Artists that Shaped the Italian Renaissance, K-3 Vol. 4 from ARTistic Pursuits Inc.: A TOS Crew Review

Artists that Shaped the Italian Renaissance, K-3 Vol. 4 from ARTistic Pursuits Inc. 

We love getting to create!  And, when we can combine it with another favorite subject...history, we get double the fun!  Artists that Shaped the Italian Renaissance, K-3 Vol. 4 from ARTistic Pursuits Inc. has been our latest adventure.  You can check out what we did last year with  Art of the Middle Ages: Volume 3 here.

These hardcover books are designed for grades K-3. They are filled with full-color photos, easy-to-follow step-by-step instructions, historical background information for 18 projects AND a DVD and Blu-Ray disc. It's like getting the art teacher to come to your house!

We have been long time fans of Artistic Pursuits!  This new series is definitely at the top of our "favorites list". K-3rd Grade Level, Volumes 1-8 will take you on a journey through history, and teach you a variety of art skills along the way.  The series includes:

• Art of the Ancients, K-3 Vol. 2 (strong use of chalk pastels and clay)
• Art of the Middle Ages, K-3 Vol. 3 (a variety of paper construction methods, textiles, and collage)
• Artists that Shaped the Italian Renaissance, K-3 Vol. 4 (strong emphasis on a variety of watercolor painting methods including resist and fresco, scratch art)
• Art of the Northern Countries, Renaissance to Realism, K-3 Vol. 5 (monoprint and relief printmaking methods, plus watercolor and charcoal)
• Art of the Impressionists, K-3 Vol. 6 (gouache painting, plus carving, modeling, and constructing methods of sculpting)
• Art of the Modern Age, K-3 Vol. 7 (acrylic paint methods, foil and plaster sculpting) 
• Art in America, K-3 Vol. 8 (pencil drawing instruction using graphite and colored pencils) 

I love that this series helps you teach your children - both how to use the art materials, and the history behind the artist and their creations. In Artists that Shaped the Italian Renaissance, K-3 Vol. 4, we learned from greats like Cimabue, Van Eyck, Leonardo da Vinci, and Sofonisba… just to name a few.

My testers love getting to create! This program is a favorite, because they don't have to wait for mom to be ready.  They can put in the DVD and get started!  Each lesson has step-by-step instructions.

Let me show you an example -

First - watch a short lesson on the DVD (most are under 10 minutes) on what to do and how to use your art materials.

Then, gather your supplies.  Most are easily located.  We did need a few "specialty" papers that we didn't already own (scratch paper and gold leaf)

 Follow the basic instructions, add your own artistic creativity

And, we have big smiles and great creations to show off!  Not to mention, we learned all about watercolors and line resist paintings.

Here's a few more examples:

Some basic instructions from our video + lots of textures

Equals=Success  They loved this lesson on texture and oil pastels so much, they wanted to do more.  In fact, we may have created texture pictures using almost every surface within reach.

Here's a few more of our favorites.

For this one, we just needed the book.  The book features short lessons about a particular artist and their style, then it's back to creating your own.

 I may have to frame this creation, in the style of Sofonisba… oil pastel on colored construction paper.  I love it!

We also enjoyed trying out new supplies, like scratch paper.  We loved how these turned out!

And, even the gold leaf,which comes with a warning that it "can" be difficult to work with.  This lesson turned into a real test of using our creativity to SEE something new and different from what we intended. My tester wanted to make a castle, like the example in the book.  But, this is what happened with our tricky gold leaf when it didn't stay where she wanted it.

Thanks to the encouragement to use our OWN creativity, she turned it into her castle. 

The finished creations turned out beautifully!  But, we may never try gold leaf again... I love how much they learned along the way.

We HIGHLY recommend ARTistic Pursuits Inc. !

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