My daughter really enjoyed the painting program in years past, so when I was given the opportunity to review the new Drawing Program by Creating a Masterpiece with my 11-year old son, I thought it would be an excellent opportunity to help him feel successful with art.
WHAT IS IT?:
The new Drawing Program by Creating a Masterpiece includes online access to a variety of drawing projects for artists of any age. Instruction is provided for beginners as well as for levels 1-3, so the program offers projects for learners of all skill levels.
The online program provides a necessary supply list for each project, as well as links to purchase supplies directly from an online art supply store. Each project has video instruction to guide students in a step-by-step process so that every student can be successful.
You can purchase monthly access for $19.99/month, or annual access for $199.00/year.
OUR EXPERIENCE:
For this review, I decided to have my husband, Steve, my 11-year old son, Holden, and myself all try a different project. I used to draw in high school, but that was 30 years ago, and I haven’t done any drawing since then. In the process of raising three kids, I’ve since reverted back to stick figures on most occasions! My husband can draw very well when it comes to caricatures, but he doesn’t take on any drawing projects with realism. My son struggles even with stick figures, and he’s never really enjoyed any kind of art in the past. However, he recently started asking if he could learn to draw, so when this review came up, I figured it was perfect timing. And if this program could get the three of us drawing anything even remotely noteworthy, then it was worth its weight in gold!
I was the first one to try it out. I decided to select a Beginner Level project, so I chose the caricature of the giraffe from the eight choices in that level. The website clearly laid out a supply list for me, and I ordered everything through the provided link to the Dick Blick online store for all of the projects the three of us planned to do.
When I clicked on that project, it showed me a series of four videos that would provide the step-by-step instruction that I needed to follow.
The teacher’s tone of voice was a little bit annoying to me as an adult (and my husband said the same thing), but it was perfect for speaking to a child. She made every step seem so easy. I simply paused the videos along the way if I needed a little time to make adjustments. I liked how she didn’t try to make the project a one-size-fits all format, but instead, she suggested ways to change it up to fit your style or the look you wanted to achieve. Sometimes she suggested changes, I would make them, and then she’d have me erase them and go back to the original approach. I was a little frustrated at first, but then I realized that she was teaching me to have a freestyle approach and not feel stuck in conforming to any one way.
In the end, I really liked how my giraffe turned out. When I showed it to my husband, he said if he didn’t know better, he wouldn’t have believed that I had drawn it. Remember, caricatures are his thing, not mine, so I took that as a tremendous complement!
Steve was the next one to give it a whirl. Since he’s slightly more experience than we are, he decided to choose a project from Level 1. But again, anything but caricatures are out of his comfort zone, so he selected the Penguin Family project from the seven choices in that level.
His video instruction was broken down into eight parts. The convenient thing about having the lessons broken down this way is that you don’t feel pressure to even complete your drawing in one sitting, which is especially helpful with younger children. They are free to leave their project and come back to it later in the day or even over the course of several days if they prefer to break it up into shorter sessions. However, all of us completed our drawings in one sitting of about 30 minutes.
Steve was also really happy with how his drawing turned out. He mentioned the alterations the teacher made and how she erased them later, as well, but we both understand that she was teaching flexibility in the process.
Next up was the true test of the program…Holden. He has never had an artistic bone in his body. This is a child who never even liked coloring. In fact, he doesn’t even like to write that much, so his fine motor skills have always left a little to be desired, simply because he avoids doing any activities that would hone those skills. I knew if this program could get him drawing anything remotely recognizable, it would be nothing short of a miracle.
He chose the Beginner Level project called Simplicity. This had some barren trees in the foreground and some hills in the background. That means this project involved some use of perspective, so I wasn’t overly confident that he could pull it off. His project was broken down into six videos.
At one point in one of the videos, the teacher compared the branches for the trees to roads that veer off the highway. You can see how she illustrated that to the right of the drawing she was working on. That was a clever way to explain it so even a child could understand it!
To my great surprise, this was Holden’s completed project, which turned out so remarkably well that I could hardly believe he had actually done it without any help! My husband watched him do it and said he was so excited throughout the project, because he realized he could actually draw this all by himself! I must say, I was totally impressed!
So as you can see, this program really does work some kind of miracle. It got the three of us drawing things we never would have believed that we were capable of drawing so well. My son was talking about it for days afterwards, too, and he asked if he could continue with the program, working on some additional projects going forward. When I told him he had a whole year of access to do so, he was very excited! I absolutely love how this program built up his confidence and encouraged him to try new things and not feel discouraged or self-defeated.
We all enjoyed it so much that I ordered all of the supplies necessary to complete all of the drawing projects and not just the ones for regular drawing pencils. We also got charcoal pencils and a nice set of Prismacolor pencil, as the program recommended, so we could eventually branch out into some of the other mediums, as well. The program really stresses the need the quality art supplies so you can achieve a high quality result, and I must say that in doing so, we were very happy with the results we got.
I highly recommend this program for anyone interested in drawing or even just in trying something new. I found it to be kind of therapeutic, as it was relaxing and fun for all of us and didn’t require a huge time commitment, either. Personally, I can’t wait to see what else we can churn out!
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