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You are here: Home / Archives for Art

Art

Art Projects!

January 16, 2022 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Around the beginning of December, I was given access to some drawing and painting lessons online, so that I would write a review of the course. Mr. Imagination was very excited to begin the course, since he loves to draw and wants to learn how to draw better. He worked through 6 of the 12 lessons before we stopped doing school for the summer, and came up with some great pictures! He thinks they aren’t very good, but I think they are. (If you want to know more about the course, go to https://fragile-glory-impressions.teachable.com/p/how-to-draw-animals. My review is on The Old Schoolhouse Product Reviews page.)

This is his panda:

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Little Miss did this one:IMG_0185

I think Little Miss painted this house while they had the art materials out.IMG_0187

Mr. Imagination did this jellyfish:IMG_0205

Mr. Imagination’s orca is on top, and Little Miss’s below:

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Mr. Imagination’s toucan:06-IMG_0301

Mr. Imagination’s hummingbird:07-IMG_0302

I don’t know what happened to the tiger he painted. He was really not happy with it; it didn’t turn out the way he wanted it to. I liked it!

I really like the way this teacher shows how to mix different types of art together—she uses pencils, colored pencils, oil pastels, watercolors, and acrylic.

Filed Under: Activities at Home Tagged With: Art, Homeschooling

Product Review—ARTistic Pursuits

April 15, 2021 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.

 

I have a son who loves to draw and dreams of becoming an artist. I want to encourage his dreams, so when the opportunity came up to try out a course from ARTistic Pursuits, I requested Beginner Level, Art Core 1, Drawing with Graphite Pencils. We worked our way through the first unit, Outline Drawing. Artistic-Pursuits-Logo-1024x635

The first lesson described what an outline is. We watched a video lesson in which the instructor showed us how to find the outline of an object, trace it with our eyes, and then draw what we saw. Then, we were supposed to choose a selection of small objects, such as teacups or small toy animals, and draw them. I did this activity along with the children (Mr. Sweetie, age 11, Mr. Imagination, age 9, and Little Miss, age 6). I think we all agreed that Mr. Imagination did the best! Here are his drawings from the first two lessons, and mine and Little Miss’s from the first lesson.IMG_7574 - CopyIMG_7575IMG_7576

For the remaining three lessons in this unit, we read a page or two from a book. Because we live outside of the United States, we had to use a digital version of the book. It works, but I think the physical book would be much easier to use. Lesson 2 talked about line as an element of art. Mr. Imagination went outside and drew several objects he found. Lesson 3 showed a painting by George Catlin, who painted many American Indians, and focused on the way the blanket draped over a chief’s lap. The assignment was to drape a cloth over something and draw the folds of the cloth. The last lesson in this unit gave the assignment to draw a person sitting on something. Mr. Imagination chose a picture of a child swinging and drew that. Unfortunately, the picture he drew got lost before I photographed it!ARTistic Pursuits 2

Each unit in this course focuses on one particular aspect of drawing, and each lesson builds on the ones before. As I mentioned already, Unit 1 teaches how to draw an outline. Unit 2 talks about space—showing what objects are closer than others—and then the units go on to teach about shape, texture, value (light or dark), and form. The last three units help students draw human, animal, and man-made forms.ARTistic Pursuits 1

Each unit begins with a video lesson, and an assignment to practice the concept that was introduced, using objects found around the student. The second lesson expands slightly on the first one. The third lesson studies a painting by a famous painter, and gives an assignment based on that study. The fourth lesson gives another assignment to expand on the topic a little more.

This course, the way we received it, did not work very well for us. I believe that if we had the physical book, Mr. Imagination would have used this course a lot more. He tends to pick up art books that are laying around and work through them, but if it’s online it is a lot harder for us to use. I am quite impressed with this course myself, though. I like the idea of learning to draw objects around you, rather than being shown a picture and walked through the steps of drawing it. This seems quite useful to me. So, bottom line? If you have an aspiring artist, and can get the book to go with the video lessons, or have an easy way to access the digital book, ARTistic Pursuits would be a great choice. Check out what several other families experienced with it by clicking on the image below!
Click here to read more reviews!

Filed Under: Book Reviews Tagged With: Art, Homeschool Review Crew, Homeschooling, Product Review

Product Review—Beyond the Stick Figure Art School

May 12, 2020 by NZ Filbruns 2 Comments

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in
exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I
compensated in any other way.

I have a son, Mr. Imagination, who loves to draw and wants to learn more about art. When we were offered the opportunity to use the Beyond the Stick Figure Complete Drawing Course Plus 3 Bonus Courses from Beyond the Stick Figure Art School, he was very enthusiastic. This sounded perfect—a step-by-step, incremental guide to art.

Mr. Imagination and Little Miss working on an art project.

