The Art Box » (Reprint)

Describes the many different kinds of tools and supplies which artists use to produce their work.

Children's Literature

What is in an art box? In her art box, Gibbons finds drawing instruments, papers, rulers, templates for drawing different shapes, tape, glue, scissors, paints, and of course erasers for mistakes. And with the addition of an artist's imagination, out of the art box comes art! Once all the ingredients are collected for a painting, Gibbons examines the primary colors of red, yellow, and blue. Next, the author explains how they fit together into a color wheel to make up the secondary colors, green, purple, and orange. Another page shows how black darkens a color and white lightens it. This book covers the basics tools of an artist in an extremely simplified manner. For example, canvas is mentioned as a surface on which to paint. However, it will not be clear to young readers from the text or the illustration that a canvas is actually a loosely woven, rough cloth stretched over a frame. It might have been interesting for young readers if the author had mentioned the different textures of paper and canvas, and why artists choose one over another.