Beyond the Stick Figure Art School Complete Drawing Course PLUS 3 Bonus Courses Review #ComplimentaryProductReceived

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? 

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.

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.

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.

Yellow "Mark Complete" button and how it changes.

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.

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

BUY IT
Purchase the Beyond the Stick Figure Complete Drawing Course PLUS 3 Bonus Courses for only 10 easy payments of $37!

Read other homeschool curriculum reviews for Beyond the Stick Figure Art School...

Wordless Wednesday Blue Jay Drawing

Zari drew a Blue Jay bird for our nature study.

Wordless Wednesday Mother's Day from My Daughters

My daughters with Marigolds for me. Teela made a paper bouquet of flowers and Zari made me a card with a portrait of me.

ArtAchieve Entire Level II Review

My family had the privilege of trying the Entire Level II from ArtAchieve for this review to use in conjunction with our own homeschool curriculum. This is a Homeschool Review Crew Review. All opinions expressed are my own or those of my family.

ArtAchieve is produced by John Hofland (a teacher of art, language arts and theatrical stage design) has online art lessons that teach anyone to become an artist or how to teach art regardless of previous instruction or knowledge. John bases these art workshops on unique things he has seen in his family's many travels all across the globe.

ArtAchieve Entire Level II Art Classes

The Entire Level II bundle has fourteen distinct lessons that we received and a brand new fifteenth lesson that was added after we signed up. These start from a beginners level. Even the most novice won't have any trouble starting here. These lessons have a lesson description page that is located on their website (under Art Lessons, Art Classes: Level II in the pull down menu, and click on each lesson picture) that tells you about the lesson, list of supplies needed, suggestions for cross-curricular connections to explore, and the estimated time to complete the lessons.

ArtAchieve Entire Level II Parts

The majority of these lessons have 4 parts that you can see under your account in ArtAchieve after purchasing: warmup, PowerPoint of the lesson, video of the lesson, and a printout of the drawing. The warmup basically lets you take a square of lines and copy it to your best ability into a blank square that is under it. The PowerPoint of the lesson goes into more depth about the object or art that the lesson is based on and a little bit about the country/culture it is from. The video of the lesson has the list of needed supplies for the artwork, tips to help you draw, and a how to explaining how to draw it line by line. All the art is open to creative interpretation, but there is the drawing printout to help you visualize what the final art should look similar to.

The Entire Level II bundle is composed up of these lessons:

• Lesson 1: The Swedish Dala Horse (suitable for grades 3-adult)
• Lesson 2: The Korean Wedding Duck (suitable for grades 4-adult)
• Lesson 3: The Japanese Goldfish (suitable for all ages)
• Lesson 4: The Elephant from Ghana (suitable for all ages)
• Lesson 5: The Ukrainian Cat (suitable for grades 3-adult)
• Lesson 6: The German Nutcracker (suitable for grades 4-adult)
• Lesson 7: The Sri Lankan Landscape with an Elephant (suitable for grades 2-6)
• Lesson 8: Tessellations: Repeating a Pattern to Create Original Art (??suitable for grades 1-adult)
• Lesson 9: The Ukrainian Rooster (suitable for grades 3-adult)
• Lesson 10: Hiding Butterflies (suitable for grades 2-adult)
• Lesson 11: The Mexican Mask (suitable for grades 4-adult)
• Lesson 12: The Russian Fortress--Color Value and Analogous Colors (suitable for grades 3-adult)
• Lesson 13: The Polish Szopka (suitable for grades 3-adult)
• Lesson 14: The Mermaid from Denmark (suitable for grades 3-adult)
• Lesson 15: The Weaving from Thailand  (brand new art lesson we did not get)

Teela and Zari doing art with ArtAchieve Entire Level II.

How We Used This and Our Thoughts:

This is our second time with ArtAchieve and we love their homeschool art curriculum! We did the ArtAchieve Entire Level I experience last year and loved it so much that we wanted to do the Entire Level II this year. I had my girls who are 6 and 9 do the: Swedish Dala Horse, Korean Wedding Duck, Japanese Goldfish, and Elephant from Ghana so far. We have been enjoying the art lessons for kids and adults. My daughters had a lot of fun with this art and especially loved that they could follow the directions and then decorate and color/paint it how they wanted to. I love how differently the art came out for the same lesson. They are all so unique.

I love that you do not have to buy a lot of art supplies to do the ArtAchieve lessons. The 4 we did required a #4 & #6 round watercolor paintbrush, watercolor paper, multiple colors of bottled acrylic paints, a fine tipped black magic marker, masking tape, 2 sheets of color laser glossy paper, and washable markers. I used one of my cups for rinsing brushes and a plate for a palette and we just did our art on our wooden table so we didn't need the Masonite for a painting board. All of these things I already had lying around and in our art supplies at home.

