Leonardo’s Art Workshop is a book of projects to invent, create, and make steam projects like a genius. This book has 6 chapters: Color, Shadow and Light, Lines and Patterns, Forms and Structures, Optics and Special Effects, The Essential Leonardo. Each chapter has step by step instructions for projects related to the topic of that chapter. The color chapter has ways to make colored dyes from foods, which I thought was pretty cool (and may be something to consider for easter eggs?) I liked that in addition to showing you some of these activities it also talks about the science behind it, so you can learn a little bit and then do a hands on example. I was always much more of a hands on learner and needed to see it to believe it so these activities would have been great for me as a kid.
I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review, I was not otherwise compensated. This book was released November 20, 2018 on Quarry Books.
About the Book
Leonardo’s Art Workshop leads children on an interactive adventure through key art concepts by following the multidisciplinary approach of the Renaissance period polymath Leonardo da Vinci: experimenting, creating projects, and exploring how art intersects with science and nature. Photos of Leonardo’s own notebooks, paintings, and drawings provide visual inspiration.
More than 500 years ago, Leonardo knew that the fields of science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics (STEAM) are all connected. The insatiably curious Leonardo examined not just the outer appearance of his art subjects, but the science that explained them. He began his studies as a painter, but his curiosity, diligence, and genius made him also a master sculptor, architect, designer, scientist, engineer, and inventor. The Leonardo’s Workshop series shares this spirit of multidisciplinary inquiry with children through accessible, engaging explanations and hands-on learning.
Following Leonardo’s example, this fascinating book harnesses children’s innate curiosity to explore the foundational elements of art—color, shadow and light, lines and patterns, forms and structures, and optics and special effects—and the science behind them. After each concept is explained using science, history, and real-world examples, kids can experience the principles first-hand with step-by-step STEAM projects, including:
Create paints and dyes from food
Harness a rainbow with a prism
Build a camera obscura
Make your own sundial
Practice blind contour drawing
Create a one-point perspective drawing
Make an infinity scope
Insight from other great artists and scientists—such as Sir Isaac Newton, Sandro Botticelli, Paul Klee, and Leonardo Pisano Fibonacci—are woven into the lessons throughout. Introduce vital STEAM skills through visually rich, hands-on learning with Leonardo’s Art Workshop.