Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.
My family had the privilege of trying the Beyond the Stick Figure Complete Drawing Course PLUS 3 Bonus Courses from Beyond the Stick Figure Art School for this review to use in conjunction with our own curriculum at home. This is a Homeschool Review Crew Review. All opinions expressed are my own or those of my family.
Beyond the Stick Figure Art School is a online art school taught by Sally, a homeschooler of 8 and graduate of Loughborough College of Art and Design in England. She has multiple courses to pick from in her shop from making a bouquet for Mother's Day to the Complete Drawing Course Plus 3 Bonuses! These are great do at your own pace art courses that you can have a lifetime membership to.
Beyond the Stick Figure Art School Complete Drawing Course PLUS 3 Bonus Courses are art instruction courses online. These step-by-step lessons will take you from drawing stick figures to making realistic art. These are a total of 55 drawing lessons, 15 pen and ink lessons, 52 water color lessons, 24 Acrylic lessons, and 30 bonus lessons in 3D Design. These courses will teach you techniques and skill that masters of art know and practice. By the time you are done you will be drawing, painting, and sculpting with confidence. These art classes are easy to use and great for the whole family! This program is designed to be used as a daily program for one year, however it is very flexible and can be used to fit your own schedule.
Here is the basic layout of the courses:
Drawing
- Drawing Part 1
- Drawing Part 2
- Drawing Part 3
- How Am I Doing?
Pen & Ink
- Pen & Ink Part 1
- Pen & Ink Part 2
- How Am I Doing?
Watercolor
- Watercolor Part 1
- Watercolor Part 2
- Watercolor Part 3
- How Am I Doing?
Acrylic
- Acrylic Part 1
- Acrylic Part 2
- Acrylic Part 3
- How Am I Doing?
3D Design
- 3D Design Part 1
- 3D Design Part 2
- 3D Design Part 3
- How Am I Doing?
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| Zari drawing circles and circles in back of circles. |
How We Used This and Our Thoughts:
The Beyond the Stick Figure Art School Complete Drawing Course PLUS 3 Bonus Courses series of courses are incremental. Each lesson builds on the last and each course builds on the course before. So you have to begin at the beginning and work your way through. Each lesson needs to be marked done by a checkbox after it is completed so that the site will know exactly where you have left off at if you need to leave and come back. Otherwise the site will give you an exclamation point with a message saying, "Please go back and complete the previous topic." and won't allow you to move on. These courses can be done at your own pace and you can come back to sections and repeat them if you like. Each lesson has a video to watch that explain the art you will be doing in more detail and what supplies you will need. Some have files to download as well that make up a workbook. In my opinion the workbook is optional, but might have some ideas if you get stuck. There is also a supply list at the very beginning to let you know everything you will need for all the courses all at once. I just wish the supply list was broken into separate lists for each course.
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| Click to see the materials list better. |
We started with the Drawing Courses and worked our way through the lessons. Even though these lessons are for one per day, we worked through a few in one day because I knew we wouldn't have time otherwise, even then we only got done with Part one of drawing. I have been super busy with the FFA teacher planning and implementing an online plant sale for the high school because I am on the Alumni and Supporters board as the Vice President. Anyway, the drawing courses that we did get through was very easy and basic. We loved that we could use copy paper and cut it into fourths so it wouldn't be too much white space to fill. In part one we learned: how to see like an artist, about shapes that artists use and finding them in real life, to practice the shapes on paper in different ways, about primary and secondary colors, and about perspective and overlap.
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| How finished lessons look online. The Next Topic button used to be the yellow Mark Complete button. |
Looking ahead at the other courses was difficult because you have to mark each lesson as completed to do so, even when they are not. Also, there are no written descriptions of each lesson. You instead have to watch the videos to see what they are all about. This is a huge downside to these courses...especially when trying to review them. The titles of the lessons like, Drawing Part 1 Day 1, etc., in each course leave something to be desired as well.
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| Yellow "Mark Complete" button and how it changes. |
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| Unless the previous lesson/topic has been marked as complete you cannot move on. |
I did; however, find short descriptions on website to help tell you more about the other courses and so I put them into my own words. The drawing course goes from learning to draw shapes to drawing realistically. The pen & ink course will teach pen and ink techniques that are inspired by the art of E. H. Shepard in the classic Winnie the Pooh books. This course will have you doodling realistic scenes, etc. The watercolor course will build upon the pen and ink lessons to give them color. This course will have you go from total beginner to painting with watercolor like a pro. The acrylic course will let you learn how to paint with acrylics to create gorgeous paintings. The 3D design course teaches how to make things with clay. You will learn how to sculpt and build a real slab pot too.
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| Here is the art we did for Drawing Part 1. |
This is an amazing jam packed homeschool art curriculum. It is very well rounded and covers a lot of ground. I am excited to do more lessons with my kids. I recommend this for ages 8 and up as the lessons get progressively more difficult and I do not believe younger kids will be able to keep up. This would be great for kids that want to learn to draw, learn to paint, or learn to sculpt.
Follow Them on Social Media:
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/beyondthestickfigure/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/britladyinamerica/
- Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/beyondthestickfigureart/
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCROy5BkqT_cZvQu1dTPRYzw
- Hashtags: #hsreviews #stickfigurefriends #artforhomeschoolers #artgenius #everyoneisanartist
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Thank you for the review. We love to make our students happy, so here are some tweaks we have made based on recent reviews:
ReplyDelete1. All course videos are open and do not require sequential completion--although we still recommend it.
2. We contacted Vimeo and they have improved the video experience by installing volume control and full screen options on all videos.
3. We added more options to drawing part 2 to help it move along more quickly for younger students.