Drawing Course with Graded Graphite Pencils by ARTistic Pursuits

I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.

My children have taken previous ARTistic Pursuits classes. Art is a lovely class to take over the summer so we were happy to have the opportunity to try out Drawing with Graded Graphite Pencils, Art Core 3 this year.

What is ARTistic Pursuits?

ARTistic Pursuits is a homeschool art program for children from K-12. They have both physical books and online streamed courses available. Over the years they have been upgrading and expanding their products to give children of all ages an education in hands-on art as well as art history.

Drawing Course with Graded Graphite Pencils, Art Core 3

We received the digital version of this class, which consists of an online flip-book (this is also available in hard-cover form), and online streaming lessons. The video lessons are about 10 minutes long for each unit, and the remaining three lessons are in the flip book.

The main concepts in this class are:

1. Lines and edges
2. Arranging objects
3. Constructing shapes
4. Space and texture
5. 5-value scale
6. Planes show form
7. Landscape forms
8. The figure
9. Still life forms

Extras include:

• What is art?
• Why we draw from observation
• How we draw from observation
• Seeing the biIG shape
• Drawing basics

Each unit has 4 lessons

1. Art Materials: Video Instruction – The first lesson is a video lesson where students are walked through how to use graded graphite pencils for the project. Then it’s time for the students to create their own drawing using this technique.
2. Creativity: Building a Visual Vocabulary – In this lesson students learn about appropriate terminology such as values, shapes, lines, depth, etc., and create a drawing.
3. Art Appreciation And History – In this lesson students learn about an artist, their style, and the times they lived in.
4. Master Lesson: Assimilating Knowledge and Skills – It’s time for another hands-on project. Gather still life items or a photo/postcard and use the techniques learned in this unit and put them to work.

Supplies Needed

For this class, we needed to provide:

• Graded graphite pencils
• Art eraser
• Drawing paper
• Tracing paper
• Photographs and/or other images

How we used This Drawing Course

Over the past 5 weeks my children (and sometimes me, too) have been working their way through this class. For the first few weeks they were only taking art and history so were able to work through the lessons a little quicker, and to date they have completed 7 of the 9 units.

Some lessons are more brief, such as art history, while the first and last lessons tend to take longer due to drawing pictures.

This is the way they tended to do things:

• Day 1 – we’d gather and watch the video and draw the first project.
• Day 2 – we’d gather and read through lessons 2-4 and then the children would work on another 2 drawings at their own pace over the next couple of days.
• Repeat.

This gave the children a little structure, but also gave them the freedom to draw when they were feeling creative rather than at a designated time. It may not be the way other families do it, however.

What Did We Think About this Drawing Course?

We all enjoyed learning more about drawing with graded pencils. I’ve transferred some of the lessons into ink sketches, and my son has been using some of the techniques in his science drawings and 3D computer work. Here’s a quote from him:

“My new favourite way of doing 3D circles on paper – it works so well and you can line it up”

~ Tristan, age 14

My daughter likes to pick up a sketch book from time to time and draw whatever takes her fancy, and now she has more knowledge to improve her skills and take her drawings up a level.

My only suggestion would be to incorporate the information in the flip book right into the online lesson platform to make the experience more integrated and smooth. Of course, if you have the physical book and DVDs, this is a different situation.

Overall, we all enjoyed our summer of art and I have plans to take the children on a day of plein air drawing by the seaside when the weather allows.

More ARTistic Pursuits Information

As I mentioned earlier, my children have used ARTistic Pursuits for art lessons previously. You can read our review on these:

• Introduction to the Visual Arts (Early Elementary K-3)
• Painting with Watercolor Pencils (Art Core 2)

Read 33 reviews about ARTistic Pursuits‘ different classes from K-12 by the Homeschool Review Crew.  If you’d like to know more or would like to follow ARTistic Pursuits, you can connect with them:

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram, | YouTube.