If you are already familiar with illustration, or if you are still trying to find your style, this is an excellent book! I loved the practical suggestions, and the space to create your own artwork using the techniques McManness shares. I especially enjoyed the part about creating a vision board. I can't wait to get my hands on a physical copy of this book, so I can start working on it myself!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the copy of this book in exchange for my review.

I received a copy of this arc from NetGalley for an honest review. This is a pretty great craft book that starts with easier projects and continues on to more advanced projects.

Vine Customer Review of Free Product

The book shows some basics for doing art in many different techniques. Because of how many there are, there is only a little bit of attention paid to each. It shows several examples of getting different effects, like sketch, color with medium color, then shade with darker color. There is a bit of step by step little things like frames and such. Lettering, too, but only a few letters are shown. Even digital art is here, using Photoshop on Mac.
Nevertheless, I liked a lot of the designs and I think I did learn something from the book, too. The last big part of the book is pages and pages of prompts, like there is a frame and you fill it, or add words, or add a flower and such. The book is inexpensive enough to just go ahead and draw and paint in it.

This book is absolutely beautiful from start to finish! It is full of creative images and guides you through the process of creating expressive, meaningful art from drawing tools to techniques, colour to balance and composition. I would highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in creativity!

I have to admit that based on the tile I was expecting something else, but even so it is a lovely book, featuring great tips on composition and five step by step projects. It also has a lot of inspiration and creative prompts at the end.

Erin McManness has created a delightful Folk Art style Book, which helps even the worst of Artists or Budding Artists such as myself how to follow the instincts within our own individual Hearts to draw or attempt to Draw or Paint what ever it tells us too, as this will bring relaxation & a total sense of well being even if thew only thing we draw are stick people ! we can bring enjoyment to others by illustrating a letter or envelope , thus sharing things which we old dear within our hearts.

Lovely book with a lot of great prompts to inspire your art work. I would recommend this to creative souls and artists.

If you're past the basic "draw this in this way" stage, but still have some room for improvement (and don't we all?), this is a fun book to work through. Not only is the author's artwork inspiring, but the whole book is full of prompts and information to get your pen/brush moving.

It focuses on three mediums: watercolor, marker, and gouache/acrylic, and while the main thrust is on working by hand, there's some great info here on how to scan and edit your work digitally for finished illustrations, too. There's a bit on lettering, some great stuff on composition (and WHY certain elements work/don't work, which is super helpful).

The last half of the book is largely illustrated prompts that aren't the ones you see everywhere. (Which is nice.) They're introspective, have creative restraints (for growth), and can act as a kind of vision board for your artwork and your life, in general.

I really, really liked this book, and have a feeling I'll be coming back to it again, both for digital conversion help, and to work through some of these prompts in my own sketchbooks.

An excellent overview of art techniques and theory. Includes supply lists, lettering practice pages, step-by-step creation with single or mixed media, composition, and more. Colorful and approachable.

Had I not read the summary for this book, I would have probably given it 4 stars overall because the good parts are good, but 3 stars is actually generous considering it is supposed to help people ”learn to draw using simple line art” and provide ”Easy step-by-step projects help you create your own personalized artwork and illustrations, from floral and nature motifs to portraits, scenes, and favorite things.”.

The step-by-step portrait of Frida Kahlo listed a very vague ”watercolors” under the materials needed section, and then instructed the BEGINNER to simply ”mix the watercolor in a separate dish to achieve the right shade” for the skin tone. The author helpfully pointed out that she would be mixing a peach shade (using her secret color combination) for Frida’s portrait, and then told the reader to observe if the subject for their portrait had a cool or warm skin tone. How in the world is a beginner to even understand the concept of cool vs warm skin tones, let alone know how to magically create a peach tone from mysterious colors even if they are painting Kahlo too? This is the sort of thing that can frustrate a beginning or even more experienced artist and let their inner critic convince them that they have no talent for art and to give up completely.

Not only that, but the author stated that the same techniques are used for both gouache and acrylic paints simply because they ”are both water-based, fast-drying, and opaque”. This is entirely false. There are plenty of transparent acrylics, and most importantly, gouache is water soluble, allowing previous layers to react with the fresh layers, which can create all kinds of unexpected results,, unlike acrylic paint which dries to an inert state. Even the brushes need to be treated differently since acrylic paint will ruin a good brush if it dries before being washed thoroughly.

This book, however, did provide an interesting section on composition, as well as lots of great prompts. Therefore I would recommend it for people interested in mindful sketching/doodling, as well as potentially brave beginners provided they promise to never attempt to follow along the portrait section, which in reality, should never be included in a general drawing book for beginners anyway.

I was given a free copy of this book, but that did not affect my review.

I really enjoyed this art book. The instructions were simplified and easy to understand. The pictures were simple too, so I felt no need to make complicated pictures. I had fun do little drawings and pictures. The book helped to build confidence in my abilities as an artist.

Nicely builds from darwing flowers to wreath to the wonderful Frida Kahlo flower head painting. The guides before starting the fleshing out of painting ar einteresting. you learn lots of tios of how to maintain the composition - not going with even, avoiding tangents. Some exercises to customise the paintigns to you - your dreams, favorite things and so on.

