Friday, November 14, 2014

Draw-A-Saurus {a Blogging for Books review}

My middle son has been on a whole lot of an art kick lately.  He wants to draw, or paint, or sculpt, whenever possible.

He wants to take art lessons.  Which hasn't really been in the budget right now.

So when I had the chance to review Draw-A-Saurus, I knew I had to go for it.  I knew he'd love it.

I was totally right.  He absolutely did.

Before I get into what we thought, here's a blurb from the publisher:
This in-depth yet accessible dinosaur drawing guide combines humor, creativity, and the latest dino research to show artists young and old how to breathe life into drawings of their prehistoric favorites. 
Prehistoric Pencil Power!
Even though they lived some 65 million years ago, dinosaurs and other prehistoric reptiles continue to rule today. From movies to comics and cartoons, these ancient, giant beasts are everywhere you turn. Of course, who wants to just read about or watch these dinos when you can learn how to use pencils, pens, markers, and more to draw your very own?

Cartoonist James Silvani combines easy-to-follow art exercises with the latest, greatest dino-facts to help you create fun and cool dinosaur doodles all by yourself. With lessons on old favorites like T-rex and stegosaurus, as well as lesser-known (but still awesome) creatures like the massive argentinosaurus, Draw-a-Saurus has everything the dinosaur fan could ever ask for (outside of their very own pet dino!).

 

Our thoughts:

Thomas found the writing to be very funny, especially the "editor" notes.  He was constantly cracking up, and then saying, "Mom, listen to this!" then reading something out loud, cracking up the whole time.  He'd finish with, "You've got to put that in the review!"

He also found the art instruction to be very helpful.  As did the younger guys.  They all (ages 13, 10 and 8) took a stab at drawing a T. Rex using the instructions in the book.  This was their first attempt.


As you can see, some did better than others.

Thomas has tried drawing dragons (which we believe are just another name for dinosaurs) in the past and never been really happy with his results.  By practicing with some of the lessons in this book, he was then able to adapt it and create some pretty cool results.

Here's a before and after (or rather, an after and before) shot of his work:


The red one -- the after the book's lessons one -- is obviously moving and there is more of a sense of muscles and realism there. 

We've loved this book!

Disclaimer: I received this book for free from Blogging for Books for this review.

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