You can Create A Masterpiece! ~~ A New TOS Review!!

As a homeschool family with a child who loves art you find that you are always on the lookout to improve your homeschool art curriculum and we had the opportunity to do just that with our latest review of the Drawing Program from Creating a Masterpiece. We were very appreciative of the one year online subscription we received to review.

First things first we were asked to purchase our own art supplies. Now if you have a blooming artist at your home you might have had some of these on hand and we usually did, but with our moving I couldn't place my fingers on any of our supplies. Thankfully if you go to the lessons at Creating a Masterpiece each one has a supply list and links to where you can purchase them.

You can click on purchase supplies and it will take you to an external link through Blick Art Supplies and they were rather inexpensive and just faster to order and have them delivered than for me to go around the house and to multiple stores trying to find a 6B drawing pencil, colored pencils, eraser that would work WELL, as well as the different papers. And since I knew my other 2 kiddos (and probably me) would join in I could just order 4 of the individual items and one pack of paper for us all to share. It worked out well!

Currently the Drawing Program has Beginner and then 3 more levels each with several drawing projects. Since most of my children had no knowledge of basic drawing skills or techniques we decided to start with the Beginner set and work through those before attempting ones in upper levels. The plan is for this program to increase in difficulty and have many more projects.

Beginner

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3

We had to wait a little while to start so that our supplies would arrive to use during the lessons. We ended up starting with doing a caricature of a giraffe. Miss Sharon is very knowledgeable during the lessons which are not very long, but cut into more bite-sized pieces. Some of my children liked that, others did not. My eldest (16) wanted to watch the video all at once and stop it only when/if she needed. I liked the short sections so that you could fit an art lesson in in a relatively small part of your day or in between other subjects or events planned for the day. My eldest suggested an option where you could play the whole lesson in its entirety as well as the lesson in the bite sized chunks, that way it would work for younger students and older ones who can remember the steps a little easier.

So we have already completed 3 of the projects in the Basic level. We would have done more, but it's been hard to get a time where all 3 of my children are able to sit down for the lesson. We will be doing another one this week, hopefully, since my eldest is on fall break from her dual enroll classes. The cool thing about the lessons is that they could all do them on their own if they wanted, so after the first few lessons I told them they could start to explore and do ones that really spoke to them. I think my one daughter will be drawn to the horse drawing project and my son to one of the ones that use the prismacolor pencils which he LOVES to draw with - they are truly the best!

At first they were a bit tentative of the first project - which was a giraffe caricature. Miss Sharon, the instructor was good at explaining what a caricature was. Funny enough that same week at the college my eldest daughter got a caricature drawn of herself. LOL! Here are some of the pictures of the progression of our giraffe's.

Starting the giraffe

Erasing a line that wasn't right

He's proud of his beginning

watching the lesson

drawing the details

My artist's finished giraffe caricature

Next up was a landscape drawing where Miss Sharon again gave the instruction in bite-sized chunks and explained perspective and shading to make sure items in the forefront stood out. We also learned the correct way to use a tortillion (it's for smudging and blending).  One thing Miss Sharon also suggested was to use less of the paper by folding it in half. That drawing in the beginning is easier when you have less space to fill and use. I think this was a brilliant teaching moment.  Here are our landscape pictures. 

Getting the supplies ready

working on the background

Learning about a tortillion and how to use it.

Watching the lesson

Landscape portraits coming along.

Finished project

My son finished and added a bird. Can you see it?

I even joined in on this one. I like my finished product.

The latest one we did was the Hoot owl - which I believe we have one somewhere close. For this one my son decided to make a teeny one and ended up 'finishing' his project before we listened to the whole lesson. Sometimes, he doesn't like to wait. Others watching this lesson were having a hard time 'getting things right' before progressing - but that is what Miss Sharon told them to do -- be happy with the base before adding all the details.

Working on the owl

Casting it (which sometimes whites out the being drawn picture)

What it looks like on my computer

Seanan working on his teeny owl

My eldest's owl. 

My artist child has really loved learning how to draw with pencils which is one medium she has shyed away from usually because she feels inadequate. With the lessons that Miss Sharon has presented in bite sized chunks and easy to understand techniques my younger daughter (14) has really blossomed in her use of pencils. As I mentioned earlier she loves horses so she is looking forward to drawing The General's Horse lesson - I bet that one ends up on her wall in a frame!

If you are looking for a homeschool art curriculum, I think the Drawing Program from Creating a Masterpiece fits the bill. I know that my artist loving child is also looking at the other offerings inside Creating a Masterpiece where she can also learn acrylics, pastels, and many other media. She might even ask for a subscription for Christmas (this is a PERFECT gift idea for any art loving child or family!).

You can find Creating a Masterpiece  also on Facebook. And as always don't take just our word on it, read one of the other 70 reviews by clicking the link below to the Homeschool Review Crew blog!