Home Art Studio

I have a super exciting review for you today!

Over Christmas Break, a great big box of materials showed up on our doorstep from Home Art Studio!

We received their Second Grade DVD, and all the supplies to go with it.  Don't be fooled by the level!  My reviewers range from 4 to 13, and the projects were challenging enough to keep my 5th and 8th graders on their toes!

As soon as Christmas break was over, we popped the DVD into the computer to watch the first of 17 lessons.

The theme for this disk is Fairy Tales.

Our first lesson was to create a color wheel, to refer back to in future lessons.

Instead of drawing our own circles, I did a search for a "printable color wheel" and found a site with several varieties.  I chose the basic 6-colors for Hannah and Katie to use.

Eli and Jack have been exposed to the color wheel already, so I printed them the more advanced 12-color wheel.

They did great, blending their own "in between" shades.

When Katie did hers, I left Hannah's completed wheel in front of her as an example, and put a dot of the correct color in each section to guide her.  This was her first time painting, and she did well.

The next lesson was based on the Vietnamese tale, The Watermelon King.  This was our first experience working with watercolors in a tube!  I loved the chance to play with a new medium.  We obviously need to work on consistency of shade, which will come with practice.

You'll notice Eli's watermelon is seedless.  In the video, I noticed that the marker the instructor was using "bled" when she painted over it.  I didn't care for that effect, so I decided I would add my seeds after my painting was dry.  Eli decided he liked his without seeds altogether.  Fortunately, the ink for Jack's seeds did not run.

Our next lesson found us drawing and then painting Blue Dogs.  Katie (who is 4) couldn't keep up/process the instructions, but Hannah, who IS a second grader did just fine.

Inspired by George Rodrigue, we created our own Blue Dogs through guided drawings and then paint.  We took things a step further by looking him up online and seeing a variety of his Blue Dog paintings.

I had Hannah and Jack go back over their paintings with Sharpie to give them more definition through outline once they were fully dried.

Eli chose not to paint his, but used colored pencils, instead.  You get a lot more of the details of the drawing in this view.

There are 7 DVDs available, from Kindergarten to Fifth Grade, plus an extra disk of Holiday Arts and Crafts.  Each one costs $29.99.  There are also some free lessons you can check out online.  You can gather the materials needed to complete the lessons on your own, or you can order them through a convenient link on the Home Art Studio website.

Although my boys are older than Second Grade, I have noticed that younger art programs work much better for them than older ones.  I could easily see us doing the next disc in this series when we have completed this one.  We are loving this program, and I look forward to sharing more projects from this disc in our weekly homeschool posts.

You can connect with Home Art Studio on Facebook and Pinterest.

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