A charmingly illustrated book for those interested in starting to draw and paint. I was surprised to see it include digital art, as I would think this topic warrants a whole book in itself. However it had some great ideas and small tutorials for illustrative-style projects, birds, flowers, portraits etc. It would be a lovely gift for someone wishing to start drawing or painting.
Thanks to the publisher for a review copy.

An excellent book to get your creative juices flowing! This book teaches you the basics of drawing, including the different materials you can use, and includes helpful exercises to get you started.

Art Starts in the Heart is a tutorial guide with prompts and practice pages for creating art and illustrations with some projects included. Released 8th Oct 2019 by Quarto on their Walter Foster imprint, it's 128 pages and available in paperback format.

I really love art tutorial books which are accessible and usable by anyone, no matter what their level of artistic ability and experience. This is an appealing guide, written well, with encouraging and enjoyable prompts. The introductory chapters include some drawing and letting tutorials, an abbreviated survey of tools and supplies, as well as some layout instructions.

Probably 5-10% of the book (including most of the later chapters) is given over to practice areas and prompts. There is a lot of step by step instruction included in the earlier chapters of the book however. The style of the art is simple, upbeat, and naive/folksy. I find it very appealing. It would be perfectly suited to making note cards, place cards, journaling, envelopes/stationery and similar projects.

Four stars.

This is a great resource for those who like to create, but need to look deeper within themselves. It’s inspiring and helps the artist look deeper within the self in order to enhance their art creations. Highly recommend.

Art starts in the Heart feeds the imagination, and let's the reader know that art inspires both self and others. It is well organized, with lovely illustrations, and a fabulous list of materials and tools to use, as well as technique. It even includes space to practice some of the techniques on its pages to make this book truly your own. As a seasoned artist who drew much from my instructors as well as book, this book is like having an instructor at your fingertips to help you hone your skills, and pick up some new ones along the way. This would make a great gift for artists, both experienced, and students. I truly love having good supplies recommended along the way. From letters to framework, to pets and flowers. Great jumping off point.
It is simple, not cluttered, and the focus seems to be more on using various techniques and your own imagination.

Thanks to NetGalley, Quarto Publishing Group – Walter Foster, and Erin McManness for an ARC of ‘Art Starts in the Heart. This unbiased review is written in exchange for the opportunity to preview this book.

There is the phrase armchair traveler...I would like to highly recommend this title to both those who want to create art and those who want to look through a pleasing book, even without doing the projects, i.e. armchair artists..

This book is full of everything a budding artist needs. There are sections on tools and materials, lettering, creating beautiful projects and thinking about the messages that can be conveyed through art.

As the author states:

This book will help you:

Refine your own set of drawing technniques and hand lettering

Complete five art print projcts...

Explore and clarify the goals, dreams and moments in your life most importatnt o you through creative prompts

Expand your visual vocabulary by drawing ne things and taking risks

Enjoy the art making process and have fun.

I think that this book does all of that well.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the pubosher for this title in exchange for an honest review.

Be creative from you heart out
Erin McManners presents "Art Starts in the Heart. Creative projects and inspirational ideas for learning to make expressive, mindful art", published by Quarto Publishing Group - Walter. It is the companion to her book "Art Start with a Line". Mc Manners' goal with this book is to help artists to refine their drawing techniques and hand lettering, complete projects for their portfolios, as well as exploring and clarifying goals, dreams, and moments in their life, but ultimately the goal is to enjoy and have fun while making art.
The first part of the book contains chapters that help artists to start their work (e.g., Suggested Tools & Materials, Drawing Techniques, Working in Color). The next part touches the topics "Creating a pleasant design", "Composition Tips & Tricks", "Creating a Beautiful Layout", and "Framing Devises", which will help the artists in the realization of their projects. The final part of the book contains the "Step-by-Step Art Prints" and "Inspiration for the Journey" which help the artists to put the previous information into practice.
This was the first book by McManners which I read. I appreciated her instruction for creating digital art that was included. The illustrations of the book are colorful and impressive. Although the illustrations are not totally step-by-step, they are sufficient for an advanced hobby artists to recreate the design. McManners uses various materials (pencils, watercolor, gouache, acrylic) which can be an encouragement to try different means. It is important to not that the book only touches the topics of lettering, drawing, and painting. There are far more artistic ways to express one's heart. I would not recommend the book for beginners who have no knowledge about the approaches which are presented, but it is a helpful book for other artists. Areas for practice are included, but a downloadable PDF would be even more helpful for those who want to do the suggested exercises and do not want to work in the book. It would also be helpful if the book would be spiral-bound or have a flat-laying binding. The actual binding makes it difficult to work directly in the book like the author suggests.
The complimentary copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley free of charge. I was under no obligation to offer a positive review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
#ArtStartsInTheHeart #NetGalley

This is a beautiful book that showcases the author's process for illustration and could be useful for inspiration and pointers if the reader is already advanced. It is not a book that a beginner could benefit much from because it assumes quite a few areas of knowledge and skill. But if you have experience with illustration techniques, manual and computer, it can be a lovely source of inspiration.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.