Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

We are sharing our final summer theme for this year!! And it is one of my favorites. I remember doing this theme when Hazel was much younger and the truth is we often explore this theme in different ways at different ages. We will be reviewing a book for ages 9 and up but there are so many resources in our roundup for younger children as well as teenagers! It is such a versatile theme. The theme is exploring color!! To begin this theme, we are going to share Fun with Colors! Easy Painting Activities for Kids by Azabu Atelier. Again it is recommended for ages 9 and up.

About the Book:

The ultimate art guide for kids who love painting and drawing!

Kids have boundless creativity! This delightful book shows kids ages 9-12 how to harness their creativity to create amazing works of art. It introduces them to the wonderful world of watercolors, colored pencils, markers and pastels, and teaches them all the basic techniques needed to create beautiful works of art on their own!

The detailed lessons in this book have over 300 color photos and are crafted by a team of art teachers to teach kids how to:

Assemble the materials and practice the basic techniques of drawing and painting with color
Combine lines, textures, highlights and shadows to boost the realism of their artwork
Add blurring, blending and layering to create more sophisticated images as their skills improve
And much more!

As they progress through the lessons, kids learn how to paint ten objects and scenes, like:

A juicy red apple with a shiny, speckled skin and a realistic shadow
A mountain landscape with trees in the foreground and hazy peaks behind
Exploding oil pastel fireworks seen against a smoky night sky
A cuddly rabbit with colored-pencil fur and soulful eyes
Plus 6 more!

From Me:

This book is styled in a fun almost graphic novel/tutorial style. It starts with the two kids, Ai and Makoto, talking about Makoto's sketch of an apple. He wants to color it but isn't sure what tools will be best. That is when Professor Nekoda, a cat, joins in and begins to give them lessons. It goes through the various art tools like colored pencils, crayons, markers and paint and compares how they would look coloring Makoto's apple. I love the comparison page because there are pictures of the same apple colored with each medium. It also goes through things like the right paper and different paint brushes and when to use each type. It also shares how to water paint and other techniques. It gives suggestions of other tools and shows a sample workspace and how to set it up. Next it goes into colors. It talks about naming them to mixing them and so much more! For the most part the book focuses on painting colors and mixing paints. It is however very good at explaining things like lighting and shadows, gradients and texture with paint. In chapter four the projects begin with the first one being the apple. There are various things in the first three chapters like sketching and starting with lightest color to darkest color when painting. Besides apples there are projects to make sky, trees, sea, landscapes, flowers and more. There are a few projects where colored pencils are used.

The book is easy to read and easy to follow. If a reader starts at the beginning and tries the different suggestions and tutorials, he or she will have great success and learn quite a bit about color and painting. They are easy to follow and go into the details of what is needed. Even the painting projects share the colors that will be used for the project.

This book is perfect for an inspiring young artist. It teaches skills and basics. I wish there was a bit more on the colored pencils, but it is meant to be more of a painting book. There are other colored pencil books out there including one in my roundup below. For rainy days, quiet times or for the kid who just loves to create art, this book is perfect!! Explore colors, how they work together and how to create them with paint as well as gain other painting skills. I think kids will enjoy it.

Exploring Color Resource Roundup:

Now as I said in the introduction, Hazel and I have had a lot of fun exploring colors over the years. We have done it with different things from science experiments to artwork and so much more. We even had a whole playlist of music about color when she was young. But there are activities here that teenagers and adults will enjoy as well. The roundup is divided into two groups: books and activities. Some of the activities go along with the books or other media. There are also quilts, origami, and artwork plus my coloring book series that all explore color in their own way. Enjoy!! And get colorful!