5 Fabulous Books for Art Teachers

As school is starting soon, I thought I would start a new series of blog posts about some of my favorite fabulous things.   I LOVE art books and have so many of them.  Our school library also has a great collection of books I can use.  Here is a list (in no particular order) of books that I refer to frequently when I need a boost of inspiration.  There are many more exciting books for art teachers, but here are a few of my favorites….

1.Keys to Drawing with Imagination: Strategies and Exercises for Gaining Confidence and Enhancing Your Creativity
    I love this book!  It has fabulous drawing exercises and the drawings are exquisite and exceptional.

2.   200 Projects to Strengthen Your Art Skills: For Aspiring Art Students (Aspire Series)  This book is chock-full of fun ideas.  If I have a student that is way ahead of the others in terms of project completion, I will often pull out this book (and the Keys to Drawing with Imagination) for them to pick out an activity for independent study.

3.  A Survival Kit for the Elementary/Middle School Art Teacher (J-B Ed: Survival Guides)
This is a book that I don’t look at too much anymore, but when I first started teaching art I used it all the time.  It has many art projects you might start with to build your art curriculum and the book is organized very well.  I would recommend it to a new teacher.

4. Dynamic Art Projects for Children: Includes Step-by-step Instructions And Photographs. 
  This book has lovely, colorful pictures and the projects are innovative.  There are 17 projects in this book… so not as chock-full of content as the other ones listed above, but I found that while looking at the how-to photographs I was able to translate the ideas and techniques into other lessons.  It inspired me to think of things in new ways.

5.   Children And Painting  This book is full of beautiful, colorful examples of ways to teach children about painting.  There are guided activities to teach techniques and allow the students to express themselves in their own way.  I love it!