Review: Creating A Masterpiece

I have never been an artist.   I remember spending hours in various high school classes, practicing drawing horses, while of course listening attentively to the lectures.   I tried and tried, but my horses never lived up to my expectations.   It’s hard to draw horses as well as C.W. Anderson!!

I’ve noticed Creating a Masterpiece at several homeschool conferences, and was always amazed at the art the students produced through their lessons.   We were offered the opportunity to review their Monthly Plan and were excited to try out our art skills.

One of the things that makes Creating a Masterpiece unique is the vast array of mediums that are available for lessons.   It’s an especially impressive collection because all of the videos are online.   There are six different levels, as well as Art in History.    The Beginner level contains 9 lessons, each with multiple sections.   The mediums include watercolor, ink, charcoal, ink, gouache, oil pastel, mixed media, and alcohol ink.   For Level 1, medium options include acrylic, soft pastel, sculpture, silk dying, colored pencil, gouache, and soft pencil.   Level 2 adds block printing, as well as more advanced options in previously used mediums.   Level 3 adds glass mosaic, Level 4 introduces copper tooling and Batik.  Level 5 is super impressive and adds wood burning, carving, Conte’, and the skill of Portraiture.   Art in History includes the Greek, Romantic, Civil War, Impressionism, and Post-Impressionism periods.

Sharon, the creator and instructor, is very sweet and engaging.   We started with the Candlelight project, because it looked fun and we had the oil pastels on hand.    The instruction was clear and to the point.  She didn’t waste time with a lot of extra words, which is one of my typical frustrations with videos.  Sharon gets right to it!

For the Candlelight project, we started by sketching the outline of our candle on the paper.   Then, we colored it in with various pastels, and painted over it with watercolors.  Sharon used ink, but she said watercolors were perfectly acceptable. 🙂   Then, we could scrape off some of the edges with a fingernail file to accent some of the artwork.  This was a simple project, with lots of room for creativity and variation.  Sharon ended the videos by encouraging us to pick other objects to draw, color, and paint over.

I love how she included lots of ideas to spice up the artwork and make it special.   Those nuances were something I either had no grid for in my elementary art classes, or wasn’t taught!   This is a picture of our masterpieces!   The one on the left is mine, and the one on the right belongs to my 7 year old Sweetheart.  (This made for some sweet mommy-daughter time too!)

Sharon includes a supply list for each project, including a breakdown of how much you need for multiple students.   She also includes links to purchase them online, if that’s easier for you.

Your turn!   You can try a free sample project in soft pastels if you’d like to give it go!

You can also connect with Creating a Masterpiece on social media via Facebook.