How to use this Page

PhotoPlay!: Doodle. Design. Draw.

by M. J. Bronstein

978-1-4521-2341-7

Chronicle Books     3/04/2014

Age 5 and up     128 pages

.

“Wondrous and wacky photographs paired with quirky, clever prompts make PhotoPlay!a delightful invitation to imaginative exploration! Design an upside-down world, a passing parade, and an underwater garden. Draw a tasty birthday cake for Bob, a pet for Grace, and Ravi’s imaginary friend. This offbeat photo-based doodle book invites creative minds of all ages to draw outside the lens.”

Instructions

“What might you do with this book? Draw right on top of the photographs? Yes! Design something that seems goofy or impossible? Yes! Color outside the lines? Yes! Laugh out loud at my photographs? Yes! Laugh out loud at your drawings? Why not? With your pencils, crayons, markers, and your wide-open imagination, it’s your turn to step, jump, run, or dive right in!”

Review

PhotoPlay! is a coloring book for kids too old to color in a coloring book with fat ducks, round apples, and the number 4. If you think you’re too old, then PhotoPlay! is the doodle, design, and –YES—the coloring book for you.  (You are also wrong. You are never too old to color in any coloring book, even if it contains the number 8!)

Inside PhotoPlay! are interesting photographs for you to complete as you see fit. The back cover is a picture of a lake or maybe the ocean, with a few people standing in the water, a kid walking in the sand, followed by a dog, and one white empty sky. As an example, the author—who probably thought this scene was a bit dull—added a sailboat, giving those just standing in the water something to look at. She also added a big bright yellow sun with an equally big smile. And, my favorite, a dolphin jumping out of the water close to shore, with a great smile and raised dolphin eyebrow. This dolphin must be what caught the attention of the kid walking on shore. Easy, right?

Now it is your turn. What page do you go to next? How about somewhere you can draw yourself and all your friends or relatives looking out from fancy windows with old-fashioned shutters. Or, right next to that, two large Vintage Wedgewood-style frames. A family of four fits perfectly in the windows and two BFF’s in the two frames. You can always go a bit wild and make the windows a family of dinosaurs or aliens. These are yours to do with as you please. The entire book is yours to do with as you please.

You can write a story, illustrate a comic book, sketch a self-portrait, start a list, draw a song. The pictures range from ordinary cats and dogs, basketball hoops and gym equipment, to a lone seal in the middle of nowhere and a camera looking back at you. I think of these as unusual art or writing prompts. Every page is waiting for guidance, wanting to blossom and grow, needing to be completed—all by you and your imagination and willing hand. This is not your little sister’s coloring book. PhotoPlay! really cannot be adequately described. Everyone will start with the same photographs and then end with a book of unusual photographic art. There are no rules, no right or wrong, they just are. (This is when you say, “Oh, deep.”)

 

PhotoPlay! must be the unusual book of the year and will win awards. That stuff is all nice, but what do you care? As long as you have a copy of PhotoPlay! Doodle. Design. Draw. your world is all set—or will be once you get out your art supplies and get to work building your own personal photographic art journal. Absolutely no one will have a PhotoPlay! Doodle. Design. Draw. like your unique, one-of-a-kind photographic journal. Do I think this is a cool, original, stupendous, idea? You bet I do. Have I started my own personal one-of-a kind journal? You can make your PhotoPlay! journal a group effort, a school class contest, a personal journey, a family event. Make it whatever you want.

FREE! Pages from the book.   Check out the Gallery.  All this and More at THE PLAYGROUND.

.

Check out PhotoPlay! Doodle. Design. Draw. HERE.

Buy your copy at Amazon—B&N—Chronicle Books—your local bookstore.

.

Meet the photographer, M. J. Bronstein at her website:  http://www.marciejanbronstein.com/

Find more NEW Chronicle Books at the company website:  http://www.chroniclebooks.com/titles/kids-teens

.PHOTOPLAY! DOODLE. DESIGN. DRAW. Copyright © 2014 by M. J. Bronstein. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Chronicle Books, San Francisco, CA.

.

NEW FROM CHRONICLE BOOKS

.

.

 

 

 

All to be reviewed at KLR soon.

 

 

 

 

 

Filed under: 5stars, Children's Books, NonFiction Tagged: art, art for kids, children's book reviews, Chronicle Books, creativity prompts for kids, drawing, iimagination, M. J. Bronstein, photography

Add a Comment

The clever projects in this crafts book take art to the next level. What you make is important, of course, but what you do with your creation counts too. Aimed at elementary-age kids, Sneaky Art tempts budding artists to call forth their inner sneak, which for most will not be a problem. Each of the 24 projects uses everyday materials that are easily found around the house. Simple-to-follow directions allow kids to customize the project. Jocelyn then offers suggestions about where to place the projects for maximum effect.

Ideas for what to make and where to display the finished projects abound. Make a fractured face out of sticky notes and facial features snipped from old magazines and arrange them on a parking meter. Float a cheerful styrofoam boat in a public fountain. Click a flock of bright red bird silhouettes on a tree branch or a grocery store cart.

Many of these good-natured projects are designed to bring a smile to a viewer's face, like "Lucky Penny," in which kids glue a penny to a cardboard shape and then compose a cheerful message. The penny can be slipped into a friend's backpack or left on the sidewalk for a stranger to find.

Throughout the book, Jocelyn stresses the playful, surprising nature of sneaky art and cautions against creating anything that will damage property or cause hurt feelings. Sneaky art isn't permanent, something kids may have trouble wrapping their heads around. But as Jocelyn points out, "although it's hard to leave behind a treasure that you're proud of, you can always make another work of art."

If you'd like to check out some sample crafts from the book, including "Lucky Penny," click here.

Sneaky Art: Crafty Surprises to Hide in Plain Sight
by Marthe Jocelyn
Candlewick Press, 64 pages
Published: March 2013

Display Comments Add a Comment

Add a Comment

Add a Comment

This was a demo piece that I did in a video for SCBWI - WA a week ago that showed how I did the art for Super Alphabet... now I'm thinking that a sequel is a doable.
Check out and the video at:
https://vimeo.com/41961644

Add a Comment

Yay. I just finished the final illustration for the Art Blocks for Ghana project. I decided to make a few minor changes to the final, for example the clouds don’t looks as cartoony as I initially planned them to be when I created the color comp. I wish the background were a lot smoother than it is though…but I’ve already changed it twice and I’m scared the third time would just make the whole thing look too muddy.

As you can see I was taking shots of the progress for you but unfortunately my camera ran out of battery during the process so I couldn’t document all of it…boo.

“Fly Home” Acrylic on 8×8″ wood panel.

I wanted to have fun with this one so I chose to do it in a really playful style. I also chose really bright and fun colors because that’s the first thing that pops into my head when I think of Ghana or Africa in general for that matter.

I hope this little guy finds a really awesome home to live in! I hope you guys participate in the auction this coming March 2011.

Let’s help build a fantastic children’s home for the kids in Ghana! YAY!!!

Add a Comment

“I wish I were pretty too…” – Coco the Caterpillar
“Don’t we all.” - Slimey

The weather in New York these days has been quite moody (like me …hehe…no seriously)…But sooner or later, there’s a gonna be plenty of days where I get to find one of these stuck in my hair, sliming around our backyard, and fluttering in my room (if I’m lucky!)..I’m hoping to see more flutter than anything else though..

Quick one for the week. No video for this one but I wish I had! The tree and texture adds were a lot of fun to do. Boo… Maybe next week.

Happy Tuesday!

Add a Comment