I say this, because I've experienced it.
In our home, we have me - Mom - a person who just never felt like I was any good at art.
Then, there is also my oldest son, who likes to make quick sketches and to draw fantasy characters, but who rarely stretches his skills beyond that without a push.
After that, there is my daughter, who, in the past year, has begun to like drawing more and more and appreciates opportunities to draw on her own with the guidance of video lessons.
Finally, there is my youngest son, who does not love drawing, but who participates when the rest of us draw, and, sometimes, draws on his own.
(Okay, there is also my husband, but he's rarely home when we work on things like art.
So, yes, we are a family of not-so-practiced artists, yet, Creating a Masterpiece had us creating artworks together before.
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| A Prior Creating a Masterpiece Review |
And, now, with our one-year subscription to the online Drawing Program, we surely have been improving in drawing skills and confidence while also learning about value, shading, and more.
A Bit More about Creating a Masterpiece
Creating a Masterpiece is a subscription-based, online program taught by master artist Sharon Hofer.
The Drawing Program contains over 30 different drawing projects over the course of 48 lessons which teach you how to use colored pencils, charcoal, pencils, and other tools to create artworks with ease.
Along with each lesson is a clear supply list, so you never have to worry about surprises and can gather your supplies before beginning.
There are also sample highlights of each artwork, and, for some projects, samples of different students' works.
The actual art lessons come in the form of series of short videos for each lesson, which can be completed all on one sitting, or can be broken up into 5-10 minute art lesson segments.
(We know, because a rive year old friend joined us at times.)
That said, Sharon does not use childish gimmicks nor baby talk. Instead, she just clearly teaches you what to do first, next, and after, demonstrating each step while offering tips so that you can successfully create wonderful artwork at the level you are comfortable with.
The program has a Beginner Level, where you learn:
- Beginning Value
- Beginning Project Planning
- Beginning Shading
- Beginning Value
- Beginning Highlighting
- Beginning Proportions
- Beginning Composition
- Beginning Rule of Three
Level 1, which focuses you on:
- Shading
- Seeing and Incorporating Value
- Two Point Perspective
- Incorporating Velum into drawing
Level 2, where you explore:
- Composition and Proportion
- Recognizing and Incorporating intermediate values
- Incorporating Lost and Found Edges
- Using Highlighting for Emphasis
- and much more!
...and Level 3, where you practice all the prior skills and also multiple point perspective.
Obviously, the skills taught at each level become more advanced, but students need not take the course linearly. In fact, you can jump between levels, doing whichever lesson you like at your own pace - a feature I like.
What Did We Think...
When I asked my oldest child, 13, for his thoughts on the Drawing Program, he said:
It is an online art program. For each project, you watch a series of short video clips which teach you how to draw things like animals, plants, eggs,... non-human things.
The woman demonstrates step-by-step and you follow along.
In my opinion, it's a good program, but ... I prefer drawing things like elves, dragons, and maps. So, this not exactly my style of drawing.
People who like realism -not fantasy or Sci-Fi - might like this program. I think it is good for ages 10-12.
My 12-year-old said:
I like Creating a Masterpiece.
At first, I used it by myself and did the forest lesson. I liked that it was multiple short videos and the teaching was step-by-step.
Since then, I have used it with my family. I have made a cartoon, the forest, an owl, and more.
It is a good program. I think people who want to learn independently and those that want a program to use with a small family group would like it.
I want to do more of it.
My youngest child, 9, said
These classes are good. They are easy to follow and the projects are easy to draw. I like tweaking the projects a little bit like making a giraffe into a giant giraffe machine with a machine gun and cannon.
And, I turned my owl into an owl person.
I want to keep using this until I get to the harder projects.
I think this program is good for ages 5 or 6, mostly 6, to adults. My mom uses it, too.
Learn More
If you are looking for an easy way to incorporate quality, self-paced art lessons for ages 5 to adult into your day, Drawing Program from Creating a Masterpiece is worth considering. It is an excellent homeschool art curriculum!
You can try a free sample project to see if you enjoy it as much as I do.
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