Art Workshop for Children is not just another book of straightforward art projects. The book's unique child-led approach provides a framework for cultivating creative thinking and encourages the wonder that comes when children are allowed to freely explore the creative process and their materials. As children work through these open-ended workshops, adults are guided on how to be facilitators who provide questions, encourage deep thinking, and help spark an excitement for discovery. Children explore basic materials and workshops that use minimal supplies, and then gradually add new materials to fill the art cabinets as well as new skills and more complex workshops. Most workshops are suitable to preschool-aged children, and each contains ideas for explorations and new twists to engage older or more experienced artists. Interspersed throughout are sidebar essays that introduce perspectives on mess-making, imperfection, the role of adult, collaborative art, and thoughts on the Reggio Emilia method, a self-guided teaching philosophy. These pieces underscore the value of art-making with children, and support the parent/teacher/care-giver on how to successfully lead, question, and navigate their children through the workshops to result in the fullest experiences.

A practical, accessible guide to turning your good photographs into great ones whether you are shooting on the latest digital SLR or a camera phone. Discover one hundred simple and fun ways to improve your photographs both in-camera and through post-processing image manipulation. Every key photographic genre is covered, from perfect portraits and the great outdoors, to travel photos and shooting at night. Filled with inspirational examples of great photographs compared against the more average images, with easy-to-follow techniques for how you can achieve the same results. Whether you are an aspirational amateur wanting to make your photographs even better, or an enthusiastic beginner who just wants to produce more satisfying results, 100 Ways to Make Good Photographs Great will provide you with useful professional tips and techniques to take your photography to the next level.

Painting a portrait of a child is one of the most complex challenges an artist will face. In this detailed and practical book, Simon Davis opens up his studio and explains his approach. As one of the country's leading portrait painters, he gives a unique insight into how to render a sympathetic portrait in oils, which avoids sentimentality and captures the essence of a child. Topics covered include the importance of composition and balance, tonality and palette, atmosphere and advice on the complete process, from first ideas to putting down the paintbrush. There are step-by-step examples of a range of children, including different ages, backgrounds and groups and an interview with fellow Royal Society of Portrait Painters artist Andrew James. This unique account of painting thoughtful, intelligent and honest portraits of children will be of great interest to portrait painters and anyone commissioning a portrait. Fully illustrated with 134 colour photographs.

Today’s cash-conscious families can’t afford to take professional portraits of their children each month. Top Ten Secrets for Perfect Baby & Child Portraits helps camera consumers get into the head of America’s master baby, child, and portrait photographer—and his step-by-step guidance will help anyone take better photographs. Clay Blackmore, a professional photographer and proud father of a young son, shows anyone how to shoot the top baby and child photos with any compact point-and-shoot or DSLR camera. Now parents can take professional-quality photos, preserving precious memories and milestones. Blackmore provides insight, background, tips, and guidelines for his ten favorite types of baby and child photographs, all based on lighting situations ranging from window light to setting up a makeshift home studio with one or more lighting sources. Color photographs from his professional and personal portfolio illustrate each step and provide inspiration. Book Bonus: an exclusive password to a 20-minute online instructional how-to video with the author demonstrating each cluster of photo techniques.

Contemporary photographs that cleverly capture a child's mood or personality--whether that's a big, toothy grin or a teary tantrum--are easily created with the tips and techniques explored in this in-depth handbook. Often called "lifestyle photography," modern techniques such as tightly cropped close-ups, vignettes, wide angles, and shallow depths produce images that are markedly less stiff and more expressive than traditional portraiture. From capturing great expressions and body language to integrating meaningful locations into the shoot to further express the subject's personality, this guide thoroughly explains how photographers can develop their image-storytelling skills to develop stunning portraits. Advice on creating platinum and chocolate-hued prints, vibrant color scenes, dramatic black & whites, and utilizing unusual textures or effects is also included.

Famed for her masterful children’s portraits and innovative methods, industry giant Sandy Puc’ presents every conceivable aspect of children’s portraiture in this quintessential guidebook. As great portrait sessions begin with top-notch planning and a working knowledge of the equipment, Puc’ first offers her insights regarding the benefits of being well prepared from the start, including strategies for enhancing the technical aspects of the shoot, from lighting to posing to post-capture techniques. Puc’ then uses her renowned interpersonal skills to offer advice regarding working with parents as well as eliciting enthusiasm and cooperation from children of all ages, including teens. Additional tips include effective ideas for photographing parent-and-child combinations, incorporating the family pet, and working with kids who have special needs. Puc’ also relays her extensive sales-savvy to help

With the advancement of digital camera technology, we can now buy a digital camera at a reasonably low price, take photos at little or no cost, and share them quickly with others. These cameras are easy to use, so you don’t really have to learn much to use them. However, you will sometimes see that some of the photos did not come out as well as you liked them to. You will also see that some others take better photos than you do, with cameras that are similar to yours. In this book, I tried to describe some simple guidelines that help you to take better photos, without expensive equipment or a deep technical knowledge. I learned most of these guidelines the hard way; by making a lot of mistakes, looking back at my photos, observing how other people take photos, and experimenting. I tried to write them in a style that is easy to read, using examples wherever possible. I hope this book will help you to learn what I know in much less time than I took, and in future take much better photos than I do.