The first several lessons went very well; both he (age 8) and Little Miss (age 5) loved doing the projects, and even Mr. Sweetie (age 10) joined us. We learned about circles and dots, and curved lines and straight lines, and practiced looking for these in objects around the house. We drew circles on paper, and made pages of bubbles, then colored them in with markers. We drew designs with each of the other components of pictures, too, and colored pretty designs. Then, we started drawing flowers. I really liked the projects where we drew a flower in the foreground and then more behind it! I have never considered myself an artist, but I could do that!2-IMG_6335

As we moved on, however, my little ones got bogged down in the repetition. We ended up skipping a large section of lessons so that I could see what the rest of the course was like, in order to tell you in this review, and found a project that they liked better. We got to draw hills, cover the nearest one with grass, and paint the picture with a watercolor wash.5-IMG_6339 Everyone enjoyed that! Unfortunately, because of the lockdown due to COVID 19, we did not have proper watercolor paper. We had to use printer paper, because that’s all we have (we were not able to get more because it’s nonessential), and it doesn’t work well with watercolors.

We also were not able to get the markers that are recommended. I think if we had been able to, the earlier projects would have been much more satisfying. She recommends Prismacolor markers, and they aren’t sold in this country anywhere that I could find, even without lockdown, so I bought the only ones I could find. They were washable, which means the color ran and mixed in ways we didn’t want it to. If you want to use this course, try to find the proper markers (if you live in America, they are on Amazon—shipping is much too high for me to be able to get them that way here). 1-IMG_6334

Anyway, back to the course. The next section, which we haven’t done anything with yet, is about watercolor painting. It looks fun! Even though my little ones are tired of this course, because of the constant repetition, I think I can interest them in the painting part of it. I watched a few of the instructional videos, and in them she was teaching how to create different tones of paint. Once we are able to get watercolor paper, I want to try this. As with all the other lessons, these techniques are taught baby step by baby step. 3-IMG_6336

Further lessons cover acrylic painting and sculpture. I don’t know if we’ll ever get to those lessons. They sound interesting; it’s just that Mr. Imagination feels pretty bored with the lessons we have done. I feel like this course, although it is simple enough for young children to do, would be better for older ones who can understand the need for repetition.

All the lessons are presented as 1-10 minute videos, with the instructor, who happens to be a homeschooling mother herself, talking through what she is doing and wants her students to be doing. She has a lovely British accent (and I can now tell the difference between British and Kiwi!). We did have some issues with the videos. The worst simply had to do with our computer. These videos are from Vimeo, and my computer often freezes when I play Vimeo videos. We had to do a lot of reloading to make them work. Also, the sound is very quiet on some of them, and even with our speakers plugged in, we had to strain to hear her talking. Here is a picture of our dashboard. It is very easy to move from one lesson to the next, although we have to mark each one complete in order to move on. It’s extremely easy to go back to a previously completed lesson!UntitledIf you have a child interested in art, this might be something to look into. It certainly is easy to use; just watch a video to see what materials you will need for a given section, then move on and watch each instructional video and follow directions. Click the image below to read what 80 different families have to say about this course.

Beyond the Stick Figure Complete Drawing Course {Beyond the Stick Figure Art School}

Filed Under: Book Reviews Tagged With: Art, Homeschool Review Crew, Homeschooling, Product Review

Product Review—Creating a Masterpiece 2019

October 22, 2019 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

About a year and a half ago, Mr. Imagination began asking me to buy him an art course. He wanted to learn how to draw better. I bought one, but it wasn’t what he had in mind, and he only did the first couple of lessons. He keeps drawing, though, just figuring things out on his own. When the review of Creating a Masterpiece came up, I asked him if he was interested—oh, yes, he very definitely was! So, we signed up and were given a one-year subscription to the online Drawing Program. We had hardly any of the materials needed, so he couldn’t get started for several days till the pencils came, but as soon as they arrived, he was off.

CAM-Logo-FinalCAM 4

Each lesson is presented in a series of several short videos, with the teacher, a lovely, grandmotherly-type woman, showing each step of drawing a particular picture. Mr. Imagination (age 7) and Little Miss (age 4) both loved watching the videos and drawing the pictures. I loved that they could do the lessons on their own! With a new baby in the house, I don’t have time to sit down with them for art lessons. They were both able to come up with some very good artwork, for their age. Little Miss liked the picture of the pumpkins so well that she drew several more later, without watching the videos. She frequently requests to do an art lesson.

This was the first lesson they did, a cartoon-style giraffe. Even Mr. Sweetie did this one! They were told they could draw just the head and neck, or more of the body if they wished—just have fun. Mr. Imagination drew the entire giraffe. I love his picture!

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My children have mainly focused on the pencil drawings, both regular pencils and colored pencils. Because we have no ready access to art supplies locally, I ended up ordering the vellum paper we needed for charcoal drawings from the United Kingdom, and it took awhile to get here. (For those who live in the United States, it will be easy to obtain the supplies; she has links on her website to exactly the items she recommends.) Mr. Imagination hasn’t tried much with the charcoal yet, but I expect him to before too long. He did do quite a few of the other drawings—we had quite the display on our living room wall for awhile, till he took some down to send to a grandma!

Here is an assortment of the other pictures Mr. Imagination drew. I like the wide variety of techniques that are taught with just pencils! The one with white pencil on black paper is a seal, by the way.

