Grids: A Drawing Book for Squares
Designed by Michael Lenz
Illustrated by Jacky Bahbout, Peter Rhodes, & Georgina Graves
Thames and Hudson 6/14/2016
978-0-500-29233-4
128 pages   Ages 7—11

“A drawing board for squares . . .
“Draw, doodle and color in all kinds of patterned grids, from geometrics to free-slowing designs. Be creative. Be square, round, swirly . . .” [back cover]

“From geometric shapes to free-flowing designs, children love to doodle. Within the patterned grids printed on the pages of Grids, children are inspired to create a city based on a grid of boxes; sketch a huge crowd of people; transform a 3-D grid into a robot workshop; and turn simple lines into funny faces.

“The book begins with drawing tips and prompts for children to follow, including how to draw characters using only a few simple shapes, and facial expressions with only a few lines. The book quickly progresses to more loosely regimented activities that encourage children to use their imaginations. Printed on a variety of paper colors and stocks, Grids uses simple grids to help children create fantastic images.” [publisher]

Review
Grids: A Drawing Book for Squares contains loads of pages just waiting for a kid’s imagination to fill it in. Learn how to make a dot-to-dot, an optical illusion, and a magic hand—all really cool illustrations and art drawn on grid. Beginning with simple free-hand patterns on the grid and various symmetrical designs, kids learn the basics for most grid illustrations.

Basic drawing covers the areas of shapes, shading, and scaling pictures using a grid. From here, kids can learn about optical illusions, wonky grids (grids leaning to one side), lettering, and drawing grid-like, yet off a grid objects. Grids is full of wonderful exercises for kids interested in illustrating or simply want to learn how to draw using grids—a much easier way to learn to draw.

Kids do not need a certain goal in mind to use Grids: A drawing Board for Squares. You need not even be a square. The grid activities are a fun way to tackle a boringly long car trip or a rainy afternoon. I found them to be a good way to slip into the right side of the brain—the creative side. With Grids, kids will become more open to doodling and free-flow art in general.

There are frames to enclose your doodle, grids for cityscapes—or alien landscapes—geometric grids for one-of-a-kind snowflakes, wavy grids to produce 3-D art, mazes and dot-to-dot—both of your making—and circular grids for most anything you can think of. The freedom in Grids is its most impressive feature. Kids (and adults), can learn a new technique and then use it to make most anything they desire. Each skill build on to the next so that at Grids’ end kids will have quite a repertoire of skills.

I think older middle grade kids will love the more advanced items in Grids, while all kids will thoroughly enjoy the creative freedom of grid-drawing and, when ready to step-up their work to a higher level, Grids will help them along that path. Grids: A Drawing Book for Squares is an enjoyable hands-on art book for kids interested in learning how to draw using grids; a truly easier way to learn.

GRIDS: A DRAWING BOOK FOR SQUARES. Illustrations copyright © 2016 by Jacky Bahbout, Peter Rhodes, & Georgina Graves. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Thames and Hudson, New York, NY.

Amazon—Indie Books—Thames and Hudson

Find Grids: A Drawing Book for Squares on Goodreads HERE.

Michael Lenz:
Follow on Twitter          @lenz117

Jacky Bahbout:  http://jackybahbout.com/
Follow on Twitter          @JackyBahbout

Peter Rhodes:  http://rhodes-peter.co.uk/
Follow on Twitter          @PeterJRhodes

Georgina Graves:  http://georginagraves.tumblr.com/
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Thames and Hudson, USA:  http://www.thamesandhudsonusa.com/
Follow on Twitter          @ThamesHudsonUSA

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Reprinted with permission from GRIDS: A DRAWING BOOK FOR SQUARES © 2016 by Michael Lenz, Thames and Hudson, Illustrations © 2016 by Jacky Bahbout, Peter Rhodes, & Georgina Graves.

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Copyright © 2016 by Sue Morris/Kid Lit Reviews. All Rights Reserved

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Grids: A Drawing Book for Squares
Designed by Michael Lenz
Illustrated by Jacky Bahbout, Peter Rhodes, & Georgina Graves
Thames and Hudson 6/14/2016
9780500292334