Now parents, across the country, can partake in the unique, ingenious and highly successful art classes the children of Naperville, IL have enthusiastically enjoyed for over 25 years!
ART STUDIO TECHNIQUE BOOKS
Purchase of ART STUDIO books is through paypal. You don't have to have a paypal account to use it and you can use your favorite credit card through the system. It is a highly secure system. Also, $2.00 handling charge is added to cover the cost of mailing envelopes and boxes. Books are sent 'media mail' through the USPS. This is the least expensive method and is quite comparable with first class mail service.
These books are verbatim what James Watt teaches in his classes. They are engaging, humorous and include the step by step instruction, along with many intermediate 'how to' illustrations, and comments on the common mistakes that beginner students make. These books were meant to provide the closest thing to Mr. Watt personally teaching your child(ren). As a result, they are also EXCELLENT home school texts for teaching children the techniques of art and logic. The parent can function as the teacher (and secret student) by simply reading through the material and doing the exercises along with the children to ensure the same easy-going encouragement that Mr. Watt provides for the students in his classes.
The material in these volumes is real art instruction. They are utterly consistent and build up the way the geometry theorems of Euclidean geometry build on 'what went before'. They are geared, however, to teaching children across the gamut from 1st grade up through high school. Children, 4th grade and above, can use these books on their own. However, children, 1st grade through 3rd benefit from their parents reading the book and doing the exercises with them. 1st grade students are routinely included in Mr. Watt's classes. With parental help, the children will have no problems.
These are NOT picture books for kids to mindlessly copy pictures! They are detailed books of ART INSTRUCTION and of the LOGIC which build complex pictures up from very simple consistent principles. That is the key to this unique method of instruction. The material is the result of years of Watt's experience as a freelance artist in advertising and architectural illustration. The method in the book has been tested and refined over a period of 25 years. It gets excellent results with children. Art is less about some 'mysterious talent' than it is about knowing and saying what it is you are doing and how you want to do it.
Each book lists, in the front, the same art materials that are used in the ART STUDIO classes in Naperville. These material are both inexpensive and the best material for these lessons. No corners should be cut in materials. Average cost of materials for use with book is around $15.00. A source for purchase of material is also listed. This source is one of the best online for art material in the world - Blick Art Stores.
Above, are some examples of typical illustrations from volume 2 showing how to draw skirts and moustaches.
Left, is part of the sequence from Volume 1.
ART STUDIO, VOLUME 1, BASIC DRAWING I
Volume 1, Basic Drawing I, goes over the strong link between art and geometry. It teaches the student about how math and art come from the same place and that it is systematic logic which makes not only art, but all of the modern world possible. The exercises teach children the definition of words (tools) of logic and how to use them.
The second feature of this book is teaching children a figure called 'Mr. Zero', which is the basic geometric shape of a human being, cartoon or realistic. The book uses cartooning of the human figure because that is what children are doing even when they think they are drawing realistic people. The principle is to understand the simple well and then the complex ('realistic') will be easy. Complex means, 'made up of simple parts'. If you don't know what the simple part is....you don't know what the complex is, either. Volume 1 goes over all these critical simple parts that most people go through life never actually understanding.
No one should go on to the other volumes, except that they have read and studied this volume! Even if a student has had other art lessons, it is highly probable they haven't had the lessons in this book. Simple doesn't mean easy....it means very important!
Size is 9" x 12", 82 pages. $19.99
ART STUDIO, VOLUME 2, BASIC DRAWING II
Volume 2, Basic Drawing II builds on what was learned in Basic Drawing I. It shows how to expand a student's skill at drawing figures from any angle doing 'whatever the artist wants'. It goes into how to draw accessories like hats, glasses, beards, skirts. The student learns how to put multiple figures into a drawing so that things look correct.
The same link between art and geometry is explained in the course of instruction as the reason for why things work the way they do. As with volume 1, volume 2 should be read and studied before going on to Volume 3. This is the way to maintain an even coherent flow of understanding that the complex whole of artwork is controlled by the same very simple elements.
Volume 2 is a combination of Basic Drawing II and Drawing II as taught in ART STUDIO after school classes.
Size is 9" x 12", 128 pages. $22.50
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ART STUDIO, VOLUME 3 SCALING & PERSPECTIVE
Volume 3, Scaling & Perspective explains the intricacies of scaling and perspective in art. These are critical aspects that are usually poorly understood, even by advanced artists. The reason they are so poorly understood is because the foundation of art and geometry is missing in most artists' education. It is with this volume, that all the work of volumes 1 & 2 really show through.
Scaling & Perspective should not be taught to 1st graders through 3rd graders, although some may do well with it. If you child is in this age group, either show them some of it and exercise patience with them or wait until they are older or show good skills with what they learned in the Basic Drawing texts.
This volume is the completion of basic drawing. A student who understands the material in this volume is well on their way to becoming expert at drawing. It is planned that in the year 2021, we will be bringing color books out; Basic Color, Water Color and Realistic Animals (with instruction in colored pencil). If your child is below 3rd grade, please look to these upcoming volumes, as they will, once again, be easily able to understand and work through those volumes.
Size 9" x 12", 120 pages. $22.50 4th grade and above.
A finished illustration from
a scaling project in
Scaling and Perspective.
ELIMINATING CARELESS ERROR
This book shows a little known and very simple method of checking any answer in Arithmetic to see if it is correct or contains an error. The method works in seconds regardless of the size of the student's problem. I know children who were failing in remedial math at school who read this book and the next year were placed in advanced math. This book should be in all schools. It is unfortunate that it is not. Possibly the reason is, if a child knows this method, they can get the right answers on multiple choice tests - without actually doing the problems! The method works for all four operations of math and also provides a tool for examining more complex problems in high school mathematics. If you are tired of problems with your child and math....this book is for you. It will change their life! This book is geared to children 4th grade and above. Younger children can work through the portions of this book with their parents as is appropriate to what they are learning in school at the time.
Size 8.5" x 11". 73 pages. $15.99 Available ONLY from ART STUDIO and Back Fence Publishing!