Art...my kids love art! My husband's family has a lot of artists. His brother is phenomenal, as well as their grandfather and great-grandfather. I always say, visual art is not my thing. I struggle with my perfectionism with every project I attempt. For our art instruction, I rely heavily upon online tutorials and projects that are easy for the kids to follow other teacher's instruction. We have also done quite a bit of picture studies Charlotte Mason style.
Since, Daniel got to do the last review with EEME. I let Tera pick which SEE THE LIGHT Art Projects DVD with Pat Knepley, we would try out. I knew before she even said it out loud. Sunflowers! She has loved Van Gogh and his works for a long time. It was a great choice for our first attempt.
About this product:
Art Projects is from the company See the Light: Drawing Children to Him founded by Dave and Pat Holt, who are passionate about sharing their faith through art instruction. Pat, tells of being an elementary school student watching a chalk artist paint a picture and then use a black light to highlight hidden things in their painting. That made such an impression upon her. Here's the interesting part, my husband's grandfather was a chalk art evangelist, who traveled the country and on missionary trips to Native American reservations doing that very thing. It could have been PopPop that she saw! How cool is that!
What is "See the Light" from Kip Perry on Vimeo.
See the Light has three DVD series: Art Class, Art Projects and Bible Stories
About this product:
Art Projects is from the company See the Light: Drawing Children to Him founded by Dave and Pat Holt, who are passionate about sharing their faith through art instruction. Pat, tells of being an elementary school student watching a chalk artist paint a picture and then use a black light to highlight hidden things in their painting. That made such an impression upon her. Here's the interesting part, my husband's grandfather was a chalk art evangelist, who traveled the country and on missionary trips to Native American reservations doing that very thing. It could have been PopPop that she saw! How cool is that!
What is "See the Light" from Kip Perry on Vimeo.
See the Light has three DVD series: Art Class, Art Projects and Bible Stories
Video Sample:
Art Projects - 9 DVD Series - Trailer from Kip Perry on Vimeo.
So, here we are with our vase of sunflowers, oil pastels, and paper. Very minimal supplies.
Lesson 2:
Lesson 3:
Final version:
So, I had this thought! I'm always saying what a horrible artist I am, could See the Light teach me how to produce something I was pleased with? Well, here's my final product. Overall, I think it turned out nice. As with any perfectionist, I can find things I really don't like.
But I liked it enough to display it proudly alongside my children's work!
What we liked:
- Project is broken into four short lessons. Each of the four lessons is right around 20 minutes long, not counting pause time for kids to work on the various components.
- Art History combined with instruction. We learned things about Van Gogh we never knew before. These videos weave art appreciation and history throughout the lesson. Both my kids really enjoyed this part.
- Christian worldview- I loved how Pat brought in relevant scripture references and Van Gogh's Christian experience. I like the way the instructor pointed out Van Gogh's struggles with anxiety and feelings of self-doubt. Christians are not perfect, we struggle like everyone else.
- Freedom within form- There was so much encouragement from the artist for the viewer to do things their own way. Yes, we are all drawing sunflowers, but we can make choices that make our project uniquely our own.
- Helps meet the high school fine arts credit. See the Light has a .pdf that tells you how to use these videos and supplemental activities to fill the hours needed to get high school credit. I thought that was just totally awesome and helpful to parents who cannot afford outside art instruction.
- Affordable! Each individual video is priced at $14.99 and can be used for multiple ages and multiple times!
- Modest supply lists- We needed very few supplies to complete this project. We substituted a different paper type than the one suggested, but our projects turned out just fine.
What we struggled with:
- Sometimes as the instructor was giving directions, she'd initially leave out some important "...but don't do this..." until after you had already started. So, after a minor hiccup on the first lesson, we just tried to watch each lesson before attempting any drawing. That fixed most of our missteps and listening carefully before beginning took care of the rest.
Purchase information:
Art Projects: $14.99 per video. There are 9 videos in this series that focus on a project in the style of a famous artist. The boxed set is offered for $99. Another purchasing option is a DVD of the month club, where each video is sent on a monthly basis for $12.50 each.
I'm am so excited to try out the Bible Stories series that will teach my children how to produce art in the style that their great-grandfather used to share the Gospel all over the country.
