Ed Emberley's Great Thumbprint Drawing Book

I’m almost 40 and had this book as a kid (just an older version) and loved it! I now buy it for kids I know. It’s easy to follow and great with ink, but you can also paint your thumb or just draw an oval if you want less mess. Lots of fun and creative ideas!

This edition has a new cover, but the red thumbprints and "ivy lou" are straight from the original, which could not possibly be improved. I still have my 1977 copy, which has black writing/drawing and red thumbprints. Although rainbow colors of washable ink pads are widely available now, you don't really need more than one color of ink (like the cover of the book, which makes me think of Easter eggs). My ink pad was red because that's the color we had in our office/school supplies that wasn't black. My drawings looked just like the book and red makes the black pen/pencil marks for drawn features stand out. I think any color that isn't black would work. Black or other dark colors would make it hard to see your marks, but feel free to use your kid's favorite color or whatever you already own in any medium shade. The color isn't important - it's just Step 1 to give you a shape to work with. Fingerprints are easy because they are already on our fingers, but if you fear inky kids, they could use any stamp, or a carrot or potato, or scrap shapes cut from other paper, to make the body shapes. But don't sweat it too much. Even permanent ink wears off a kid in a few days. This is one of the first You-Can-Do-This books for art I ever owned. And I only needed office supplies we already had, so no trips to the art store or special tools needed. One ink pad, some paper (pretty much any paper - empty the recycle bin at work if you want), any pen or pencil, and a couple of inky fingers is all you need to follow the step-by-step instructions to make any of the figures he shows, and about anything else you can think of. It's a few very short and do-able marks between blank page and identifiable drawing, even for little kids. (Or for us grown-ups who swear we can't draw.) I cannot recommend it enough!

This book is TOO cute and FULL of clever ideas! The instructions are VERY clear and easy to follow. These ideas help make GREAT crafts for Mother's and Father's Day (especially for GRANDparents) as well as thank you gifts from a class or playgroup too!! Imagine a stuffed animal wearing a t-shirt with all different thumbprint characters!! For a child moving away or going to a camp all summer...to have a lovey that shows SO MANY people who love him/her!! This is a winner gift every time! This book has SO MANY perfect and creative ways to personalize a simple thumbprint! You will NOT be disappointed :D

Good quality

To begin an art lesson with your child [as a parent, caregiver or grandparent] takes more than most of us own: art talent! But with this Great Thumbprint Drawing Book you can become an art authority! The skillfully designed progressive sequencing of 'action steps' will lead you and your artist to success! Spot on! There is no wiggle room for error. Straight on to completion and the 'oh, cute' factor from any admiring observers. My suggestion is to skip the idea to put ink on the thumb and simple take a piece of heavy cardboard as a template. Cut an oval [about the size of a healthy thumbprint] in the center of a 3 inch by 3 inch piece of cardboard. Then as your artist needs to incorporate a thumbprint into the selected drawing project, just have them outline the cutout oval and then fill in in with the desired color. Your art expertise will appear [thanks to Mr. Emberley] as you urge the steps: one-by-one. Another suggestion for success is to use a black felt-tipped marker to outline the entire drawing upon completion. It give s very finished touch to the art work! Have fun with your art student(s).

This book is filled with creative designs. The designs are for older children 9+. I bought the book hoping it would have designs or ideas for much younger children like preschool (where thumbprint art is used all the time) to 2nd grade, but it didn't. I like the book, but I wouldn't buy another one. Perhaps the author makes one for younger artists that I didn't see.

Adorable! I bought this for a gift for my niece. My daughter has had a smaller version of thumbprint people and animal books for a while and really enjoys doing them. She is 5 years old. Since it gives easy, step-by-step directions, your kiddies should be able to do it by themselves.

I got this for my 5 year old for his birthday since I so fondly remember learning to draw things from the Ed Emberley Animals book when I was a kid. These are so fun and easy for young artists that he really got engaged with the book for about an hour. Then my 7 year old came home and wanted to try. Then both kids cut out their cute little creations. We've had the Ed Emberley Weirdos book for a while, which hasn't gotten much use (maybe a little advanced?). But after using the Thumbprint book, my 5 year old got out the Weirdo book and gave a few Weirdos a try. I highly recommend this Thumbprint book for your kids or to buy as a birthday gift for a child.

This is a really lovely book with lots of cute and easy ideas included. As soon as it arrived my 7 year old ran straight for paper and paints and spent quite a bit of time making fingerprint pictures with my 5 year old. The ideas are so simple so they are very achievable for younger children (or adults) and are super effective so they can make pictures they love 😀

最近絵を描くことに興味を持った息子に購入。指紋のスタンプで楽しんで、順番通りに線を描いたりすれば手軽に絵が描けて親子で楽しめます。

Es un libro muy bonito que mi niña de 12 años y yo disfrutamos más que mi sobrinita de 4 años, pero es porque ella es muy inquieta e hiperactiva.

Una forma súper divertida de aprender a dibujar. Los niños más pequeños (4 años) han alucinado con sus propios resultados.

My grandson’s favourite. We not only follow the designs in the book but make up our own. He loves getting his fingers into the different ink pads.