So You Love to Draw: Every Kid's Guide to Becoming an Artist

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian studies at
Concordia University, and the author of Kurlek, Margaret Laurence: The
Long Journey Home, and As Though Life Mattered: Leo Kennedy’s Story.

From its cleverly designed cover to the italicized anecdotes about
artists in its margins, this book is a delight. The guide covers
everything from getting started (including warming-up exercises),
through paints and brushes and papers, to composition, perspective, and
drawing figures and faces. There is a section on drawing comics and
mixing media, and another on landscape, imaginary worlds, and creating
tension. The section on textures is wonderfully inventive and superbly
illustrated. Collage is enlivened by anecdotes about English artist
David Hockney, Picasso, and Matisse.

Text and illustrations work very well together. The illustrations in
the margins provide fine examples of points made in the text. I’ve not
seen a better art guide to inspire budding artists and get them working
on their own. So You Love to Draw would make an excellent text for art
classes, and it is highly recommended for both home and school use.