My children have been working through and enjoying the Monthly Plan from Creating a Masterpiece. Creating a Masterpiece is an online art program that teaches students technique that result in quality works of art. The program teaches various mediums of art using step-by-step instructions. Depending on maturity level, children as young as 4-5 can work through the Beginner and Level One lessons.
There are several plans that you can purchase.
This art program provides lessons in:
- Acrylic Painting
- Soft Pastels
- Oil Pastels
- Sculpture
- Watercolor
- Block Printing
- Ink
- Silk Dyeing
- Pencil
- Bombay Ink
- Conte' Crayon
- Portraiture
- Colored Pencil
- Copper Tooling
- Charcoal
- Glass Mosaic
- Watercolor Pencils
- Gouache
- Balsa Carving
How we used Creating A Masterpiece
I used this with my kiddos ranging in ages from 8 to 17. My younger kiddos liked that they could pause the video in order to work at their own pace. My oldest daughter, who is an artist, was able to skip through the lessons and create the projects at a quicker pace. Some of my kiddos have great attention spans and were able to work through a project in one sitting. My younger kiddos sometimes took up to, two weeks to complete a project. Overall, I was very happy that none of my kiddos got frustrated. They were all pleasantly surprised that they could CREATE!!!
There were a couple of things about the program that my children did not like. First, they all felt like Sharon talked down to them. They said that it was like she was talking to kindergarteners. Most of my kiddos also commented that Sharon went way too fast. This was an easy fix because they could just pause the video. A couple of my kiddos felt like there was too much extra fluff that was not necessary and they just wished that she would focus on the project. Again, this was easy to remedy because they could skip through the videos.
Each lesson is set up to help the student succeed. Lessons begin with an introduction to the project. A supply list is included for each project and a link to Dick Blick that includes what is needed for each project. Lesson Highlights, Downloads, and Helpful Hints are included to give the student extra support. The student can also download a High Resolution Image of the project. I do not think that I have ever come across another online art program that makes learning and executing art so easy!
My 14 year old said, "I never thought I was good at art but after completing the Tropical Rainbow Fish I realized I really am pretty good at art. I look forward to spending many more hours working on other projects on the Creating A Masterpiece site."
My 17 year old said, "I love every medium of art. I am not really good at creating original works of art. I was able to recreate many of the artwork pieces on this website without much effort. Some are a bit more challenging and I look forward to tackling them soon."
My 10 year old said, "I really am not that good at art but I really like art. These lessons have helped me learn how to create art pieces. Maybe with practice I will continue to improve."
My 8 year old said, "I love art. I didn't want to try a lot of the projects because they looked so hard. I tried a couple of them and even though it didn't look much like the original it was still really fun."
I could continue to talk about Creating A Masterpiece but I think that the results speak for itself. Without further ado, let me present to you my kiddos art!
Lesson in Watercolor: Floral Medley
Colored Pencil: Tropical Clown Fish
Mixed Media: Candlelight
Acrylic: Caribbean Lighthouse
Wood Burning: Noble Lion
Soft Pastel: Baby Bluebird
This work is in progress.....
Here is a collage of Sharon Hofer's original artwork.
These are a few of the projects my kiddos created.
Creating A Masterpiece website.
Overall Thoughts
I really liked Creating A Masterpiece. I would highly recommend this online art program to others. Thank you Sharon Hofer for bringing art to EVERYONE! I will continue to use this art program for my kiddos. Go and check it out!
"Art is not what you see, but what you make others see."
~ Edgar Degas ~
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I love the stork and can't wait to see your finished Iguna! Very nice work. Please send me more pictures as your children finish them. I am so sorry you felt that I talked down to your children in the video. I am assuming it was in the beginner projects as I was consciously talking to very young children because that is who I made those projects for, although adults love to do them as well. Since your children are older I possibly could understand them feeling that way. In level 1 and up I talk to them as young adults. I'm confused as to what you meant by extra fluff.
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