1-2-3 Draw Knights, Castles, and Dragons: A step-by-step guide - Softcover

Freddie Levin has been dividing her time between freelance illustration assignments and teaching art since 1968. She teaches art in a Chicago public school to students in kindergarten through eighth grade.

Grades 3-6--Levin describes basic shapes such as squares, rectangles, circles, ovals, triangles, and trapezoids, and puts them together to create very simple drawings of people, animals, and castles. She admonishes readers to draw very lightly in order to make erasures and to be sure to practice, practice, practice. While showing step-by-step sketches, the author includes descriptions of medieval life and clothing and makes suggestions for what colors to use, e.g., purple, blue, red for royal garb as those dyes were expensive. Specific terms are used as well, such as the "kirtle" the princess wears; a knight's "hauberk" and "gauntlets"; the "portcullis" and "crenelations" of the castle. This book will appeal to competent readers who want to know how to draw while learning a little about life in the Middle Ages.
Cathie Reed, The Montessori School, Lutherville, MD
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