Encourage children's creativity with art

'A spill. A smear. A smudge. A tear. When you think you have made a mistake, think of it as an opportunity to make something beautiful!"

"Beautiful Oops!" by Barney Saltzberg is the interactive board book that brings this philosophy to life.

A cocoa stain becomes a frog. Bent paper is transformed into a penguin's beak.

"Every spill has lots and lots of possibilities." This happy, creative book is fun for all ages. And the philosophy can be extended way beyond art projects.

An artist, I'm not. And I'm not alone. For children who are frustrated with their lack of natural ability, I recommend Ed Emberly's books and heartily wish they'd been around in my childhood.

Emberly is an established illustrator of children's books. His drawing books are popular with young children because he starts with the simplest shapes and lines and gradually adds shapes and lines until, almost magically, the picture is formed.

The titles in this series include animals, faces, weirdos, trucks and trains, thumbprints and more.

I understand that this approach is criticized for stifling creativity, but I think it encourages creativity for children who don't know where to start.

The "I Can Draw" books illustrated by Simon Abbott is another series for young children, but it takes a different approach.

Each of these board books ("Wild Animals," "Parks," "Farms," "Pets") shows children how to draw step by step on a grid-like graph paper with 20 boxes, all on an erasable surface. A special pen is included.

The "Draw 50" series by Lee J. Ames has been popular with children and adults since the first book was published in 1974. One of the most recent books is "Draw 50 Magical Creatures: The Step-by-Step Way to Draw Unicorns, Elves, Cherubs, Trolls and Many More."

Plenty of kids like to read comics and draw their own. And a lot of kids are good at it. Stan Lee, the legendary co-creator of Spider-Man, X-Men and other superheroes has produced the best-seller, "How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way" and the new "Stan Lee's How to Draw Comics."

In addition to the artistic considerations of costumes, shading and the like, this new book includes the latest digital advances and gives tips on creating a portfolio and finding a job.

For a different form of art, "Origami On the Go!" by Margaret Van Sicklen is a self-contained book that contains 40 paper-folding projects that are "Great to do in a car, on a plane, or on a rainy day."

This book is packed with facts and fun, as well as 100 sheets of origami paper.

Art: For children's sake.

Fran Hawk can be reached at franbooks@yahoo.com.