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.