No comments about Folk Art Landscapes for Every Season.

5 comments about Make Your Own Playdough, Paint, and Other Craft Materials: Easy Recipes to Use with Young Children.

1. Every parent, teacher, childcare provider, and scout leader should have this budget friendly book. The variety of recipes, science experiments, and resourceful materials presented are valuable for expanding a child's education. Using just about everything a person already has in his/her kitchen, creative materials can be formed with little cost. It includes over 100 recipes, and presents ideas for every season of the year.
   
   I recommend buying this book, not just to have fun with your children, but for the knowledge they will gain, homemade gift ideas, holiday decorations, and the many other educational teaching elements it provides. You will find simple, but affordable gift ideas for children to make, discovery table suggestions, and many experiments. Each chapter of the book lists what children can learn and accomplish. Whether your child needs help learning measurements, hand-eye coordination, or learning science, you'll find this book to offer it all. The recipes and activities offer instructive and physical advantages for children, and teach them, as well as parents, about ways to recycle.
   
   The Author has worked with young children for over ten years, and the quality of her experience in this book is evident. She understands that family resources are difficult to manage and still afford the extras, while providing an educational and fun activity for kids.
   
   
   Kristina N. is a thrifty stay-at-home mother of six children, and home schools her preschooler. She does freelance writing in her spare time.



2. I have to assume that this book is very good. I bought it for someone else and had it sent directly to them. They specifically asked for it by name and author.



3. This book has been a great help to me as a stay at home mom of a toddler!! Great ideas to keep her busy when the weather is too hot to get outside(or as winter approaches too cold!). I love the ideas and my daughter has loved the varied activities in her "art" time!



4. I think this book is wonderful! If you have any of the "how to make and do things" type of books some of these recipes might be included but to see them all laid out in order with recipes for different things is very nice! Plus most of the recipes all share common ingredients so you don't need to buy a lot of hard to find stuff for each project.
   
   The way this book is laid out,with one recipe per page and large print,is very easy for children to read.My daughter really enjoyed being able to read the list and help mix up the ingredients.We especially liked the gloop and glop recipes for making slime.
   
   If you work at a school or daycare or if your kids go through paint and playdough like it is going out of style,I highly reccomend this book to cut supply cost because whipping up large batches of supplies will save you lots of money and if you get the kids involved is an awesome learning experience!



5. to my daughter with the four kids. Can't say she'll ever have time to look into it but she surely buys enough of the real stuff that she should. Can't say that I've looked into it myself.

2 comments about Great Book of Floral Patterns: The Ultimate Design Sourcebook for Artists and Craftspeople.

1. If it says by Lora S Irish just go ahead and open your wallet and buy it.



2. very good book with lots of details for drawings and paintings.this is a great book for beginners as well as the novice.

1 comments about 50 Ways to Paint Furniture: The Easy, Step-by-Step Way to Decorator Looks.

1. This book gave me lots of ideas for painting furniture without a lot of artistic talent. A+ there. However, many of the techniques list one type & color of paint with no discussion of why or possible substitutions. Some discussions at my local painting store gave me more insight.

2 comments about Donna Dewberry's Designs for Entertaining.

1. This book gives details on projects but does not include demonstrations of painting strokes. This book would be for someone familiar with the One Stroke Process.



2. The easy way to learning "one stroke" painting. This book has it all. She makes it seem so easy. You will be a pro real soon. She's full of innovative ideas.
   Enjoy painting whether for yourself or to share as gifts. Such a relaxing, satisfying, hobby. Enjoy!!

5 comments about 60 Minutes to Better Painting: Sharpen Your Skills in Oil and Acrylic.

1. Yeah, right... I read this book and was completely overwhelmed. The author thinks I can do a painting like this in 60 seconds?
   I don't think so. Thanks for trying. I would sell this book in a heartbeat...but my husband likes it... so on the shelf with other " How to books" ... It remains.



2. Craig Nelson is right: "studies" are essential to learn painting and evolve into a good painter. It helps to get to the essence of your subject. I do not know any good painter who did not spend years painting before becoming really good.
   This book does not have the perfect title but is excellent in content. The 60 minutes are what it takes to be in tune with what you are painting and finding ways to improve your artwork.
   Each lesson presents a different challenge, and also leads you to explore a full spectrum of techniques. Perfect book to get you started on the "right brush"...and get you really in awe of the whole process.



3. This is great book to sharpen your skills as a painter. I feel it's better suited for intermediate to profesional artists. The theory behind quickstudies is to make you decide what is or not important in a painting in a limited time span. To be honest, it took a lot of timed paintings to get used to the speed of a quickstudy. It definitely has helped loosen me up and not paint too tight from the getgo.



4. Fast Food Art
   
   There is something disturbing to me about the premise of this book. The whole idea that a painting is under a time limit seems counter to all that is art. Whether a painting took 5 minutes, 15 minutes or an hour seems totally irrelevant to me. Even in trying to achieve a spontaneous quality in a painting, a much better painter than the author once said: "a painting should look loose but not be painted loosely". This is a bit of advice I believe the author of this book could benefit from.
   