IMG_5987IMG_5990IMG_5991

20-IMG_604121-IMG_604222-IMG_604323-IMG_604424-IMG_6045I am highly impressed with Creating a Masterpiece. The lessons are presented very clearly, with each step explained and shown. The teacher’s voice is easy to listen to, and it is obvious that she loves art, which is inspiring. I think I could even draw a nice picture by using her lessons! If you have a child who wants to learn to draw, I highly recommend this course. It can be used by all ages, from preschool, as Little Miss has proven, to adults who want to learn how to draw better.

Below are some of the lessons available to us; Mr. Imagination has tried most of these.

Cam 1CAM 2This is what one of the lessons looks like. You simply click on a video to get the next steps in drawing the picture!CAM 3

Click on the picture below to read what 70 other people have said about Creating a Masterpiece!

Learning to Draw {Creating a Masterpiece Reviews}
Crew Disclaimer

Filed Under: Activities at Home, Book Reviews Tagged With: Art, Homeschool Review Crew, Homeschooling, Product Review

Egg Animals

August 17, 2019 by NZ Filbruns 2 Comments

A few days ago, we watched a short YouTube video about making kawaii egg animals. This really fired up Mr. Imagination’s imagination! He badly wanted to make some, so the next morning he asked me if he could make breakfast. Mr. Sweetie already had breakfast started, but I let Mr. Imagination boil some eggs to try it out. He had some trouble getting them boiled hard enough; I think I goofed up on the timing somehow. Eventually we ended up with three eggs in good enough shape to make animals from. (The rest got eaten by hungry boys!). These didn’t turn out as cute as the ones we saw on YouTube, but my little people sure loved them. Mr. Sweetie helped make them and take the pictures.

1-IMG_5947

This is a mouse.2-IMG_5948

This is a dragon.

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Left to right: dragon, rabbit, mouse.5-IMG_5951

I have a feeling he’ll be attempting this again sometime! And, this ticked the “art” box for the day—if I had such a thing on our schedule!

Filed Under: Activities at Home Tagged With: Art, Food, Homeschooling

Art Afternoon

June 29, 2019 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

One day last week, some homeschooling friends of ours about an hour’s drive away from here hosted an art afternoon for younger children. I took our four youngest. The younger children were to make 3-dimensional hot air balloons from colored paper, and the older ones made airplanes from popsicle sticks. Many of the younger ones, after they finished their balloons, also made airplanes. The creations were then all hot-glued to a large sheet of heavy paper for a collage to hang on a wall at a local rest home.

Little Miss made three balloons! Two went on the collage, and she brought the third one home.

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Mr. Diligence made this airplane.

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Here is the finished collage.

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Little Miss came home and made another hot air balloon, using the one she brought with her for a pattern. She really enjoyed the day!

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Filed Under: Away From Home Tagged With: Art, Homeschooling

Art Projects

September 10, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

I do not teach art to my children. As I said in my guest post on Esther’s blog, the year I decided to teach art we had a grand total of three lessons. However, my boys are very creative and some have made some pretty impressive items. This train model is the latest project. Mr. Diligence had the idea, and did the painting. He and Mr. Intellectual made the models. Mr. Inventor drilled holes.IMG_1700

The garden—raised beds. He filled them with glue, then added bits of macrocarpa needles.

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A man made out of copper wire, in a tree.

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Another man, at the gate.

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The train station.

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The train.

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The fences and telegraph wires were made of copper wire threaded through holes drilled in the posts. The posts were glued into holes drilled in the board.

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Here are some more projects Mr. Diligence showed me when we talked about their creations. He made this man by gluing rocks together.

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He built this house a couple of years ago.

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He carved this boat.

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Mr. Diligence also made this windmill.

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Mr. Inventor and Mr. Diligence worked together to build this truck. They use it to store treasures.

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Filed Under: Activities at Home Tagged With: Art, Homeschooling

Clay

August 6, 2011 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

The boys found clay out in one of the paddocks this week.  Actually it’s been there for a year or so, ever since our landlord drilled a new well for irrigation.  Yesterday they brought some over to the house and started molding things from it, and they really got creative today.  Simon wrote his story for our homeschool writing group meeting Tuesday, tonight, about making a clay cup.  Here are just a few pictures of their creativity.  It has kept them occupied for literally hours!  They end up a mess, but it washes out.

Two planters Simon made me.

The pottery workshop, with three potters busily at work.

A pot with three feet. He made a lid for it next!

Filed Under: Activities at Home Tagged With: Art, Children, Crafts, Pottery

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The Family:


Dad and Mom (Gayle and Emma)

Girl #1, Esther, my right hand

Boy #1, Seth (Mr. Handyman)

Boy #2, Simon (Mr. Inventor)

Boy #3, Mr. Intellectual

Boy #4, Mr. Diligence

Boy #5, Mr. Sweetie

Boy #6, Mr. Imagination

Girl #2, Little Miss

Girl #3, Miss Joy

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