There were a few things that would have made ArtAchieve even better. The lesson description page that I mentioned above would have been great if it also was available in downloadable PDF format so that we could easily access it offline too and also could print it out. Having the age or grade levels each lesson is suitable for on the lesson description would also be helpful. I also noticed that three of the lessons (Korean Wedding Duck, Ukrainian Rooster, Russian Fortress) did not have a downloadable/printable drawing/warmup. The videos and PowerPoints are not downloadable either, so we cannot view them offline. I wish we could have unlimited access to the art lessons purchased without expiration. These things would have made it better since our internet connection is slow.

ArtAchieve Entire Level II Art

These drawing lessons for kids and adults are very educational. They are packed with a lot of neat information about geography, social studies, history, science, literature, writing, music, cooking, etc. in the extra cross-curricular connections and art lessons themselves. We loved learning not only the art, but about the culture and countries represented as well.

I highly recommend ArtAchieve art lessons to anyone that wants to learn to draw or needs a great homeschool art curriculum! These classes are a wonderful way to learn. They are great for all ages.

BUY IT
In addition to Level II, there are four more levels. Level I is appropriate for ages 5 and up, Level II for ages 7 and up, Level III for ages 9 and up, and Level IV for 10 and above, although if you are a beginner at art you might want to start with Level I. These can be bought separately, together, or even as individual lessons. If you buy individual levels you will be saving money as a whole than buying the lessons separately. The cost of purchasing all the lessons in Level II individually is $75. By purchasing the Entire Level II bundle you save $18.22, and pay only $56.78, or just $3.78 per art lesson. This gives you 1 year license.

Try a FREE lesson now!

Follow Them on Social Media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Artachieve @ArtAchieve
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/artchieve  @artachieve
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/artachieve/  @artachieve
Google+: https://plus.google.com/+artachieve
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johnahofland/ @johnahofland
Hashtags:  #hsreviews  #artachieve, #artlessonsforkids, #homeschool #artclassesforkids, #drawinglessonsforkids

Read other homeschool curriculum reviews for ArtAchieve...

Bible Journaling Kit Review and Giveaway #BibleJournalingKit #FlyBy

This Bible Journaling Kit from Ellie Claire, a division of Worthy Publishing Group is a great way to personalize the pages of your Bible or Book of Mormon. You can mark your favorite passages, doodle pictures to help you remember scriptures in the margins, or jot your thoughts down as they come to you in fun scrolling fonts as you study the Word of God. Be an artist and draw, color, or journal feelings and special moments with the colored pencils and pen that comes in this kit. Highlight your favorite verses with the stickers and colored pencils. Make your favorite Bible or Book of Mormon all your own and a treasure for generations to read and ponder its pages.

Kit includes:

• 4 sheets of inspirational word stickers
• 4 sheets of alphabet stickers
• 24 tab stickers to mark special passages: some say things like pray, faith, wow!, grace, promise, fear not, beautiful, love is, favorite, blessing, believe and others are blank so you can write your own.
• 8 colored pencil twists to advance and never need sharpening
• 1 archival quality journaling pen
• 1 NIV Philippians 4:8 "Whatever Is Lovely" inspired pouch with adjustable strap to fit Bibles of all sizes
• 1 ruled page protector mat with die cut edge for tracing lines

How We Used This and Our Thoughts:

This Bible Journaling Kit has been fun to experiment with. I love how it comes with colored pencils instead of markers or colored pens that might bleed through the delicate pages. This kit is a great way to start journaling. I love the verse on the pouch that comes with it as well which reads, "Whatever is lovely...think about such things.". This is not the whole verse, but is a shortened version. The stickers are a very nice addition too and make the verses stand out more. This pouch has an adjustable strap that can go around a Bible or Book of Mormon. The pouch can hold all of the journaling supplies except the page protector mat. I love that those supplies fit neatly inside my scripture case inside the pouch so that I have everything I need at my fingertips. This kit would be a great gift for someone!

BUY IT


Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/BNBibleJournaling
Books-A- Million: http://bit.ly/BAMBibleJournaling
Christian Book Distributors: http://bit.ly/CBDBibleJournaling

WIN IT
Prize: Win a Bible Journaling Kit {US Only}.

I run giveaways with Rafflecopter on my blog. Please click on this post link if you do not see the script for it below. Also, if there is anything that is wrong with it let me know by emailing me: finamoon AT gmail DOT com I will try my best at fixing it. Thanks for being awesome readers!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

**Bonus: Along with my giveaway here on my blog the company is hosting a giveaway of their own! They will be giving away 5 more kits! Just follow this link to enter and get some free downloads of several coloring pages while you are there... http://bit.ly/BibleJournalingKitGiveaway.

DISCLOSURE/DISCLAIMER: I received this product for free to facilitate this review. My thoughts are mine and my family's own opinion and have not been altered by anyone else. I did not receive any other compensation for doing this review. Affiliate links may be in this posting. Thanks for supporting my blog.

ArtAchieve Entire Level I Review

My family had the privilege of trying the Entire Level I from ArtAchieve for this review to use in conjunction with our own homeschool curriculum. This is a Schoolhouse Review Crew Review. All opinions expressed are my own or those of my family.

