Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew
I have a very creative and artsy 9 year old who is always drawing and crafting on a regular basis. So I was really excited to review Beyond the Stick Figure Complete Drawing Course PLUS 3 Bonus Courses from Beyond the Stick Figure Art School. The course creator, Sally, is a homeschooling mom of 8 children who has always wanted to be an artist, even from the young age of 10. She created this course to share her passion and ignite a love of creating art in others.
The dashboard for the course lays out the entire course in order, as well as the bonus courses (Pen & Ink, Water-colour, Acrylic and 3D design). Each section starts with a video showing all of the materials you will need for that section. There are some specific supplies that are required for the best results such as Prismacolor markers, a sketch pad, watercolor paints, water-colour paper, acrylic paints, clay, etc.
Unfortunately we didn’t have the preferred markers, and with the cost of the Prismacolor markers, and with the Covid-19 situation happening, it just wasn’t possible for us to get them. We did have our own markers though that seem to have given us a similar result that we were happy with. We also weren’t able to get the proper materials for the other courses, but I did have a chance to look through the lessons to get a good feel for them. Hopefully once this pandemic time is over, we will be able to get the proper supplies needed for those as well.
The courses are divided into sections according to the medium used (drawing, pen & ink, watercolor, acrylic and 3D design). They they are further broken down into daily lessons. Each daily lesson has a short video explaining and demonstrating the lesson. The lessons are fairly hands-off for parents other than gathering the supplies and printing out a few worksheets (if you decide to use them). Children (or adults too) can follow along with the video lesson and pause as needed if they need more time.
The earlier lessons in the drawing course can seem a bit tedious and repetitive, but they all build up and come together at the end for a final project that uses all of the skills taught. If your or your children aren’t able to handle repetition and what may seem like slow progression, this might not be the course for you. But if you want to learn fundamental drawing skills in baby steps, to create your own masterpiece at the end, then you will want to stick it through until the end.
We didn’t have time to work through the bonus courses, but I was able to have a good look through them to get a good idea of what would be taught and the kinds of projects that would be completed. They are layed out in a similar way to the drawing lessons. You get a video showing the materials needed, and then daily lessons ending in a final project at the end. I am really looking forward to trying the acrylic lessons once we are able to get those supplies! And the pen & ink, watercolor and 3D design all look like a lot of fun too.
The overall cost of the course may be a bit of a deterrent for some, but if you break down the cost by the number of courses and the number of daily lessons you get, it is actually quite fairly priced. So if you or your children are into art and design, and would like to start from the ground up, learning the basic skills that lead to final products, this may be a great option for you.
If you’d like more ways connect with Beyond The Stick Figure you can visit their social media sites listed below:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/beyondthestickfigure/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/britladyinamerica/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/beyondthestickfigureart/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCROy5BkqT_cZvQu1dTPRYzw
And if you would like to read more reviews about the course, please click on the image below:
Thank you for the review. We love to make our students happy, so here are some tweaks we have made based on recent reviews:
1. All course videos are open and do not require sequential completion–although we still recommend it.
2. We contacted Vimeo and they have improved the video experience by installing volume control and full screen options on all videos.
3. We added more options to drawing part 2 to help it move along more quickly for younger students.
Those sound like great updates, thank you for letting us know about the changes 🙂