Artistic Pursuits (A Homeschool Crew Review)

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.

We are always thrilled to get to try new curriculum from vendors that we haven't known about prior to being asked to review for them.  On the other hand, it's just as thrilling to get the opportunity to review a vendor that we not only have reviewed in the past, but have enjoyed and continue to use throughout the years.  Artistic Pursuits Inc. is one such company that we used their products multiple times and Ashleigh was pretty excited to find out she would be reviewing ARTistic Pursuits, Middle School 6-8 Book One, The Elements of Art and Composition.

Ashleigh with Artistic Pursuits Author Brenda Ellis

Ashleigh loves art and the ability to create and the ARTistic Pursuits curriculum has played a huge role over the years in the growth she has shown since first picking up a pencil and making doodles.

The company was started by Brenda Ellis and has grown to be a full family business.   Mrs Ellis herself has more than 25 years of teaching art to students grades K-12th as well as having homeschooled her own three children. She believes that every child can understand the concepts of art and enjoy the process of putting ideas and visual images on paper.  The ARTistic Pursuits curriculum is designed for students to see the various techniques demonstrated after which they select their own subject and apply what they learn to their own artwork.  This is a concept that has worked really well for my own daughter and over the years, her art skills have grown leaps and bounds.

For this review, we were given a copy of the newly expanded edition of ARTistic Pursuits, Middle School 6-8 Book One, The Elements of Art and Composition.  This 96 page spiral bound softback book contains 16 units that forcus on the elements of art theory and composition and covers ideas such as shape, form, texture, symmetry, rhythm and proportion.

 

The lessons are broken into four parts and should take roughly 2 weeks per lesson if a student is working at a pace of one lesson per class, two one hour classes per week. At this pace, the book contains a full 32 weeks worth of art instruction, although students can work at their own pace and may work at a faster or slower rate.

The 16 units are structured in such a way to follow the same format: 

Lesson 1: introduces the student to the topic of focus (shape, perspective, ect) for the unit. Here the student builds their visual vocabulary using words and examples and assignments are given to help the student to pay attention to and observe the concept in their own environment.

Lesson from the book

Lesson 2:  focuses on art history and art appreciation.  For this day, the student is shown how artists use the weekly focus in their own works of art.  The student is then given an assignment that has the student create their own work based on the artist/artwork studied.

Lesson 3:  Here the student learned how to use materials and tools while applying the lesson material to make their own artwork. Students learn about various supplies such as the grades of drawing pencils and then how use those materials to create more texture and dimension to their assignment for the lesson.

Lesson 4:  a final assignment for the unit asks the student to incorporate the new techniques they have learned in a wide array of drawing projects such as still life, landscapes, photographs and more.

For this course, students will need a set of drawing pencils (2H to 4B or more), a vinyl eraser, sandpaper (for chiseling an edge on their pencil), a drawing pad, bristol pad (or drawing pad made for ink), black waterproof drawing ink, #8 round tip paintbrush, 1 #101 Imperial pen nibs and a pen holder. (These are required for the 2nd semester of the course and are not necessary for the first portion of the course).

How We Used It

As soon as the book arrived, Ashleigh was ready to get started.  As mentioned, we had used ARTistic Pursuits curriculum in the past and now that Ashleigh is considered 6th grade, she was super excited to get started at the middle school level.   I think she was slightly disappointed when the first lesson in regards to space had an assignment asking her to simply write her signature stretching it across the page.   That was the assignment in it's entirety.  The assignment was important to the study, mind you, but she thought she was going to be creating the next Picasso I guess.

Well, she had to add some sort of artistic embellishments at least.

Luckily, the next assignment for that particular unit on space had her sketching a copy of Portrait of the Elephant, Dal Badal, Chasing His Attendant.  This lesson taught two things - about the cultures and art from India and China, as well as teaching her to visual her drawing space to better utilize it before starting to draw

The final lesson in the unit about Space asked her to read a story about The Blind Men and the Elephant. Afterward, she was asked to draw an illustration of it while focusing on the placement o fthe objects within her drawing space. So, as you can see, each drawing assignment continues to focus on the topic while providing multiple assignments to put art on the paper.

For the unit about using lines, Ashleigh decided for one of the assignments to draw the vase with flowers and peacock feathers that I keep on my table.  This lesson was from the second unit and I saw a huge different in her line work (and the use of heavy and light lines) just from the artwork above from lesson 1.

Ashleigh has made it to Unit 4 in her study and has learned so much already. Her typical line drawings, which were good in their own right, had really progressed to being so much more.  She's learning to use texture and shading in addition to her line work and the differences have been pretty amazing. 

Ashleigh using a photograph on the internet for a drawing reference

Without a doubt, we will continue on with the book thru completion and from there, we'll most likely purchase ARTistic Pursuits, Middle School 6-8 Book Two, Color and Composition and continue on with the curriculum.  Artistic Pursuits Inc. also offers to books for the high school level as well. As for Ashleigh's progress, I'll continue to post her artwork to the blog to showcase her progress as she moves through the program.

