Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew

Art has never been my strong suit or my passion, but I love being able to introduce my children to various art forms and provide them with instruction in art. For me, that means finding great art programs that they can do without a lot of assistance from me and Beginner Level, Art Core 2, Painting with Watercolor Pencils from ARTistic Pursuits fits that well. My daughter thirteen-year-old was excited about the opportunity to try out this art program and learn more about this medium.

Course Overview

Beginner Level, Art Core 2, Painting with Watercolor Pencils is a 9 unit course that includes videos and a textbook. The textbook is available both digitally and in a hard cover version. Each unit has four lessons; each unit includes a video for the first lesson where they learn to use the art materials and techniques. The second lesson is a lesson in creativity where students learn to create art from their own observations and experiences.

The third lesson in each unit is an art appreciation lesson. In this component they see how the technique that they are learning was used in a famous work of art and learn about different artists.

Finally, they have a lesson which combines what they have been learning in that unit to create a work of art. There are directions and instructions but they also have some flexibility in the subject matter that they choose for the project.

Course Topics

The program started with students learning about the primary colors and the color wheel, then went on to teach about secondary and tertiary colors. In unit four they discuss complementary colors before moving on to neutral colors and color tints in units five and six. The last three units cover color values, monochrome colors, and white space.

Course Materials

In addition to the textbook and videos students did need to purchase a few materials for this course. However, I found that they were reasonably priced and readily available on Amazon or in most hobby stores. We purchased a 12 pack of water color pencils, a pack of water color paper, and then were able to use the brushes, pencil sharpener and t-square that we already had at home.

Our Opinions and Conclusions

My daughter enjoyed the class but felt that it moved a little quickly. She also felt like the videos were a bit long and spent more time on watching the instructor paint than actual instruction. However, she said she would still continue to work through the course.  She appreciated the fact that the assignments gave her a lot of latitude to choose her on subject matter. She felt the course would be best for sixth grade and older.

I appreciated that the materials needed for the course were not overly expensive and that my daughter was able to work through it with very little help from me. Once we had her account set up on the computer, the textbook arrived in the mail, and I showed her how to navigate the program she worked through it on her own.

If you are interested in an art program that your middle or high school student can complete independently or even an adult that is interested in art, check out Beginner Level, Art Core 2, Painting with Watercolor Pencils. In addition to this course, the Review Crew reviewed several other courses from ARTistic Pursuits. Make sure to click on the graphic below to check out the other reviews and see which course might be a good fit for your family.