INKBLOT

This exciting road map through an underappreciated art form shows that “[a]nything is possible with inkblots.” Choose supplies, carefully fold your paper and you’re off: “Dab ink. Drop ink. Splat ink. Make puddles and lines and swirls and crisscrosses”; “tip it in different directions as if you were a waiter bobbling and balancing a tray.” Pressure techniques offer seven ways to gently manipulate wet ink inside folded paper. Then unfold—and behold! Expansive suggestions propose wide-ranging possibilities for what an inkblot can resemble, from “the most remarkable tendrils, winter branches, spiky hair, strange grasses, [and] elongated mushrooms” to “kissing fish, sailing ships, faces, flowers, planets, or monsters…. [or] a tornado, a volcano, or a maelstrom.” For hesitant artists, the text provides creative prompts—if your inkblot were a circus act or a culinary dish, what would it be?—and atmospheric questions—is your inkblot fast and splashy or slow and trickly? A secret or a billboard? “Drawing into” the inkblot means adding lines, textures and colors with other media on top of the dry ink. Peot’s own entrancing inkblots (spaceships, landscapes, comics), plus a few guest-blots, illustrate every step, showing how the pure blot becomes the final artwork. Inkblot Heroes (Victor Hugo, Hermann Rorschach) get accolades; readers get clear directions and lively encouragement. Equally cool for kids and parents, art classes or casual groups. (Nonfiction. 10 & up)