   To be fair this painting book could be a good way for a beginning painter to loose the fear of paint as has been previously stated. However in trying to rush a painting in just a few minutes, its not too far within the realm of possibilities to imagine that a beginning artist might be so discouraged from his or hers hurried results, that they may quit painting altogether.
   
   As far as the examples of painting in the book itself, the results are inconsistent. Some were good but some were very weak. What do I mean by weak? I am referring to bad drawing, bad color harmony and bad values and edge control. I would site pages 37, 62, 63, 88 as examples of some of the weaker paintings. The author does display good skill in some of the quick studies but I get the feeling he does not know when his painting is good or when his painting is bad. He simply accepts every painting he completes as good. One of the factors that determines a great artist is an artist's taste; being able to determine what is a good painting and what is a bad painting. In addition his paintings are devoid of emotion, and isn't emotion perhaps the most important factor in art? If he took more time in his drawing, values and edges as well as his intent, the results would be better. How much time? As much as the artist feels he needs to do the job right. The painting would still have the spontaneous quality the artist is trying to achieve but look better and nobody would care if it took 5 minutes or an 5 hours. Just that it was a good painting.
   
   Collectors of art are certainly not concerned with how much time it took an artist to complete a painting. If anything, a collector will be discouraged to hear that the painting they purchased was completed in one or two hours. They want to hear that the artist spent countless hours on their craft. They want to feel that the artist poured their heart and soul into the painting, not that they "churned" out the painting in one hour and slapped a frame on it. Producing dozens or even hundreds of paintings within a short time can only result in something trivial, nothing that has any real substance.
   
   So in conclusion I've coined the words "fast food" to describe the approach this book takes. Like fast food, the resulting painting may at first seem good but over time it will only leave a bad taste in your mouth.



5. I thought this book to be somewhat helpful but really didn't learn anything profoundly new. I loved a few of the paintings but overall other than reinforcing the theme of painting everyday it didn't excite me. It's an alright beginner's or entrance level intermediate artist's manual but there are better oil painting books for beginner's or the advanced intermediate artist such as Bill Creevy's book, Vicki McMurty's or Kevin MacPherson's. I found them to be more beneficial and cover more artistic ground in the areas of color theory and painting structure.

2 comments about Robert Warren's Guide to Painting Water Scenes.

1. Robert Warren has outdone himself in composing this wonderful instructional book on oil painting-it is very well explained-this book is for intermediate to advance skill level.



2. Very good instructions but I searched for acrylic books and did not check close enough as acrylics are mentioned but this book is strictly for oil painters. Also, no templates.

5 comments about Colors For Your Every Mood: Discover Your True Decorating Colors (Capital Lifestyles) (Capital Lifestyles).

1. Easy and quick to read and understand. Ties into the Pantone Color Guides very well. Combine this books, the Textile Guide, and ColorCue TX for a real lock on the color issues of interior design.



2. As a web developer I spend most of my day writing code and worrying about the code working on all browsers, etc. Up until recently I had no desire to learn about color and the feelings behind it. If you are in a similar situation look no more. This book has made a permanent position on my desk and will continue to help me with the design and development of my future projects. Hats off to the authors....
   I have fully recommended this book to the entire Long island Flash User's Group (LIFUG).



3. This book explained things I never did know about colors and served a a tool when creating my web site. The author take you through the history and usage of colors. It is truely a worthty purchase.



4. This is a fun book on color that seems to appeal to just about everyone who sees it. The ability to step outside one's own sphere of personal preference and appeal to a wide variety of taste is, I think, one of the most difficult challenges to the design book author, and that is the greatest achievement of this book. I was drawn to the soft pastels of what the author classifies as "Romantic" and "Nurturing," as well as the icy blues of "Winter Frost". I am always amazed when someone picks up the book and pours over the insufferably ugly "Traditional" palate featuring a red carpet, forest-green walls and a plaid couch, but there you go. Something for everyone.
   
   The author pairs photos of interiors, exteriors, and nature with a paint chips that approximate the look-and-feel of the illustration, which I found to be a fun approach. "Parisian Cafe" and "Marrakech" are two intriguing examples of using a certain place to inform color selection. The essays on color are a little cliched, too ofen embroidering the obvious (blue is "the color of the sky," we are told; pink is "soft and innocent" and red is "the color of excitement") but the photos are lovely and the general approach teaches one how to deconstruct an image or a place into a palette that can be used in an interior.



5. In my opinion this Leatrice Eiseman book is much better than the "Colors for your every mood" (L.Eisman). You will find plenty of color resources and answers. Some time she is very focus in psychology and emotional reactions and forget the practical side.

2 comments about Painting Fabulous Flowers with Donna Dewberry.

1. This is an excellent book for beginners and experienced decorative painters. Donna Dewberry always has clear instructions and wonderful ideas.



2. Absolutely WOW!! Makes several of her other books look mundane. She has many that I was interested in learning to paint. Excelllent

1 comments about Art School, New Edition.

1. after looking forward to seeing the paintings hyped in the description of this book, i was shocked by the diminutive reproductions - the size of which is so small as to make the physical limitations of halftone a factor in viewing the artwork (look closely at the photographic illustrations in any cheap newspaper and you'll get the idea : in this book, the dots are a significant percentage of the image size)
   
   sorry for wasting the time, effort and money on this purchase