Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.
To enhance and supplement my daughter’s High School Fine Art Credit, we are using our subscription to the Art History Program from Creating a Masterpiece. After reviewing their Core program and Drawing Course in recent years, I was very happy to take time to review this newest addition to their studio offering.
This online, internet-based Art History Program is a collection of art lessons that teach students of all ages how to recreate art from throughout history. Each lesson includes:
- A video lesson (taught by Sharon Hofer)
- A supply list
- A link to purchase supplies recommended by the instructor
- Helpful tips and info
There are four different sections within the Art History portion of the website:
- Styles of Art in History
- Historically Themed Projects
- Exploring the Art of Yesterday
- Capstone Program
The Styles of Art in History section offers over two dozen projects. The projects are based on techniques used by artists from different styles, genres and eras. There are lessons for sketching, painting, sculpting and more. The skill level varies, but most all middle school to high school students can work through with the video tutorials.
There are eight different Historically Themed Projects. These lessons are perfect for enhancing your study of a certain time period. If you are studying the Civil War era, do the charcoal drawing of Abraham Lincoln. If you are studying Ancient Egypt sit down for the Pyramid sketch lessons.
The Exploring Art of Yesterday and the Capstone Program each contain one project. Since Bekah has set a goal to get more experienced drawing and painting portraits, she is working up to the Capstone Program. Based on what she’s produced so far, I am excited to see how she does with this!
The instructor, Sharon Hofer, is an accomplished artist and teacher. She shares bits of history, explains how the specific project fit into our history, and how the art medium was used. She clearly explains what we are looking at and how we can recreate it ourselves.
After explaining the supplies and tools we’ll need, she proceeds to walk us through our chosen project step-by-step. Because these are recorded video lessons, we can pause, rewind, repeat and work at our own pace. This is helpful whether we are working on our own, but especially helpful when we are working with multiple ages and various skill levels.
We have worked through several of the projects in the Art History Program, but some of our favorites have been the Rose Window (a colored pencil drawing of a stained glass window from the Renaissance time period,) the Pop Art Flower Pot (a colored marker project) and the Zebra (Impressionist acrylic painting.)
Another project Bekah and I did together was The Santa Maria – an ink drawing on Velum that takes us back to the days of Spanish Exploration and the discovery of the New World. We did talk about the history of that time period, and we had fun imagining what it would have been like crossing the ocean on that ship.
After choosing our lesson and gathering our supplies we set up our work space as directed in the video.
Mrs. Hofer demonstrated and explained every step. She encouraged us to use our own imaginations and make the work our own. I appreciate that she does not expect exact replicas of her own artwork, but encourages each student to be unique.
This project was divided into two video lessons. Each lesson was broken down into short sections lasting only a few minutes each. That gave us the chance to take a break about half way through, and then return to pick up where we left off. I am glad for these short video sections. It makes it much easier for us to absorb the process and not get overwhelmed.
Here are our completed masterpieces!
They say Creating a Masterpiece is for all ages, so when our grandchildren came to visit I thought I would put it to the test. Our grandsons ages 6 and 7 chose to work through the lesson on the Rose Window and the Rocket Ship drawing lesson. I was amazed at how well they took to them! While I fixed supper, they sat at the table and moved through the videos, pausing them as needed. They were so proud to present their finish masterpieces to their parents when they returned.
Creating a Masterpiece makes quality art lessons available to everyone. With the supply lists, helpful tips and thorough instructions, each of us can be an artist. Our family gives the Art Program a big thumbs up as a supplement that will enhance any art and/or history curriculum.
Visit my fellow Crew Mates to see their masterpieces and get more ideas on how you can use Creating a Masterpiece with your family, school or group – just click on the banner below:

Leave a Reply