For more information about the vast selections of art instruction offered by Artistic Pursuits Inc., be sure to visit their website.  You can also find more information about the company at the following social media platforms:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ArtisticPursuitsInc/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ARTisticPursui1
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artisticpursuitsinc/

Members of the Review Crew were offered their choice of art instruction books for a large variety of grade levels, including preschool, elementary, middle school and high school levels. Be sure to click the banner below to be taken to their reviews and see if the ARTistic Pursuits curriculum is right for your homeschool family.

ARTistic Pursuits (A Homeschool Crew Review)

Ashleigh loves art.  I love being able to provide materials for art instruction to help Ashleigh hone her artistic skills.  So when we were given the opportunity to review Artists that Shaped the Italian Renaissance, K-3 Vol. 4, the fourth book from the K-3rd Grade Level, Volumes 1-8 series from  ARTistic Pursuits Inc. , we were thrilled. 

Designed and written by homeschooling mom Brenda Ellis, ARTistic Pursuits uses the theory that all children can learn artistic concepts and put them to use on paper.  Starting with the most basic of these concepts in early instructional books, students progress each year until they are studying these concepts on a much deeper level of technique and application.  Students are introduced early on to various mediums such as pastels, modeling clay, watercolor crayons, and paints while they learn tips and techniques that will carry them through a lifetime of artistic pursuits. 

Artists that Shaped the Italian Renaissance, K-3 Vol. 4 is book 4 in the ARTistic Pursuits Art Instruction Books with DVD and Blu-Ray series.  These are series of 8 volumes of hardback books, written by Brenda Ellis,  to introduce students grades K-3 to various art concepts. Each of  64 page books in the series features 18 lessons, 12 of which are written in text format in the book and 6 of which are found the accompanying DVD/Blu-Ray disks (both disks are found in the front of the book, giving you the option of which format you want to use).

Each book focuses on a primary art medium for students to learn, such as pastels, clay, pencil drawings, ect.  

Volume 4 emphasizes lessons on using different methods of watercolor painting, including resist (creating negative areas in a painting) and frescoes (watercolor paintings done on wet plaster). Students also learn about scratch art and using oil pastels in the book.

Sample Art Lesson from Book 4

 In addition to the art instruction, the book also contains the stories of artists such as Giovanni Cimabue, Jan van Eyck, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo.  

Table of Contents for Book 4

Students are introduced to artwork created by these masters of the Italian Renaissance and try to learn different techniques in their own art from what they observe in these master's works of art. 

How We have Used It

Anything that has to do with art, Ashleigh is all over.  She is, without any doubt, our artistic child.  Over the past few months, Ashleigh has really developed her own style of artwork and that has really shined thru with each of her lessons with this ARTistic Pursuits book.

While Ashleigh is 4th grade, there is still more than enough offered in this book for her to learn from.  Starting with the lessons about the Masters.  Each lesson brings the students attention to the various techniques that the artist was known for.  Each lesson also offers a series of questions designed to make the student really study the artwork being presented.  While the questions are gears for younger students, Ashleigh didn't seem to mind answering them at all.  She has really enjoyed learning about the artists we have studied so far and there is just enough material presented to keep her interest without being dry and boring. 

We have done one lesson per week, following the lessons in the order they are presented. I'm glad we decided to do it this way rather than skipping around as we found that lessons often referred back to the previous lesson as far as the material about the artist or the technique that was used previously. 

The first lesson we completed was a video lesson.  We watched a rather short video presentation that was an introduction to watercolor.  After this 8 minute video, Ashleigh was ready to start her first art project.  For this lesson, she was asked to paint a self portrait of herself wearing one of her favorite outfits, in watercolor.  

Ashleigh's Self  Portrait

This was actually her second attempt at this picture, as she did have some problems with creating a flesh tone she was happy with and she ended up smudging the face.  She got pretty frustrated with it.. The above is the final product after her second attempt. 

Her second lesson as about Giovanni Cimabue, who is an artist we have not studied previously.  Cimabue was a Greek painter who was brought to Florence, Italy to help paint the Gondi Chapel.  This lesson also introduced Ashleigh to the method of using gold leaf incorporated in paintings.   This lesson originally substituted gold paper for the gold leaf but we found a good deal on imitation gold leaf so we thought it would be fun to play around with it.   Ashleigh enjoyed it - mom wasn't such a fan at how messy it actually turned out to be.  But Ashleigh was super happy with her results so that's what matters. 

Gluing Gold Leaf to her Painting

Sparkly Artwork

Finished Project

 Our next lesson was about Giotto di Bondone.  This artist practiced under Cinabue as a young boy and liked to paint pictures of his sheep on stones.  He was also well known for his ability to show emotion in his art thru the use of gestures. For this lesson, Ashleigh had to show emotion through her own artwork, again using watercolors.

Showing expression and emotion thru gestures

Our final art lesson for the review period introduced us the the Limbourg brothers - Paul, Jean and Herman.  These brothers would paint the life of the Duke of Berry each month, using the surrounding landscapes and creating calendar paintings.  

