The Organic Artist for Kids by Nick Neddo

The Organic Artist for Kids by Nick Neddo ISBN-13: 9781631597671 Paperback: 160 pages Publisher: Quarry Books Released: February 11th 2020

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
Immersed in the natural world, The Organic Artist for Kids inspires creativity by connecting kids and their adults to their wilderness roots. These projects encourage you to return to the days when art was made with all-natural materials like charcoal and birch bark.

In addition to offering a wide variety of fun, collaborative projects using nature as a source for art supplies and inspiration, this book also introduces the concepts of awareness and perception that are fundamental to the creative process. Rooted in experimentation, children will be encouraged to learn new skills, build resilience, and be resourceful. Just some of the projects and skills covered:

Making paper and wild inks
Painting with mud
Crafting your own paintbrushes
Making simple stencils and rubbings


My Review:
The Organic Artist for Kids is an art book aimed at kids and is about using plants, rocks, and such to make art supplies. The author expects that an adult will supervise the children, but the children will be doing the projects themselves. He included 38 step-by-step projects with (usually) easy-to-find materials. Each project had clear pictures and written instructions for each step.

He started with projects about how to make pigment from rocks and how to make that into paint and ink. He covered how to make brushes using hair from yourself or domestic animals and how to make pens from twigs and such. He showed how to make your own drawing charcoal, crayons using beeswax, stamps from vegetables or leaves, rubbings, and stencils. He also included papier-mâché projects and earth art.

It was very interesting to see how these things could be made rather simply from things found outside in nature. Overall, these look like fun projects, and I look forward to trying them with my nieces when they get a little older.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.