Creating an Artistic Masterpiece & Amazing Memories

Our oldest was so excited to share his thoughts on Creating a Masterpiece online art classes wherewith he has completed two projects within the past six weeks.  In this review I, along with the help of my son Bear, will be discussing our thoughts on the monthly plan, video lessons, and overall projects.  He has also created a video showcasing his projects, creative process, and his thoughts on the program.  This online studio was designed by Sharon Hofer as an extension of her art school with the desire to provide a self-paced art class that had a unique yet inviting and intimate atmosphere.  I was simply amazed with the results and how it built my son’s confidence in his own artistic ability!

A majority of these art projects can be completed within 3-4 lessons and a few of the more detailed ones require seven.  Each lesson is broken down into several sessions but the goal is for your student to complete a lesson per week. It is totally up to you on whether they sit for the approximate hour and work through all sessions within the lesson or work on one session per day until that lesson is complete.  Depending on your child’s pace (and length of the project lessons) it will take them approximately 3-7 weeks to finish various art projects.  It is strongly suggested that the child slows down their pace if the project quality or student confidence starts to suffer.  No matter the chosen pace we are encouraged to be patient with our artists and continue to motivate them through the artistic process.

Initially when I logged onto the site I was extremely intimidated by the posted art projects and I thought they were too advanced for my son to do.  He was nervous too but finally chose a project that used colored pencils since he’d just learned a myriad of ways to use them during his current art curriculum lessons.  He decided to try Lessons in Colored Pencil: Tropical Clown Fish and was so pleased with the results.  The next project he completed was the Lessons in Ink: Dragonfly which is an extremely meticulous and  detailed project.  He did so great practicing for the first two lessons that he flew past the final three without any issues.  My husband and I were so proud, amazed, and excited at his results with each completed project.  He wants to try a sculpture lesson next.

Here are Bear’s thoughts on his experience with Creating a Masterpiece:

“The teacher’s instructions were very clear and she helps you learn how to draw very hard things in easy ways.  I like how the lessons are listed based on levels and that there are many to choose from.  The amount of time it took to complete a project was good and I like that she tells you how to prepare for every stage.  For instance, she mentions how to make sure angles are right and how to go over your work. I would recommend this to other children because it helps you get better at drawing.  Before I started this program I didn’t think I could draw but I was so surprised and happy with my results. These lessons built my confidence in art class and I am going to try more lessons.” Bear, Age 9

You can get a detailed view his artwork, see the creative process during the project sessions, and hear more of his thoughts in this recent video.

During our use of the  program we thought a way to make the website more user friendly would be to place a link for the next lesson on the current lesson’s page so the student doesn’t have to go back to the project homepage to move forward.  Other than this extremely minor issue, we had no problems with the website.  The video player worked great throughout our entire time navigating the website, even with us living in the country.  Our internet speed is extremely slow; however, we never experienced any complications with the videos loading or playing.

Overall the Creating a Masterpiece program monthly plan was a great addition for our homeschool.  Bear’s words and video perfectly summed up our experience with the program and my husband and I couldn’t be happier with the results.  Be sure to check out some additional crew reviews via this super long, yet equally amazing hyperlink to see how other families used it and what their artists created.

Make this week artistic,

Ta’Neisha K.