ArtAchieve is produced by John Hofland (a teacher of art, language arts and theatrical stage design) has online art lessons that teach anyone to become an artist or how to teach art regardless of previous instruction or knowledge. John bases these art workshops on unique things he has seen in his family's many travels all across the globe.

ArtAchieve Entire Level 1 Art Classes

The Entire Level 1 bundle has thirteen distinct lessons that start from a beginners level. Even the most novice won't have any trouble starting here. These lessons have a lesson description page that is located on their website (under Art Lessons, Art Classes: Level 1 in the pull down menu, and click on each lesson picture) that tells you about the lesson, list of supplies needed, suggestions for cross-curricular connections to explore, and the estimated time to complete the lessons. In the first lesson we are taught the basics of 6 types of lines, how these are everywhere in everything we see, and how we can break up any image into these 6 simple types of lines and actually draw anything easily by doing so. This helps the student with the rest of the artwork.

ArtAchieve Entire Level 1 Parts

The majority of these lessons have 4 parts that you can see under your account in ArtAchieve after purchasing: warmup, PowerPoint of the lesson, video of the lesson, and a printout of the drawing. The warmup basically lets you take a square of lines and copy it to your best ability into a blank square that is under it. The PowerPoint of the lesson goes into more depth about the object or art that the lesson is based on and a little bit about the country/culture it is from. The video of the lesson has the list of needed supplies for the artwork, tips to help you draw, and a how to explaining how to draw it line by line. All the art is open to creative interpretation, but there is the drawing printout to help you visualize what the final art should look similar to.

The Entire Level 1 bundle is composed up of these lessons:

• Lesson 1: Simple Lines (free lesson, suitable for all grades)
• Lesson 1B: Shading Objects That Have Corners (free lesson, suitable for grades 4-adult)
• Lesson 1C: Shading Rounded Objects (free lesson, suitable for grades 4-adult)
• Lesson 2: The Czech Cat (free lesson, suitable for grades K-adult)
• Lesson 3: The Hungarian Insects (suitable for ages 6-adult)
• Lesson 4: The Haitian Gecko (suitable for ages 6-adult)
• Lesson 5: The Dragonfly from Ecuador (suitable for grades 1-adult)
• Lesson 6: The Chinese Dragon (suitable for grades 1-adult)
• Lesson 7: The Owl from Bali (suitable for grades 2-adult)
• Lesson 8: The Kitenge Tree Wall Hanging from Tanzania (suitable for grades 3-adult)
• Lesson 9: The Plate from Nepal (suitable for grades 2-adult)
• Lesson 10: Four Suns with Four Faces (suitable for grades 1-adult)
• Lesson 11: The Sheep from Wales (suitable for grades 1-adult)

Teela and Zari doing art with ArtAchieve.

How We Used This and Our Thoughts:

This was our first time with ArtAchieve and we love their homeschool art curriculum! I had my girls who are 5 and 8 do the: Czech Cat, Hungarian Insects, Haitian Gecko, and Dragonfly from Ecuador so far. We have been enjoying the art lessons for kids and adults. My daughters had a lot of fun with this art and especially loved that they could follow the directions and then decorate and color/paint it how they wanted to. I love how differently the art came out for the same lesson. They are all so unique.

There were a few things that would have made ArtAchieve even better. The lesson description page that I mentioned above would have been great if it also was available in downloadable PDF format so that we could easily access it offline too and also could print it out. Having the age or grade levels each lesson is suitable for on the lesson description would also be helpful. I also noticed that three of the lessons (Kitenge Tree Wall Hanging, Four Suns with Four Faces, Sheep from Wales) did not have a downloadable/printable drawing. The videos and PowerPoints are not downloadable either, so we cannot view them offline. I wish we could have unlimited access to the art lessons purchased without expiration. These things would have made it better since our internet connection is slow.

ArtAchieve Art

These drawing lessons for kids and adults are very educational. They are packed with a lot of neat information about geography/social studies, science, literature, writing, etc. We loved learning not only the art, but about the culture and countries represented as well.

I highly recommend ArtAchieve art lessons to anyone that wants to learn to draw or needs a great homeschool art curriculum! These classes are a wonderful way to learn. They are great for all ages.

BUY IT
In addition to Level 1, there are four more levels. These can be bought separately, together, or even as individual lessons. If you buy individual levels you will be saving money as a whole than buying the lessons separately. The cost of purchasing all the lessons in Level I individually is $36. By purchasing the Entire Level 1 bundle you save $9, and pay only $27, or just $3 per art lesson. This gives you 1 year license.

Follow Them on Social Media:
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/Artachieve
Twitter - https://www.twitter.com/artchieve  @artachieve
Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/artachieve/
Google+ - https://plus.google.com/+artachieve
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/johnahofland/ 
Hashtags:  #hsreviews #drawinglessonsforkids, #ArtAchieve


Read other homeschool curriculum reviews for ArtAchieve...