Inspired Wednesday: Art Class DVD Review & Giveaway

*This post contains affiliate links for See The Light, a Christian art education company.  Clicking on these links can help my family but in no way does this association affect the opinions that you will read below.  See the Light provided me with DVDs for reviewing purposes and is giving another set away to one of you.

My Big Helper has become very interested in art lately.  She draws even more than she writes, which is saying a lot!  She talks about drawing and painting and taking pictures of all kinds of things.

With all of this art taking over the house, I thought that perhaps she'd be interested in actual art lessons.  That's where See The Light  comes in.  

Pat Knepley, a master artist, teaches art lessons on DVDs.  The company founder, Pat Holt,  generously gave us two DVDs, of Art Class I and II, to learn from, to review, and to share with you.

My Big Helper was super excited about this and couldn't wait to get started.  She settled herself at the table early one afternoon and asked for her art lessons.  She did several all in one day.  This worked well with the very first lessons because they are very simple in format.

At first, I thought they were almost too simple.  I was starting to wonder about this when I stopped watching the lesson and looked over at My Big Helper - and she was enthralled!  She was totally engaged in the lesson and was keeping track of the items she needed to put into her 'artist's toolkit.'  I knew then that Pat knew exactly what she was doing.

As the lessons progressed, this became more and more evident.  Each lesson builds on the one before it, using real art vocabulary in a friendly, conversational tone.  Pat pairs these art words with simpler terms that the kids are more likely to know, making it easy to understand and learn these words.

The lessons are instructional in nature, but they are intended to be demonstrations for children, as well.  In order for My Big Helper to follow along and still be attentive to all of the information, I manned the remote for each lesson, stopping whenever she was supposed to draw.  This seemed to work out really well for us.

The videos on the first DVD mostly involve simple drawings with few details.  My Big Helper loved these.  The last lesson, however, is more detailed as it asks you to draw your own shoe.  She worked on this assignment long after the video ended.

These drawing lessons continue to get deeper and to build through the second DVD.  There are some new materials needed for the second DVD, but Pat lists the needed supplies at the beginning of each lesson, making it easy to know what you need.

At the end of each DVD there is a bonus lesson.  On the first DVD, this is a chalk pastel lesson with chalk artist Gloria Kohlman.  This lesson is vastly different from the other drawing lessons. It seemed to move much more quickly and assumed that you already had a working knowledge of pastels, where Pat's drawing lessons teach students as if they have never seen or done art before.

This made a big difference in the way that my Big Helper perceived this lesson.  She worried that her paper was the wrong size, and although I kept stopping the DVD for her, she seemed to feel rushed.  I think it will be good to go back and do this lesson again now that we know what to expect - and perhaps with bigger paper.

My favorite aspects of this art series is  Pat's calm and friendly attitude, as well her obvious art expertise.  Coming in hard behind those, though, is the devotionals that Pat includes in each lesson.  I love the way that Pat ties in faith and scripture to each art lesson.  My Big Helper was excited, about these, too.  Her face lit up at the thought that God is creative and cares about art.

So what's my final take?

Positives:

• Great conversational tone taken by Pat, the master artist
• The lessons begin very simply and escalate in difficulty slowly.
• The lessons require very simple, inexpensive materials.
• The lessons themselves are short, giving you ample time to watch the lesson and then continue to work on your piece.
• Most lessons assume no prior art experience.
• Each DVD contains four lessons and one bonus lesson.
• VERY high quality lessons for a great price!

Negatives:

• The chalk artist in DVD 1 moves quickly.  Your remote might get a bit more of a workout during this lesson.  (The creative lettering lesson, the bonus lesson in DVD 2, is not like this.  It's very calm and slow-moving, giving you ample time to understand and do each step.)

How would you like to win your own Art Class DVDs?  Pat is generously giving away one copy of DVDs 1 & 2 to one lucky winner.  Use the Rafflecopter widget below to enter.

Do you 'do' art with your kids?

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Last week Nancy at There Is Grace shared a post about how to know when you're a mom.  Her list was both honest and funny!  To find out more, visit There Is Grace - and Nancy, please visit our Inspired Wednesday page and take the "I was featured on Washed Up Inspired Wednesdays' button back with you.  

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If you have a post about an encouraging activity, project, or trip that you've taken, please link up below and add a link back to this post.  Either way, please read on to find out more about a fun activity that we enjoy here in our nest, and be sure to hop over to Where He Leads, We Follow to check out Stephanie's  Inspiring Wednesday post, too. 

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