This book was great and fun to read. Even her painting examples in the book show how much painting can be a joy and fun. I especially liked how the book is divided up into easy to understand chapters and topics like "what you need to know about applying pastels" or "what you need to know about completing a painting" . With tips and reviews throughout the book. Thus it is a good book to use if one is also teaching art. The book is not just for beginners but for those that have been painting for years. It shows you how to "have fun with art" not just knowing techniques. Author- Creative Painting For The Young Artist

Carole Katchen understands the pastel artist and reflects her understanding in this book that goes from the basics of selecting and using pastels to the emotional needs of the artist. She has useful tips throughout. She has information and examples of negative painting, blending,scribbling, and stippling. There are refresher pages that emphasize the main points of each chapter. But, maybe the most important chapter is the last one, because it encourages the artist to be true to himself or herself and know that if art is done with courage, fun and dedication, it will glow with distinction.

As a beginning pastelist, I found this book to be quite an inspirational journey. It showed me possibilities and beauty in a medium unfamiliar to most. I had a sense of being educated almost unconciuosly because I was so engrossed in the information and drawn into the beauty of this book. I highly recommend it as a reference tool and as a treat for the eyes.

I thought this was a delightful book. Mr. Janeczko's poetry surprised me by how easily (and well) it captured the essence of the subjects. Ms. Katchen's illustrations fit quite well, adding to the almost nostalgic feel. I say almost because I've sat next to these people, watched them play, or driven the sleepy umbrella operators home after the game. I'd recommend this book for both children and adults. It made me wish that there was more (and that opening day was closer).

Sigh...I was rather disappointed with this book. I expected so much more from it than what was delivered. For a book that purports to give ideas for increasing originality in your own paintings it is surprisingly unoriginal.

You get suggestions such as "Add a Still Lake to Your Landscape", "Paint a Wild Animal", "Capture Animals in Their Natural Habitat", "Paint a Season of the Year" and "Paint an Arrangement of Dried Flowers", etc. etc. etc. I'm not kidding. This is what is passed on as expanding creative boundaries. It is filled to the brim with cliched themes that are supposed to help spark creativity and originality. Some suggestions begin to show promise but there were just too few overall. One of the good things about the book is that at least many of the paintings were beautiful (although boring in my opinion - victims of the cliches they were illustrating).

Which frankly leaves me baffled as to why it was felt to be neccessary to publish this book. Save your change and get books that showcase award winning paintings such as one of the "Best of" books for watercolors, oils, pastels, colored pencil or other media. You'll get plenty of inspired ideas from these type of books and a lot more original ideas for inspiration.

This book has great ideas for subjects of paintings (and drawings), not matter if your medium is oils, pastels, acrylics, watercolors, pencil, or charcoal. The examples are very good artwork. Good for beginners who do not know what to paint and experts who are "stuck" without inspiration.

This is a fabulous book. It helped me to see and want to paint the magic and beauty in ordinary objects. Katchen shows a wonderful selection of artist's works. This book is full of inspiring ideas for choosing and arranging objects and colors for delicious paintings.

I found this book to be full of information about the different kinds of pastels that are available and the best paper to use when using pastels. It touched on the use of techniques in achieving whatever look you want.The pictures are beautiful!But as to whether by following the instructions you can get the same result is questionable. All and all a wonderful book to have but I think difficult for begginners who are just trying Pastels to follow.

I found this book provides a lot of information on the fundamental techniques that artists use when creating pastel works. It also covers quite a varying range of styles and subjects using all colour images. There are quite a few detailed breakdowns of how pastels are created from underpainting (or not) following right through a work to completion.

As someone new to using pastels I found this book to be most informative and interesting and a great addition to my technical library.

Annie is a young girl who finds her life turned upside down when her family moves from a small, quiet town to a suburb of Los Angeles. She finds that starting out in a new school is tough; especially when you don't know how to act around the people. At first, Annie tries to make friends with girls in the popular crowd, thinking that they will expose her to many friends. But by the end of the book, she realizes that with people, the inside counts more than the outside, as she meets and makes friends with two people who are outside of the "in" crowd. "Your Friend, Annie" is an excellent book about growing up and fitting in, a task which is tough enough for kids. The book is a day-by-day account of Annie's struggle to fit in at school and at home, as she tries to learn who she is and who are her real friends. The book also adds a humorous touch as Annie describes the antics of her family, from her brother's love of insects, to her mother's new interest in self-help classes. Overall, I recommend this book for anyone, particularly a young person who has recently moved.

This is a very simple book. Overly simplistic, but it is a good book to get comfortable with marketing your art. I think that may be its greatest value. Marketing is often times over whelming and this book does a good job making hte beginner feel comfortable with the process.