A Wonderful Art Resource

Hey guys,

The kitchen is coming along. It’s really close. But just can’t quite show you yet….sorry!

So for today, I wanted to show you something we’ve been using for school. Its a really cool online art class called Artventure.

(This is not a sponsored post, FYI. Just something we love.)

This is an amazing resource for anyone who’s hoping to give their kids some art opportunities at home, but isn’t set up to teach that skill. So clearly, it’s a wonderful resource for homeschool situations. But it’s definitely great for anyone who wants extra art instruction. (I believe it’s even used in some school settings.) And I can definitely see it being a wonderful addition to long summer days, when they kids are getting bored.

It’s put out by a women named Kirsty, who's from Australia. (I love her accent!) She’s an art teacher who walks you through learning to draw. The lessons are set up in groups of difficulty levels (My kids are still mainly using the easiest level, sometimes my 7 year old wants to try the second level.) (But if I wanted to, I’m sure I could benefit from spending some time with the higher levels on my own time.)

     So you pick out a picture, and Kirsty will show you each step of drawing it, and painting it. It’s made so that you watch it through once seeing what see does. And then you watch it a second time doing it along with her, pausing at the pause cues, so you can do that step along side her.

My girls have SO MUCH fun doing these. One lesson will occupy them for somewhere between 15-25 minutes. And often they ask to do more than one. So far we just use crayola crayons and watercolor paints.
    My seven year old can do it 100% on her own. And my five year old can do it on her own about 85% of the time -- but depending on her mood, sometimes she can get overwhelmed by something she finds hard, and then needs some support through that step.


Here’s some examples of our projects:

5 Year Old’s. (Notice the Moana reference that she added?)

5 Year old's

5 Year Old's

5 Year Old's

7 Year Old's

5 Year Old's

7 Year Old's

7 Year Old's

7 Year Old's

I have seen a HUGE improvement in their overall art skills since we started this. They love to draw in their spare time (without Artventure, in notebooks and things) and their drawings are getting much more advanced than they would have otherwise.

In my opinion --The biggest part of anything creative is learning to see. And then it’s just understanding the process of bringing it outside of you. Artventure is a wonderful way to give that to kids. I’m so happy we started this. It’s WELL worth the price.
It might seem like it’s just teaching them to copy something so that it’s not really teaching creativity. But that’s not the case -- it’s giving them the skills to implement all the creativity they already have inside.

This is a dragon my seven year old recently drew in her bed the other night (there is no Artventure lesson on this kind of drawing.) I don’t think she would have been able to create at this level before we started Artventure. She may be more naturally inclined to drawing, but this is an explosion of skill since she started. I know I never drew anything like that from my imagination when I was seven (...or older.)

Artventure is a website subscription, which you can buy in varying amounts of time. (3 months, 6 month, or 12 months.)

The price is really reasonable. Our year subscription equals out to costing $5 a month. That’s a single Starbucks! I say that’s worth it. (But FYI you do pay for the year all at once.)
(Since it’s from Australia the price is listed as AU , but that means it’s a bit cheaper in US dollars. And it’s just as easy to pay either way.)
The website is really well made --cute, very user friendly, and has been easy for my kids to use on their own. We’ve had no technical issues with it at all.

It’s a great gift idea for someone(s) in your life, too!

If you are intrigued, there is a free 48 hour trial period so you can just check it out and see how it works for you. (Make sure you start your trail at a good time, so you can get the most out of the 48 hours.)

Just wanted to pass that idea along to you, since it’s so great! Happy Creating.