Beyond the Stick Figure Art School Review

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.

Recently we have been doing a lot of art in 0ur homeschool with courses from Beyond the Stick Figure Art School. The course is designed with a homeschool art curriculum in mind. We received a lifetime membership of Beyond the Stick Figure Complete Drawing Course PLUS 3 Bonus Courses.

Beyond the Stick Figure Complete Drawing Course PLUS 3 Bonus Courses comes with a Complete Drawing Course, Pen & Ink, Water Color, Acrylic, and 3D Design. 

This can work for young children ages 5 & up. You will want kids to have some basic skills with holding a pencil and be able to do basic shape and some decent fine motor skills. Older kids and adults can also do Beyond the Stick Figure Art School. The neat thing about this art course is that the whole family can do it together.

All the courses are created and taught by Sally Stansfield, a homeschooling mother of eight and a trained professional artist.

This is a video based art course. I recommend a decent internet, and the ability to print off PDF worksheets. All the videos are broken down by short step-by-step increments. The videos are anywhere from 2 ½ to 6 minutes long. The project lessons are labeled Day 1, Day 2, and so on. You can easily complete more than one a day with most of the projects. Some projects require drying time. Students can work on their project while viewing the video, as it’s easy to pause each lesson. Most kids should be able to do this independently.

The lessons are designed to go in order so you cannot jump around in the course until you have completed the lessons in order. You have to hit the tab to mark it as completed. Once you have completed the lessons you can freely go back to the other lessons.

There is a complete material list provided for at the “material” tab on your main dashboard page. At the beginning of each course there is also a short video of the material needed to complete the course you are getting ready to do. Just an overview of some of the supplies you will need: a realm of copy paper, scissors, masking tape, mechanical, HB and 2B pencils, putty eraser, fine tip Sharpie, and a few more basic supplies. Mrs. Stansfield recommends that you invest in some quality products. Some supplies you may need to order are Strathmore Sketch Spiral Pad, quality watercolor and acrylic brushes, Strathmore 140lb cold press watercolor paper pad, Cotman watercolor paint, Prismacolor® Premier® Art Marker Set, Chisel/Fine Primary Set, 12-Color, Galleria Winsor and Newton Acrylic paint masking fluid, polymer clay, and air-dry clay.

Complete Drawing Course: 

This course is broken down in 3 parts. The first part has you cutting up copy paper in smaller squares. This is so the student is not overwhelmed learning the techniques and doing projects on a larger scale at first. 

 

A sample of a few of my daughter's masterpieces in the Drawing Course

It starts out very basic drawing circles, straight lines, curved lines, and dots on your small sheets of paper. Then you start adding color to your design. Eventually you get to adding all the elements together. Your student can do scavengers hunt to look for the shapes in your environment. You are learning about negative space and how to draw shapes next to one another and how to overlap them. 

A Few examples of the PDF files

You then start adding in the PDFs that you can practice more detailed-controlled designs with a pencil and then with your fine tipped Sharpie. At first you are connecting dots to make lines and then you graduate out of the “dots” to doing it freehand.

You are also making a color portfolio so can see the colors in a larger scale and not have those mistakes after you have already colored the picture with putting the wrong color on your masterpiece.

The lessons are building the foundational concepts of art. It may seem mundane at times but it all comes together to create a masterpiece. The drawing course ends with you putting all those shapes together to create a stunning flower.

A self evaluation rubric scale at the end of each course

The lesson ends with a rubric that your student gets to evaluation their own work and access what they have learned using a scales.

Pen & Ink

Pen & Ink Part 1:

You are working on a small canvas made out of the watercolor paper. Your project is a landscape illustration that you will be making with your Sharpie pen and then add in the medium of watercolor to make the project pop out. With the pen you are learning how to make the horizon and how to make the elements in the picture look realistic like your meadow or grassy area. You also focus on negative space and the skyline. You are also learning how to mix your acrylic paint to make watercolor. You also learn how to control it when you put it on the paper to prevent it from bleeding out everywhere.  

