Review of ARTistic Pursuits Art for Children, Building a Visual Vocabulary Full Video Lesson Grade K-3

6/10/2018

ARTistic Pursuits, Inc. has an amazing new art curriculum, Art for Children, Building a Visual Vocabulary Full Video Lesson Grade K-3. We got to try it out in our house.

The book, part of the ARTistic Pursuits Art Instruction Books with DVD and Blu-Ray, is beautifully illustrated of course, since this is an art curriculum! A hardbound book with two DVDs inside a plastic cover inside the book, the pages are clearly marked out so that a parent like me can use it. I love that each lesson covers an element of art such as line, shape, form, texture, color, and more. Introducing little ones to this concept early on is such a great idea! The masterpieces included in the book are wholesome works of art that children will enjoy.

Now, let me confess right away: I used this curriculum with a fourth grader and older siblings hopped in to help.

When my young friend Gracie came over to help me review Art for Children, Building a Visual Vocabulary Full Video Lesson Grade K-3, my house was full of kids who wanted to play a game. They were upset that Gracie had to watch this video. But, she loved the video and soon the living room was full of watchers. The lessons we watched together were amazing. I loved the way the teacher walked through everything, demonstrating everything perfectly. The kids quoted from the video as we were working, remembering things the teacher said.

Notice I said kids! Some of the older kids joined in for lesson one. We sketched an object by focusing on LINE, an element of art, and using lines to outline the shapes of our object. Next we colored in using watercolor colored pencils because we didn't have watercolor crayons. Then, using a paint brush, we added water to turn colored pencil coloring into a painting. Super fun!

The Video Lesson

First, we watched the video lesson. The video lesson was short and sweet. The teacher walked us through what we would do and gave tips to help that the kids remembered. For example, Gracie got too much water on her paper, so she said, "On the video, they said, I should wipe my brush dry and then use the dry brush to soak up the extra water." She was paying attention. Yay!

First, we sketched the plate on art paper.

Next, we used our watercolor pencils (we didn't have watercolor crayons) to color in our sketch.

We started "painting" the colored pencil areas with a water-soaked brush.

Wow! It turned the coloring into a painting! That was so cool!

Other Lessons

We tried this as a still life, but it was a little much, so we are going to try something easier.

I wish I could sit with you and page through the book, showing you all the lessons. And, of course, show you the video.

Here are some of my favorite lessons.

Identifying and Mixing Colors, Lesson #4, instructed us to draw several objects that were similar in shape, but different colors. After watching the video we mixed colors with our colored pencils and then added water to make it a painting. We used fruit. Red apple, green apple, orange, and nectarine.

Lesson #7 was fun! We learned about collages by cutting out elements of the art project in different colors of construction paper and fitting them all together to make a collage.

We skipped ahead to lesson #14 to try a still life and that didn't go quite as well as we hoped so we will go through the other lessons and try it again. It didn't go well because we chose things that were very detailed so it was hard to get all the colors and shapes in. We will try something simpler next time.

Every lesson was enjoyable and I look forward to the lesson on portraits.

First we colored using the watercolor colored pencils...

Then we added water with a paint brush to make it a painting. Notice the difference?

What's So Great about this Curriculum?

This curriculum is beautiful, easy to use, and a great overview of art teaching children the elements of art (line, shape, form, color, movement, etc.) through simple art lessons.

We didn't use the watercolor crayons, the curriculum calls for, but the colored pencils worked perfectly for all the assignments calling for the watercolor crayons. They were super-cool and super-fun to use!

The instruction are very simple so that you don't have to have any particular talent in art to follow them. Yet, the art projects turn out beautifully and really inspire confidence in the children. I am so impressed with this curriculum.

Here you can see the older girls artwork along with the objects they sketched and colored.

The Whole Series

Would you like to check out more reviews about the ARTistic Pursuits Full Video Lesson K-12? Would you like to learn about the other ARTist Pursuits, Inc. books? You can hop over to the Review Crew Blog and read more here.

Check out ARTistic Pursuits on Facebook.

There are four beautiful books to use for children K-3: Art of the Ancients, Art of the Middle Ages, and Artists that Shaped the Italian Renaissance. As I learned from using Art for Children Building a Visual Vocabulary, older children will enjoy this curriculum, too. I hope you check out ARTist Pursuits, Inc.'s new art curriculum.

Until next time: Happy Homeschooling!

For His Glory,
Meredith Curtis