Castles and Medieval Fun

My 13 year old and I read the book "Castle" by David Macaulay together. He absolutely loved reading about the history and building of the castle. He has another larger DK book on Castles and as we read told me about his previous knowledge on the topic we were reading about and expanded our discussion. The images (drawings) being b/w are a perfect match so that details of the castle stand out.

After reading this story, we watched the accompanying PBS special Castle by the same author. The movie is s a perfect tag-a-long going into further details and highlighting real castles and showing the details of the Castle that was discussed in the book.

To follow up on the book/movie, my son is now building his own brick castle. We ordered a kit and it includes everything to make little bricks from molds and then directions on exactly how to build the castle.
I highly recommend purchasing the book, movie and castle building kit together if you or your child is interested in castles and/or medieval studies. All three provide great discussion, for both visual and auditory learners as well as a hands-on learning experience.

Image Creation and Use

I have been recently researching the use of created images and clip art for use in my published material. I have come to the realization that there seems to be four options available.

1. Hand draw my own illustrations and images
2. Hire an illustrator to create illustrations and images
3. Draw images and illustrations using a computer program
4. Purchase the rights of illustrations and images

After hand drawing many images, I came to the realization that I was looking for a more professional look to accompany my work. Hiring an illustrator did not seem cost effective for the amount and variety of images needed.

This led me to numbers 3 & 4. I purchased the health edition of SmartDraw and began using it last week. I am amazed at the ease of the program and the amount of images available for creative use. I was able to download the program and try it out first – a wonderful hook that lead me to purchase the full rights to the program. I have been easily able to draw various science diagrams and images.

However, I will be looking for additional science illustrations and images which I can purchase the rights to use in my own creative work. I am wondering if anyone has any suggestions as far as additional computer drawing programs and science illustrations that can be purchased having full creative rights.