My kids are very artistic and creative. Me? Not so much. I love when we find great resources for teaching things that I don't excel at, so when we were given the opportunity to review the Beginner Level, Art Core 2, Painting with Watercolor Pencils course from ARTistic Pursuits, the kids were thrilled!
What's Included
The Beginner Level, Art Core 2, Painting with Watercolor Pencils course from ARTistic Pursuits includes a hardcover textbook, DVDs, Blu Ray DVD, and access to online videos. You can choose which format you prefer to watch the videos on.
You will need to pick up watercolor pencils, watercolor paper, and watercolor paintbrushes. I was a little leery about this course because . . . well . . . watercolor pencils aren't cheap! And I wasn't certain that my kids would actually have enough interest in the course to justify the investment. But, they were. I ended up really enjoying it as well!
We chose to use the online videos just because it was easier to access them with our Chromebook. The course begins with Introductory lessons that teach the basics of the color wheel. The kids were able to make their own color wheel as they progressed through the lessons.
Once they made it through the introductory videos, they were able to get right into the "fun stuff" as they called it.
I was very impressed with the level of detail the teacher went into with the videos. The kids (and me too!) were learning the fundamentals of art while also learning to use watercolor pencils, which was a new adventure for all of us.
I was also THRILLED to see that Art Appreciation lessons were included in the textbook. The artists featured coincided with what we were learning in the previous lessons, so it was great to see the techniques we were learning applied to masterpieces.
We had so much fun learning how to use watercolor pencils properly. I was right in there with the kids "ooooing" and "ahhhing" over the way the colors spread and combined on the paper.
Note! Make SURE you get the good quality watercolor paper that has lots of texture. The cheap stuff might work for paint, but it won't work for pencils! After spending so much on the pencils, I thought we could get by with the lower quality paper. I mean . . . it's just paper, right? Nope! Learn from our mistake and just get the good stuff.
Don't Just Take My Word For It!
This is only one of 45 reviews from families that have used courses from ARTistic Pursuits. Be sure to visit the Homeschool Review Crew page to read more reviews by clicking on the banner below.
