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

My kids have a lot of fun with art. If I’m honest, so do I! I always join in during art time, even when it is a course they can do independently. It was the same with this latest review for the Review Crew. We received Drawing with Graded Graphite Pencils, Art Core 3 from ARTistic Pursuits. The kids and I got right to work using this drawing course.

We have used other art curricula from ARTistic Pursuits. Over the past couple of years, we used one of their Middle School programs called the Elements of Art and a watercolor pencil program. Both were a lot of fun, so we were excited to start this one.

What is This Drawing Course Like?

For this review, we received a physical hardcover book of Drawing with Graded Graphite Pencils, plus access to online videos and an online copy of the book. Inside the physical book were DVDs of the lessons. So we had a couple of different ways to access the video lessons.

I purchased the art materials separately. Honestly, we had most of them already (I only needed an Ebony pencil). However, ARtistic Pursuits makes it easy to purchase all the materials. They also sell kits of all the art materials for the drawing course. I like how they provide this option.

This Art Core 3 course is for grades 7-8. However, it is a good place to start for kids that are older and have had some drawing instruction but aren’t ready for advanced work. Since my kids had done an early drawing course of ARTistic Pursuits, I started here. I knew my oldest wasn’t ready for the high school course.

Inside the Drawing Program

The program is well laid out and easy to follow. Right off, you can find simple instructions on how to use the program, including a suggested schedule for a one-semester art class.

The suggested schedule is two days a week in which you spend about an hour completing the assignment. A unit should take two weeks following this schedule.

Each unit is set up as follows:

• Art Materials Video Instruction– The first page of the unit has a video lesson demonstrating the drawing concepts being taught.
• Creativity: Building a Visual Vocabulary– The second page of the unit works on helping kids look around them and see how the concepts can be applied to things in their environment. They do a drawing of an item of their choice using the concepts being taught.
• World Art Appreciation and History– Over the following two pages of the unit, students learn about a particular artist and their work. Then, again, students will create a drawing once they have studied this artist.
• Master Lesson– The last two pages of a unit are where kids combine their skills and create their own final art pieces.

The lessons are short and easy to follow. Middle school kids can easily read the materials and do this independently. Though I like doing the units together, especially the section on the artist, so we can discuss the artist and their work.

The 9 units in this drawing course are:

• Line
• Space
• Shape
• Texture
• Value
• Form
• Land Forms
• Human Forms
• Still Life Forms

In the end, kids create 36 projects using the techniques above.

How We Used This Drawing Course in Our Homeschool

When we began reviewing this product, we were at the beginning of our summer schedule, which is a three-day-a-week schedule. My kiddos are heading into 8^th and 10^th grade and could easily use this program independently. However, we did most of it together.

I received the digital link to the video lessons and online ebook before the physical copy of the text arrived. So, before we even received the physical book, we began the program using the online ebook and videos. We were pretty excited to get started.

Here is a peak inside the online course.

We used this program 2 to 3 times a week, depending on our schedule. Each day we covered one section of the unit and spent about an hour working on the material.

When it came to the video lessons, we used online digital lessons. However, there are DVDs on the inside of the text cover. I appreciate this because we often have trouble with our internet, so we can pop in the DVD instead for those days.

We really like the video lessons. They are very well done and informative. My kiddos could see the techniques being applied, and the instructor did an excellent job explaining them.

For example, when starting the Line Unit, the instructor demonstrated using light and dark lines to show objects’ 3-D appearance or shadowed areas. It helped the kids when creating their own pictures later on.

For us, the videos were a great addition to the ARTistic Pursuit programs. We had used previous books that didn’t have videos. My kiddos and I do better with someone showing us what to do, not just telling us. So, we really LOVE these videos!

We love the videos, but the text is also very well done. I like how there are sample drawings to help you understand concepts. There are also step-by-step frames to show the process of creating pictures. It is very helpful.

Plus, the text is hardcover with durable pages. This is great for homeschool families with multiple kids using the book over time.

Our Thoughts on The Program

My kids feel like this program is helping them to understand the techniques needed for drawing. They are learning how to use the graded graphite pencils to make their pictures more realistic and show movement and texture.

Plus, the program helps them look at shapes in the objects around them, so they can break things down into smaller parts to draw. They are learning to look at objects like artists.

We are pleased with this program. We will continue to use this in our homeschool and other products from ARTistic Pursuits.

Other Crew Members reviewed various programs from ARTistic Pursuits. Make sure to check them out! You can click the banner below to see all the reviews.

Happy Homeschooling!