Creating a Masterpiece (A Homeschool Crew Review)

Recently, members of the Homeschool Review crew were given a one year subscription to the online Drawing Program from Creating a Masterpiece.  Anything art related is always a huge hit in our household, and since this program includes four different levels of drawing lessons (Beginner and Levels 1-3) with  29 different drawing projects,  Ashleigh was absolutely thrilled to discover that she would be learning various drawing techniques using pencils, colored pencils and charcoal. 

Created and taught by Sharon Hofer, Creating a Masterpiece is a series of online streaming art lessons that teach students of all ages and expertise how to successfully create works of art using various art mediums. A master artist in her own right, Mrs Hofer has years of experience teaching students one on one in her own home studio.  She has now begun to offer those same lessons through video instruction for those who cannot attend her classes, allowing those outside of her local area to have the same quality of lesson as those who attend her physical class.    

Each project starts with list of art supplies needed to complete the project.   Any supplies that are not currently on hand can also be purchased quickly using the "Purchase Supplies" button which adds the required supplies to your shopping cart from a very reasonably priced art supply retailer. 

Once all supplies are on gathered, students are ready for create a masterpiece.   Each project includes step by step video lessons that show exactly how to create the targeted artwork.  Each project is split up between short videos, allowing an easy stopping point if a break is needed, as well as making it very easy to jump back into the project when returning to it. 

 Students are invited to follow along, pausing the video as needed, as Mrs Hofer demonstrates each step of creating the drawing.  She tells the student what supplies to use and shows how to use them, shows how to sketch the drawings out and how to polish the project in order to creating a piece of art the student will be proud to display. 

For our review, we focused on the Beginning drawing portion of the lessons.   I would like for Ashleigh to work through all three levels while we have access to the lessons and feel that starting from the beginning will allow for her to learn the various techniques  as she works thru each level. 

Ashleigh really enjoyed being able to take either my laptop or her tablet to the table to work on her artwork.  She preferred to use the computer, mostly because she could make the videos larger.  The instruction is such that honestly, I wasn't needed at all. She would get her supplies out of the drawer, start the video and work on her own completely independently.  She found the instruction very easy to follow along with and the projects fun. 

The first project she wanted to work on was the giraffe in cartoon which was a lesson using drawing pencils.  This was a super easy project and a great introduction to the drawing program.  All Ashleigh needed was a 6B drawing pencil and a regular piece of paper (we used printer paper). 

Ashleigh did take her project a step further and opted to use colored pencils.  I really liked her color palette that she choose. 

The next two drawings she selected was "Simplicity" and "Hoot Owl".  Both of these used were also using drawing pencils, but used more advanced techniques then the giraffe project.  With "Simplicity", she even learned to use a tortillon. 

Each project teaches the student different techniques.  For example, "Simplicity" teaches how to see and incorporate values and shading, as well as the basics of planning your drawing and moving through a pencil project. 

I personally was extremely impressed with her final results with the "Hoot Owl" project.   This project demonstrated how to use shading and texture to really make the project pop.

For her final project for this review, she decided to work on "Moonstruck", the first colored pencil drawing that Ashleigh worked on. This project teaches the basics of value, shadow, and highlights.  The project was suppose to be drawn on vellum paper, which we did have, but Ashleigh opted to instead do the drawing on a piece of drawing paper.  I personally think she did a great job.

This was the second time that we have had the pleasure of reviewing art lessons from Creating a Masterpiece. Our first review was for the Core lessons and we really enjoyed those as well.  This is a great product that really helps students build their confidence in artistic abilities.  

For more information about the various video art lessons offered by Creating A Masterpiece, visit their website.  You can also find more information at their Facebook page. 

Be sure to click the graphic below to read the Crew reviews and see what other families thought of Creating a Masterpiece, as well as to enjoy the artwork done by each family.