Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.
One thing I love about homeschooling, and I’m sure others agree, is the fun things you can explore. We love trying out new things to add to our art education. Recently, we have been using ARTistic Pursuits’ new Beginner Level, Art Core 2, Painting with Watercolor Pencils course, and loving it!
Let me share what this art program is all about and why we like it so much. It may be just what you are looking for. I never thought of working with watercolor pencils before, but they really are a lot of fun! I had as much fun with them as my kids.
What This Art Program is All About
As the title of this product states, this is a beginner-level art class. This art program is for grades 4 to adult that aren’t as experienced with art. The course is part 2 of the beginner classes. In the first one, students learn to draw, which if your kids need drawing lessons, they should probably take that first.
The watercolor pencil course includes 36 projects taught through videos and text. I had access to the online videos and the DVDs. The DVDs were inside the text cover (regular and blu-ray). The text is also available in a digital format with online videos. We mainly used the online videos because I could bring them up on my laptop, and the kids and I worked on the lessons at the kitchen table.
If you use the program as recommended, you will have 18 weeks of art education. There are 9 units in the program, including a video lesson, creativity piece, art appreciation/history information, and mastery section. It helps create a well-rounded art education for students.
When you look inside the text, you will find suggested scheduling ideas and a list of materials needed for the program. On their website, you can actually buy all the supplies there. I had some of the materials, so we bought what we needed separately.
Art Education in Our Homeschool
Let me start by sharing that my children are in 6th and 8th grade. They have done drawing courses before, so I was pretty confident it was okay to start with the watercolor pencils course. Watercolor pencils were something entirely new for us. Honestly, the kids were pretty excited to give it a try.
We used the program two times a week during the review period. I made sure it was the last thing we were doing in the afternoon because my kids would spend over an hour working on the lessons. Often it was because they kept practicing the different techniques.
First Step in the Art Program
To start with, you learn how watercolor pencils work. Different watercolor pencil brands have different pigments, so you make color swatches with your pencils to see what your colors look like. In a later lesson, they practiced making color swatches while mixing colors. During these lessons, we spent well over an hour making different swatches. The kids loved it!
It is actually a good idea to make color samples before creating artwork. Sometimes the colors look different when water is added.
Early Art Education Units
The first few units teach kids about the color wheel. They learn primary, secondary, and tertiary colors. While learning about these concepts, kids learn various watercolor pencil techniques and demonstrate what they’ve learned using their pencils.
For instance, Unit One works on Primary Colors. My kids began creating their color wheel with the three primary colors. They had an art assignment in which they practiced their primary colors. While they are learning about the colors, they also learned to use the correct shades of watercolor pencils to achieve the look they wanted for lighter and darker areas in an image.
Here is some sample artwork from this unit.
Next, my kids expand their art education by viewing artwork that uses the primary colors discussed and learned about the artist that created the piece. I love how the art appreciation and history lesson are linked to the overall teachings of the unit. It makes learning more meaningful to the students.
Finally, my kids worked on the final art assignment to end the unit, which pulls all they learned together. They find their own subject to paint and use the techniques in color theory and watercolor pencils in their final project.
Here are some samples from another unit.
Each unit follows the same pattern, so kids know what to expect.
Overall Thoughts of the Watercolor Pencil Course
Overall, I would recommend this course by ARTistic Pursuits. The video lesson and text are fabulous. I am SO happy ARTistic Pursuits included the video lessons because they helped a great deal. The videos are short and very well done. Kids and adults can definitely learn from watching them.
With each unit’s layout, kids learn art concepts, watercolor pencil techniques, and art history in a very easy-to-follow format. It makes a great art education program. Plus, painting with watercolor pencils is super fun! I even joined my kids in the lessons and had so much fun learning along with them.
This is a good beginner art program for kids and adults. If you want to learn what others thought of the program, check out other Homeschool Review Crew reviews!
Happy Homeschooling!
