspiring artists how to draw, using different media.  Some are specifically designed for children, and others for adults.  Jessica Smith’s 15 Minute Art Drawing is beautifully adaptable for older children and young adults, even if those groups are not its exclusive audience.  Smith’s instructions are clear, her tone reassuring, and the illustrations’ simplicity and rich color are inspiring.  Creating images of a strawberry, a dalmatian, or a pattern of repeating stars are within reach of almost anyone.

Drawing can be frustrating, especially for children, or adults, who are concerned with making mistakes. If you have ever watched a child crumple up a piece of paper when results don’t match her expectations, you will appreciate the design of this book, where optimism and realism both guide the artist.  Two wonderful books for both children and adults that offer an overview of the artistic process are Elizabeth Haidle’s Drawing Is and Jeff Mack’s time To Make Art. For young children, the stories in Builder Mouse, by Sofia Eldarova, and Spaghetti: A Mouse and His Treasure, by Merrilees Brown, depict animal artists who are undaunted by obstacles.

The composition of Smith’s book, including the ratio of image to white space, is perfect. “Project 2: Citrus” starts with a freely sketched oval of color in primary and pastels, and moves toward a finished fruit.  Pens, markers, and pencils can all be part of the project; Smith offers specific suggestions, but oil pastels and watercolor would also work. Often she writes in the first person, advising, but not directing: “I used a blue pen here to add the shadow and I love how you can still see the color of the orange through it.” I love how she phrases that, expressing emotions about how rewarding it is to draw.

“Project 11: Leaves” could not be better for the artistically timid: “This simple project is nice and speedy, and uses only three steps!” Yet the resulting drawings look sophisticated and evocative. I can’t emphasize enough how difficult that is to achieve in an instructional art book.  Smith goal seems to be a genuine desire to enlist the reader’s enthusiasm. She manages to combine a sense of humility and enthusiasm about the results of her work, and, by extension, that of her readers.  Some of the other projects include a bowl of noodles, a house, a mermaid, and a woman dressed in “busy patterns and popping colours” and holding a grid-patterned shopping bag.  There are even two-page spreads of drawings that take a step back from the instructions and simply focus on beauty. The color reproduction is excellent.

The sum of an art book may be greater or less than its parts.  15 Minute Art Drawing lays out a premise, verbally and visually, and guarantees success within its terms.  The book begins with an autobiographical sketch and includes an overview of tools, materials, and the use of color.

Poems That Take Flight

Words with Wings and Magic Things – written by Matthew Burgess, illustrated by Doug Salati
Tundra Books, 2025

Designing a book of poetry for children is not an easy task.  There are outstanding collections of classic poems accompanied by different artists’ interpretation. A Child’s Garden of Verse alone has been illustrated by, among others, Jessie Wilcox Smith, Gyo Fujikawa, Alice and Martin Provensen, and Eloise Wilkin.  Recently, Rosemary Wells had the courage to apply her own individual vision to a selection of A.A. Milne’s poems from When We Were Very Young, although they are inextricably linked to the artwork of Ernest H. Shepard.  There are modern classics by such disparate poets as Jack Prelutsky, Shel Silverstein, Bobbi Katz, and Julie Fogliano.  Words with Wings and Magic Things joins this distinguished company, while adding level of originality and beauty that stands on its own.

On the one hand, children are natural drawn to rhyme and rhythm. On the other, after a certain age they sometimes approach it with skepticism. Where is the plot? Maybe enough humor will compensate for that, and some poets try to hard by overloading their work with this feature.  Matthew Burgess seems to have chosen the subject and form of each poem with respect for children’s intelligence.  The book is organized into thematic sections, each introduced by a two-line poem. “Wild” summarizes excursions into that territory. “The animal inside of us who longs to wander free,/the sparkling specks of stardust that make up you and me.” The poems use different rhyme schemes, alliteration, and stanza lengths, and address subject matter ranging from whimsical to philosophical. There is not a pretentious note in the book.

Doug Salati’s pictures show a kind of exuberance, whatever the subject of the poem he is illustrating. There are two-page spreads with lavish colors and smaller image set against white space. Some pages feature cut-out windows to the following picture, allowing a moon, for example, to transform into a polar bear’s fur. His allusions to classic children’s books are not eye-winking secret messages to adults; they are wonderful homages that set his own work within a lasting tradition.  The lions in “Living with Lions” recall Sendak’s Pierre: they appear somewhat sly, as if unsure about whether to act as predators. “When they wake,/bake a cake,” the girl in the picture wisely decides.

The dog next to the slide in “Wild” is definitely related to Margaret Bloy Graham’s Harry the Dirty Dog. If children don’t recognize these forbears of Salati’s characters, it would be a great opportunity to introduce them. He also shows up accompanying the beginning of “Whoops and Whallops,” about life’s inevitably embarrassing and difficult moments, eating popcorn, and along with his human friend, enjoying a show.  The performing dog recalls the harlequin-costumed animals of The Color Kittens.

Maybe it seems obvious that yetis’ favorite food is spaghetti. Burgess twists the strands of language into invented words that make perfect sense in Salati’s scene of feasting monsters. Twist the fork into your noodles;/Meatball, meatball, and spagoodles.” By the end of the poem, the elongated pasta returns to normal: “Now eat it up, you hungry yet;. Meatball, meatball, and spaghetti.”  Poets and artists can accomplish magic.