This article is in collaboration with ARTistic Pursuits.
ARTistic Pursuits is a company well-known to many homeschool families. They provide art instruction, art history, and technique in easy-to-follow video lessons and textbooks for every age and skill level.
Their newest curriculum features hardcover, full-color textbooks with DVD and Blu-Ray discs containing video lessons. There are both textbook and video instructions for each lesson. You can also purchase a bundle with lifetime access to online streaming of the course in addition to the textbook and DVD/Blu-Ray discs. ARTistic Pursuits also offers a Starter Pack for each course, containing all the necessary supplies and materials to complete the lessons.
Art Instruction for Younger Grades
The first eight volumes are for Kindergarten through third grade. Each book in this series has lessons on a culture or master artist, a piece of art to study and consider, and a project with video lessons for the child to complete. The volumes can be used in any order as each book is a complete art instruction curriculum with eighteen lessons. The first eight volumes are:
Volume 1: Building a Visual Vocabulary
This volume introduces children to the vocabulary of art while painting with watercolor crayons, drawing with oil pastels, and making collages and form stands with paper.
Volume 2: Art of the Ancients
This volume teaches children art history, from cave paintings to classical art of the Roman Empire, using pastels and clay.
Volume 3: Art of the Middle Ages
This volume looks at art produced in the Middle Ages. Children work with colored paper, weaving, needlework, and oil pastels.
Volume 4: Artists That Shaped the Italian Renaissance
This volume tells the story of artists in the Renaissance while teaching children new art methods using watercolors, fresco, scratch art, and oil pastels.
Volume 5: Art of the Northern Countries
This volume instructs children about Realism in Western Art by looking at art from the northern countries of Europe. Children will use printmaking, charcoal, watercolor, and oil pastels.
Volume 6: Art of the Impressionists
This volume teaches about Impressionism while the child works with gouache paint, modeling clay, plaster sculpture, and oil pastels.
Volume 7: Art of the Modern Age
This volume looks at art from the 20th century while the child creates original works of art.
Volume 8: Art in America
This volume features American artists from the 18th to 20th centuries and uses graphite and colored pencil techniques.
Art Instruction for Older Students
The Art Core series is for children in fourth grade and up. Art Cores 1 and 2 are for beginning students in fourth through sixth grade, Art Core 3 is for seventh and eighth graders, and Art Core 5 is for ninth through twelfth-grade students. Each volume in this series focuses on an element of art, art history and artist master study, and an art lesson for the child to complete. There are thirty-six lessons in each volume below.
Art Core 1: Drawing with Graphite Pencils
Using graphite pencils, the child will learn drawing techniques while observing their environments and learning about significant events in American art history.
Art Core 2: Painting with Watercolor Pencils
The student will learn how to paint using watercolor pencils, as well as learn about color mixing, color combinations, and color concepts used by the Masters.
Art Core 3: Drawing with Graded Graphite Pencils
This volume builds on the techniques learned in Core 1 while exploring the ideas of Western and Eastern culture in art.
Art Core 5: Drawing with Water-Soluble and Graphite Pencils
This advanced course is for high-schoolers and teaches the fundamentals of art, art appreciation, and art history, counting as .5 credits.
ARTistic Pursuits is a non-consumable curriculum that multiple students can use, year after year. It is not a parent-intensive program and recommends completing one to two lessons per week, each lesson taking an hour or less. Parents will need to purchase art supplies, and complete lists can be found in the sample pages for each book. Purchasing a Starter Kit with the required supplies is also an option. ARTistic Pursuits is a fantastic way to add art instruction to your homeschool day!
Special thanks to Megan Russell from My Full Heart for writing this introductory article.
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