Home / 10 Activity Books for a Varied Home Art Shelf
Build a small collection that offers several routes into making pictures.
This is a selection from Kevin Coulston’s own catalog. Numbers organize the choices and do not indicate independent ratings.
This shelf deliberately includes tracing, six-step work, grids, blank practice, shape inventions, and the verified mixed fantasy activity title.
Use the activity label and individual book description to choose the format. The best first project is the one the child wants to begin; it can be completed at their own pace.
Shape Drawing Challenge begins with a simple shape and asks the artist to turn it into something new—a character, an object, or an unexpected picture.
How to Draw: Sketchbook provides extra blank drawing space for practice, experiments, and ideas inspired by the instructional books.
Mermaids, Unicorns, and Other Cute Stuff combines fantasy art with puzzle activities for children who enjoy changing tasks within a book.
Trace Then Color: Baby Animals turns baby animals into a two-part creative activity: follow the character lines, then decide how the picture should look in color.
Trace Then Color: Cartoon Robots turns cartoon machines into a two-part creative activity: follow the character lines, then decide how the picture should look in color.
How to Draw: Cartoon Dinosaurs is an art activity for children who want to construct cartoon dinosaurs themselves, using a sequence of six drawing stages.
How to Draw: Cute Cartoon Monsters is an art activity for children who want to construct friendly monsters themselves, using a sequence of six drawing stages.
Draw by Grid: Cartoon Cats & Dogs makes cartoon pets a visual copying challenge, with the picture recreated one grid square at a time.
Draw by Grid: Unicorn Animals makes magical animals a visual copying challenge, with the picture recreated one grid square at a time.
Trace Then Color: Fish, Sea Creatures, And More turns underwater characters into a two-part creative activity: follow the character lines, then decide how the picture should look in color.
See another ten-book selection or plan a different kind of art session.