The School of Art - Learn how to make great art with 40 simple lessons by Teal Triggs

Ill. by Daniel Frost. Wide Eyed Editions, 2015. ISBN: 9781847807007
(Ages: 9-14) Highly recommended. You are invited to attend the School of Art, welcomed by five professors who will teach you in their creative classrooms. Attending Art School allows you, the student to use your creative energy, harness your imagination, experiment, take risks, build a portfolio and finally display your work. Many art forms are explored, ceramics, sculpture, graphic and sound design, to designing everyday objects.
The Professor of Ideas glides through the corridors with her beautiful pearls of wisdom necklace offering informative information. The clouds in her classroom contain hundreds of inspirational ideas. There's the Professors of Form, Senses, Making and the Professor of the Planet who helps make people's life better using art and design. To guide the student, the art journal is divided into terms, Lines, two and three dimensional shapes, surfaces, tones, shading and adding texture are some of the early lessons. In Term 2, the principles of design are taught, included here are the concepts of composition, perspective and perception. Students are encouraged to think visually and tell a story in pictures in Term 3, leading up to the final exhibition.
Author Teal Triggs is Associate Dean in the School of Communication at the Royal College of Art, London. Her writing style incorporates information presented in a narrative format, each lesson has personal encouragements, presented in an easy to understand manner - a dialogue between professors and includes suggestion for activities and research. Illustrator Daniel Frost is a graduate of the Royal College of Art, and his vibrant graphic style, creative design, layout and composition, make this an outstanding art book for a budding designer or artist. This would be an excellent teaching tool, with its easy to share concepts at the start of an art lesson.
Highly recommended for 9+
Rhyllis Bignell