For this lesson, Ashleigh had to create her own calendar page, based on what it looked like outside at this time.  She did a great job creating the calendar itself, including important days such as the first day of spring, her birthday and even the start of the Iditarod. 

 With our pace of doing 1 lesson per week, we have 14 weeks of lessons to keep her entertained for the rest of the school year.  I love that she will be learning different techniques to create texture and motion in her artwork.  

We have always been very pleased with all of ARTistic Pursuits Inc. materials and Artists that Shaped the Italian Renaissance, K-3 Vol. 4 doesn't disappoint. 

To find out more information about ARTistic Pursuits Inc. and their extensive collection of art instruction books, visit their website.  You can also find them at the following social media sites:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ArtisticPursuitsInc/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ARTisticPursui1

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artisticpursuitsinc/

Each member of the Crew was offered to review one of the 8 various volumes of the ARTistic Pursuits Art Instruction books.  Be Sure to Click the Banner Below to Read Their Reviews Today.  

ARTistic Pursuits (A Schoolhouse Crew Review)

 
When it comes to homeschooling, most parents have the basics covered. We know to teach them the big subjects like Mathematics, Sciences, English and Grammar.  Many times, however, parents get a bit discombobulated when they start considering fine arts.  ARTistic Pursuits has made it very easy to jump right in and introduce visual arts to your students with their line of Art curriculum that can be started as early as Kindergarten and can be followed all the way through 12th grade. I was given the opportunity to use and review Early Elementary K-3, Book 1: Introduction to the Visual Arts  with my kids and was surprised with my results.

Designed and written by homeschooling mom Brenda Ellis, ARTistic Pursuits uses the theory that all children can learn artistic concepts and put them to use on paper.  Starting with the most basic of these concepts in Book 1, students progress each year until they are studying these concepts on a much deeper level of technique and application.  Students are introduced early on to various mediums such as watercolor crayons and oil pastels.  Books that cover Sculpture Techiques are also available.

Early Elementary K-3, Book 1: Introduction to the Visual Arts  is a spiral bound, 95 page soft cover book currently in its third edition. It consists of 36 Art lessons covering topics about  "What Artists Do", "What Artists See" and "Where We Find Art".  It is worded for students in Kindergarten thru Third Grade to understand (and a 3rd grader could probably read independently).  This particular book focuses more on getting the student involved in the creative processes through observation of other artwork.

How We Used It and What We Thought

I had no doubt that Ashleigh was going to enjoy this new addition to our homeschool schedule. Ash is the type to draw on everything and anything (as evident by the paint that I have had to buy because she drew cats all over her white walls in black sharpie). Garrett on the other hand, I knew was going to be a bit of a challenge. Garrett hates drawing and coloring - it's just not his forte. I've tried everything to engage Garrett into some form of art; I've tried to get him to draw Minecraft characters (Minecraft being huge with him right now).  I've tried clay.  I've tried coloring books with popular characters with boys - all to no avail.  Part of this is lack of confidence because Ashleigh tends to "overshine" him with her drawings.  So I went into this endeavor knowing that more than likely, Garrett wouldn't participate any more than he absolutely had to and even with that, it would be like pulling teeth.

We decided  to do one lesson per week.  On Tuesday we would read and discuss the lesson and begin our artwork.  On Thursdays the kids would sit and finish the project they had began.

Upon arrival of Book 1, Ashleigh wanted to start immediately.  I had bought most of the supplies needed to get us started early on, so after our studies we sat together and did the first lesson together.  Both kids were very involved in the lesson which I found to be short enough to hold their attention and had enough information for their grade level.  I've got to say, it's really neat to sit and have a discussion about art concepts with a 6 and 8 year old while looking at paintings by Edgar Degas, Marc Chegall and Pieter De Hooch.




Of course, the real fun in this curriculum is the actual act of making their own art.. The first few lessons, Garrett balked and didn't want to draw anything..  He did, however, like using the watercolor crayons and making them turn to paint with water which made him want to draw more. Before I knew it, both of them were filling the pages with pictures and colors.  And in just the six weeks we have been using it, I have seen a real improvement in both Garrett's confidence and ability in his own artwork.    Just hearing him say “Look Mom” and the huge smile that beams as he shows off his latest “masterpiece” is worth it’s weight in gold and that is what ARTistic Pursuits has provided for us.

 Ashleigh of course LOVES everything about ARTistic Pursuits. It means she gets to draw "with fun stuff" twice a week as part of school.    We do struggle a bit with her as far as trying to get her to draw something beyond cats (and even then, she usually sneaks something regarding cats into the picture).  She loves trying the various mediums but like Garrett, she enjoys the watercolor crayons the best. 

All in all, ARTistic Pursuits was a HUGE hit in our house and I think it is something that we will continue with throughout their school adventures.  I would definitely recommend a spiral type watercolor pad so that they can keep all their work together for years to come :)

ARTistic Pursuits can be found on Facebook and on the web at www.artisticpursuits.com.