Pen & Ink Part 2:

The next project you are working on is a larger scale picture. You print out a PDF and using tracing paper you trace the tree onto the watercolor paper. After you have traced it you will trace over it with your pen. You start filling in doing “cross hatching” to make the tree have more depth and character to it. You will add grass, minor landscape details into the horizon and then leaves to the tree. After you are done with your project you add your watercolor and blend colors to your masterpiece.

Watercolor:

The first part goes over some basic landscape techniques. Using small squares (8) that you cut out. The steps are laid out nicely to teach you how to create your horizon, sky, water, and hills. You learn how to overlap elements together. You will paint each of the mini canvas and let them dry in-between to advance to the next step. All the skills you have learned with the shapes really start coming together as you apply this to a larger drawing with adding in many elements. You also learn how to mix primary colors to make secondary colors. The lesson ends with a rubric that your student gets to evaluation their own work and access what they have learned using a scales.

Acrylics:

With the acrylics you are still using your small scale mini projects with making more background landscapes. You start mixing more colors together. The techniques get more advanced and the paintings are more complex. There are 3 parts in acrylic with a total of 23 lessons. Your student can also evaluate their projects and what they have learned.

3D Design:

Your student will start to work with clay to create a 3D animal and a coiled pot. You learn how to work a clay slab to create your projects. There are a total of 30 lessons broken down in 3 parts. As all the other sections you can evaluate your work with a rubric scale.

How did I use Beyond the Stick Figure Art School in my homeschool?

After I had access to the course I spent some time looking over the course to see what it was like before I started with my kids. I went through my supplies I had on hand and had the majority of the supplies. The only thing I didn’t have was clay and masking fluid. With the pandemic going on all craft stores are closed an ordered just those two items at this time wasn’t cost efficient. Plus my kids have never been to fond of art with clay.

 My artists who have been creating masterpieces are my 17 year old daughter with special needs and my 14 year old son.

My daughter is a bit challenged with drawing and art but she loves art. The first lessons have been a good fit for her. At first she was a bit offended that I would start her out doing basic shapes as she already knows them. I asked her to be patient and see what happens. Being a trooper she is she was able to move fairly quickly through Part 1 in the Drawing Course with doing more than one session a day.

My son is my artist but he prefers drawing the most. He didn’t want anything to do with the Drawing Courses as he felt it was a bit too basic and slow for his liking. However he was intrigued with the Pen & Ink course. I had to manipulate the system and play the videos of the lessons to get to that point because remember the lessons go in order. I had to keep a mental note of where my daughter was as it looked like she completed the course with it being marked as complete.

My son's first Pen & Ink creation

This was my son's favorite Pen & Ink course. He did have to retrace it again as it had it the wrong way the first time.

His completed masterpiece

My son enjoyed the Pen & Ink lessons and was a bit disappointed that it had only two projects. He worked a little on the next course, Watercolor. He liked how Sally Stansfield taught the lessons. She did a great job explaining the steps and techniques. He wanted the lessons to be combined on the lesson instead of the short videos. I actually preferred the short sessions to give you stopping points if needed but at the same time you can move ahead immediately if needed.

I would love to have had the ability to move ahead without manipulating the video order. I get how important building the foundation of art is and 100% agree with how Sally Stansfield did the course in steps. This is one of the most complete art courses teaching the foundation that I have encountered. For a student who already has those concepts down it was painful. I had two students on both ends of the spectrum one the going through each step was essential but the other not so.

My son really loved the sessions he did but he wanted more. I would love to see more in that area-I mean a lot more. Sally Stansfield is an amazing art teacher and you can tell she is very passionate about it.

I would also recommend that you invest in the Prismacolor® Premier® Art Marker Set. We had a 72 count set already. The markers are totally worth it. I personally don’t let my daughter use them as she presses extremely hard due to her disability. My son makes some impressive projects with them.

Social Media Links:

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Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/beyondthestickfigureart/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCROy5BkqT_cZvQu1dTPRYzw

I am 1 of 55 reviews of Beyond the Stick Figure Complete Drawing Course PLUS 3 Bonus Courses from Beyond the Stick Figure Art School. Click here or on the graphic below to read more reviews.