Art Starts in the Heart by Erin McManness
Creative projects and inspirational ideas for learning to make expressive, mindful art

Interesting and informative – I found this book filled with ideas that will assist me in creating more interesting illustrations and art work in the future. I learned how to take a finished project and digitally create a line drawing, learned a bit more about how to create pleasing designs and how to create interesting art prints. I came up with some new ideas to use in creating borders and/or frames along with ways to use lettering in art. I found the prompts intriguing and worth visiting one at a time over a period of days.

I can see this book used by artists, teachers of art, illustrators, mothers trying to entertain their children, grandmothers (like me) who create snail mail postcards and letters to send to their grandchildren and by many others.

Did I enjoy this book? Yes
Would I recommend it to others? Definitely...getting ready to send the information to my artistic sister right now

Thank you to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group for the ARC – This is my honest review.

5 Stars

What a great art book ! There were some very basic directions up to medium level. I learned quite a bit.

I signed up to review this one because my daughter is very into drawing, and she is also very good at it (Mommy brag). So I figured this may make a good Christmas gift for her.

It is a visually pleasing book. With bright colors, and fun graphics. There is a chapter for suggested tools and materials. Then chapters devoted to drawing techniques using the various tools suggested. There is even a small space for you to practice. My favorite chapter was Digital Techniques as I think it gave some good instructions for moving your art from paper to digital. I also really liked the Creative Prompts section.

I think this would make a great gift for any art lover.

Great Book! It reallys is one part book and inspiration and one part guided art journal. The pages where it has you just doing basic strokes I could do without because I own so many of these books, but there were some really cute ones too. Enough that after i browsed the digital ARC (thanks netgalley!) I jumped right over to Amazon and pre-ordered. Cant wait to do some of the activities.

This is a thoughtful and creative workbook. inspirational designs for pulling together cute sayings and thoughtful gifts.I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I recommend it for the aspiring young artist in your life. I received this book from NetGalley for an honest review.

This is a very simple and easy to understand how to art book. It farts out very basic and goes on to more advanced styles and techniques. I think I could learn a lot from this book and potentially increases my art abilities.

I read a lot of art how-to books, as I love creating art but don't really consider myself very good at it. This one is the type I call "and then a miracle occurs" kind. The author tells you what supplies you need, walks you step-by-step through a handful of very specific art projects (draw Freida Kahlo, a little dog named Pattie, a floral quote, etc.) and then the rest of the book is composed of pages of prompts where you're supposed to magically do art to her specifications (draw a letter to your past and future selves, draw your favorite things about fall, draw the pet you would have wanted as a child...). I still don't know how to draw these things, or at least well. People who already like their art will no doubt enjoy this greatly, but those who aren't happy with their skills may want something with more meat in the tutorial part of it.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for the purpose of review.

Art Starts in the Heart starts as your basic art learning book: there are basics about technique, supplies, and color. It also contains a walk through of letter with practice space as well as step by step projects. In each section is goes into extra depth giving tips on digital techniques as how to make your work visual appealing (like the number of objects in said picture). But what make this book stand out is that iit then becomes a creativity journal! Erin McManness gives you space to create based on prompting. I loved working through these seeing myself, my world and my art in a different light.
I would absolutely recommend this book to my creative friends.

I love this beautiful little book! It has just the right amount of instruction so that new artists won't feel overwhelmed. The author also respects the reader's own personal creativity—this is very much a do-your-own-thing kind of experience, with many fun drawing prompts at the end of the book. Her enthusiasm shines thoughout and now I'm itching to pick up a pencil. I started planning a trip to the art supply by page 9. Highly recommended.

This is a lovely art book aimed at getting you started and offering prompts to kick start your imagination and creativity. I like the authors style and I think it would be appealing to a wide range of people looking to be more creative especially those who journal and do scrapbooking. I loved the digital art section as it is difficult to know where to start and this gives you a step by step guide for a simple project. I liked all the prompts and fill pages at the end and this book would definitely make a great gift book too.

I love books like this. As a child I was really into drawing and loved it. I was pretty good too. It's been years though since I've drew so when I saw this book I thought it would be a great refresher and I was right. It felt so good to start doing it again and I loved this book and hope to find more like it. I recommend it to anyone who's just learning to draw or needs refreshed like me. It focuses on simple line art drawing and was so fun and inspiring

This book is great for aspiring artists. I liked that instruction was given for creating digital artwork as well. The thought provoking prompts at the end of the book are really helpful for finding future inspiration. Thanks for the advanced review copy.