Creating a Masterpiece

If I had to describe my daughter in two words, I'd choose reader and artist. We often receive review products to satiate her book obsession (or at least attempt to keep up with it, ha), but lately we've been using a program that appeals to her crafty side.

She told me recently that she wanted to get better at drawing. She's used some books and a couple drawing videos for kids, but she's reached a point where she is ready for lessons that are more complex. I was happy that she received a one year subscription to an online Drawing Program from Creating a Masterpiece.

Creating a Masterpiece was established by master artist Sharon Hofer. Her mission is to help students of all ages to produce "beautiful, masterpiece quality artwork." Her step-by-step teaching videos have helped thousands of students gain confidence as they learn the skills to succeed in creating fine art.

With over 20 years of teaching in the classroom, Sharon has much experience, not just in creating her own artwork, but in conveying those skills to others, as well. Her courses cover a wide variety of  mediums including acrylic, balsa carving, copper tooling, faux metal working, glass mosaic, oil pastel, silk painting, wood burning, and more. Along with the core program, students can choose to learn about artists and recreate their work through the art history course. For those who would like to learn visually through text instead of video, there is also a collection of step-by-step art books covering both a range of history and specific projects and techniques.

The drawing program that my daughter is using is divided into 4 sections:

• Beginning, 8 projects
• Level 1, 7 projects
• Level 2, 6 projects
• Level 3, 8 projects

A subscription to the course allows access to all projects in every level for your entire family. Each lesson shows a picture, the type of medium used, and the name of the piece.

Students will learn how to plan, develop, and enhance their projects through Sharon's guidance. As they progress through the levels, they will be able to apply their techniques more intricately as they hone their skills. They will learn things such as incorporating value, both two- and three-point perspective, showing movement, blending, highlighting, and more. Sharon teaches not only how to preform the technique, but why to do it, as well.

Clicking on a project will take you to a new page that lists a description that may include interesting facts, a supply list, and the number of lessons. The lessons link at the bottom will produce another page with even more information including the teaching videos, suggested color swatches, supplies, helpful tips, and simple sketches of the highlights of the lesson.

I have been so impressed watching my daughter draw with this program! The lessons are self-paced, so she's been working through them as the desire strikes. The realistic drawings are so beautiful that I plan to have her make one specifically to hang in our house. Sharon does a fantastic job teaching. She's calm, encouraging, and pleasant.

My husband also enjoys sketching (that's where our girl got her talent) and sometimes watches videos of drawing to relax. I admit, I never really saw the appeal until I watched a few of Sharon's videos myself. It's almost therapeutic. She claims that drawing is a skill that anyone can learn. Watching her do it makes me a believer.

One thing that pleases me is that my daughter has started to recreate her drawings, not by re-watching the videos, but from looking at her completed projects or simply from memory. I love that she's truly learning the techniques.

Something that she learned from the Moonstruck cat project was to "work small" to keep it simpler. She's been putting that into practice the last few days, trying to control her lines better in a smaller space. I love watching her advance her skills as she continues to practice.

Here's what my girl had to say:

The lessons are easy-to-follow and fun. I like that the projects aren't just pencil.

My daughter is enjoying learning techniques using pencil, colored pencil, and charcoal with this Drawing Program. I'm excited to watch her skills improve as she continues with this course.

You can connect with Creating a Masterpiece on their website and Facebook.

You can see other homeschoolers' drawings by reading the reviews on the Homeschool Review Crew blog.