Leonardo's Art Workshop: Invent, Create, and Make STEAM Projects Like a Genius
Leonardo’s Art Workshop leads children on an interactive adventure through key art concepts by following the multidisciplinary approach of the Renaissance period polymath Leonardo da Vinci: experimenting, creating projects, and exploring how art intersects with science and nature. Photos of Leonardo’s own notebooks, paintings, and drawings provide visual inspiration.
More than 500 years ago, Leonardo knew that the fields of science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics (STEAM) are all connected. The insatiably curious Leonardo examined not just the outer appearance of his art subjects, but the science that explained them. He began his studies as a painter, but his curiosity, diligence, and genius made him also a master sculptor, architect, designer, scientist, engineer, and inventor. The Leonardo’s Workshop series shares this spirit of multidisciplinary inquiry with children through accessible, engaging explanations and hands-on learning.
Following Leonardo’s example, this fascinating book harnesses children’s innate curiosity to explore the foundational elements of art—color, shadow and light, lines and patterns, forms and structures, and optics and special effects—and the science behind them. After each concept is explained using science, history, and real-world examples, kids can experience the principles first-hand with step-by-step STEAM projects.
Hands-on STEAM Projects
Disappearing Color
Harness A Rainbow
Create And Paint Dyes From Food
Colorful Shadows
Use Reflection To Change Light
Build A Camera Obscura
Make Shadow Puppets
Draw An All-White Still Life
Make Your Own Sundial
Make Your Own Drawing Tools
Lines In Space
Draw A Cube In Perspective
Curve Construction
Make A Golden Ratio Gauge
Geometric Alphabet
Make An Icosahedron Puzzle
Change The Strength Of Paper
Spectacular Spans
Make An Escher-Inspired Design
Make A Flip Lenticular
Make An Infinity Scope
Optical Color Mixing
Lean Zine
DIY Leonardo Notebook
Insights from other great artists and scientists—such as Sir Isaac Newton, Sandro Botticelli, Paul Klee, and
Leonardo Pisano Fibonacci—are woven into the lessons throughout.
Introduce vital STEAM skills through visually rich, hands-on learning with Leonardo’s Art Workshop.
Leonardo’s Art Workshop is a non-fiction STEAM book for children ages 9 - 14 (grades 5 - 8) and educators who teach grades 5 - 8.
Author: Amy Leidtke, Industrial Designer | Education Consultant | Artist | RISD Educator
Instagram and Twitter: @amyleidtke
www.amyleidtke.com
2019 Rockport Publishers, Quarto Publishing Group
Pages: 144
ISBN: 978-1-63159-522-6
$22.99 US
Visit QuartoKnows.com
Amy Leidtke is an industrial designer with expertise in design for children, as well as an education consultant, faculty member at the Rhode Island School of Design, and STEAM curriculum specialist. She is the author ofLeonardo’s Art Workshop: Invent, Create, and Make STEAM Projects Like a Genius (Rockport Publishers 2019). For information, visit http://amyleidtke.com.