Basketball star and former fine arts major Ewing isn’t “in the paint” on the basketball court alone; here, with Louis, he offers fledgling painters and their parents practical advice about essential art supplies, organizing a work space, choosing subjects, mixing paint to get different colors, and planning ahead. The suggestions are simple and savvy, from keeping the paint cups on a large cookie sheet, to making details large by using charcoal rather than pencil for preparatory drawings. Big, bright paintings done by children and captioned with their comments illustrate this engagingly personal primer, along with small shots of Ewing in and out of uniform; although his introduction ends with some product placement for the financial services company that displays his paintings on their credit card, the advertising is unobtrusive. (Nonfiction. 7+)