Art Lab for Kids: Express Yourself

Such a great book to artistically inspire toddlers to teens. The author encourages freedom of expression from a young age utilizing various methods and mediums. With an easily attainable list of supplies, many already found in your home, you can create a temporary space or a permanent art studio for your child's creations. Plain English explanations means that everyone can understand the instructions while learning about different styles and techniques. This book belongs in every home library for rainy days or any day that inspiration strikes.

I really enjoyed this book! The activities are engaging while allowing children to let her emotional selves out. More than just, Art Labs for Kids Express Yourself! ios something I would get for my children. The tasks aren't overly challenging but engaging and fun. I would be happy to do these projects with my children. IF they seemed open to it I'd post teh questions included to further their creativity. This is a great book!

Art Lab for Kids Express Yourself! shows you how to do a ton of different projects and techniques that kids can try out. A great resource for parents and teachers as well, it offers ideas and art starters to get kids thinking about putting feelings and emotions into their work, no matter the age. I definitely liked that they showed a large age range for the projects, though I do worry that some people will assume a pictured child is the only age that can do that particular project. Some do look difficult or messy, and thus geared toward older kids, but plenty of them will work for any age, and with sufficient practice and assistance, any of them are possible for even young kids.

The author's main intention is to stimulate the creative thought process in children through artwork. Children are strongly encouraged to express themselves through their own ideas - their own interpretations. It is suggested that for many children creativity needs to be nurtured. This process takes time and is most easily accomplished through repetition. Quite inspiring, wonderful illustrations depict children in the process of being creative in their own way. This is a must-have book for the development of a child on many levels.

I offer my gratitude to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group / Quarry Books for this ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

I found in this book excellent projects to do with my children. There are many new ideas about painting and drawing together.
Thank you Netgalley for this great book.

Art Lab for Kids Express Yourself was written by Susan Schwake and is a follow-up to the book Art Lab for Kids.
Summary: This book provides 52 creative adventures for kids-enabling them to discover new art techniques, as well as their own personal style.
My Thoughts: I am a big fan of the lab series for kids, and this is another fun one.
One of my favorite things about this book-all of the step-by-step pictures. I am very visual when creating art, and seeing exactly what each step should look like, really helps me communicate the projects better to my kids.
The instructions were very clear and concise, and there were plenty of diverse projects to choose from-meaning you are sure to find something your child or student would enjoy.
The projects start out quite simply, with minimal supplies, and kids will find plenty of varied projects to explore. In the beginning units, I would say students five and up can complete the projects, but as the units progress, there are definitely a few I would leave for those ages 9 and up.
Overall, this is a great start-up book for anyone that is looking for easy, clearly-defined art projects for kids.
I would like to thank Quarry Books for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for my review. Thank you.

Art Lab for Kids: Express Yourself by Susan Schwake has five different chapters, focusing on different tools and mediums. Most projects are easy to carry out. My cubs and I worked through the book together. They chose several experiments that they found unusual or interesting, and several that they really enjoyed:

Weird experiments include:
Blind portraits, where you keep your gaze completely focusing in a partner while you draw them. The results are quite interesting.
Stripes and lines, where you paint a composite of just thin lines and fat stripes.
Big rolling prints, that teaches you how to use big round plastic jugs to make jumbo printing presses.
Wire wonders, where you get to make funky wire sculptures.
Colourful beasts invites artists to sketch out their favorite animals, and fill in the shape with colourful strips of paper.

Fun experiments include:
Night creatures, where you draw a night creature out, then paint it with water colours.
Colour pops, where you lay down a colour background and overlay with black/grey foreground.
Texture plates, involved in learning to use different textures in your projects
All that Glitters, where glitter is the name of the game
Two in one weaving teaches a unique method of weaving

A great book for sparking creativity, and get kids interested in art. Perfect for classroom projects!

***Many thanks to Netgalley and Quarto Publishing for providing an ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This book is filled with so many creative ideas for children! I really enjoyed this book and all of the different art experiments and projects. In this age of too much screen time, this book is needed for so many families to help give kids the push to do so many things and expand their creativity. I would recommend this book to any parent or educator looking to help their child or student have more tactical fun with art.

This would be a good book for children who would like to guide themselves through the lessons as well as parents or teachers who want to use the lessons for younger children. Each lesson is well explained and illustrated. There weren't very many new ideas that I hadn't seen before, but it's nice to see how children execute each lesson.

5 STARS!! This book was well done and a life saver this holiday season! I had an absolute blast doing the projects in here with my friends kids. I would love to teach a class using this if I could get in contact with someone who could give me permission, it was so so well done.~

This is a book I'd very-much like to add to the shelves at my school library. Like its title suggests, "Art Lab for Kids: Express Yourself!" presents a series of "Labs," or projects, in a variety of artistic endeavors: drawing, painting, printmaking, mixed media, and paper-based. Each project includes a materials list, a description or prompt, and step-by-step instructions. From its introduction, the book seems written with adults in mind, e.g. parents or educators, who would assemble an artistic space and offer the projects as lessons -- but the way the projects themselves are presented, I think that older children could also explore them independently. (Some techniques, like using a cutting tool, are meant to be performed under adult supervision.)

While this a colorful book full of instruction, it contains little in new ideas. Most of the projects will remind you of elementary school art class or ideas you have seen on the internet.

Having them all in one compact source might be helpful for me to have at the art center, but I would have to think long and hard about the investment involved in putting this on our book shelves.

Disclaimer: An electronic version of this book was given to me by NetGallery in exchange for a fair and honest review.