570.10 Art Elective Curricula Review - Drawing Textbook by Bruce McIntyre

[Pat]

Name of curriculum or book: Drawing Textbook

What topic: Art

Educational Philosophy: N/A

Optimal age of students: Fairly young to adult (my 7 yo boy is using the program). Optimal minimum age for children may be slightly older say around 9 or 10.

Worldview: Learn to Draw with 7 elements.

Website: http://www.avdp.com/
Note: this is available from several homeschool resources such as Rainbow Resource and Love to Learn.

Review: We've been using this for several months. We do it a couple a times a week (I'd like to do it everyday, but during the school year it sometimes gets bumped).

The book is organized into 36 lessons, but each lessons has at least 5 drawings associated with it. Each lesson is one page long, and simply shows you the drawing and then gives you some verbal directions as to how to do the drawing. Each lesson and drawing get progressively more involved. However we don't usually spend more than 5 - 10 minutes on any drawing. We do one drawing a day (although at first we did two when they were easy).

The authors overall philosophy is for you to learn the basic skills of all drawing and in particular to learn to make things three dimensional.

A quote from the website: Drawing is so easy once the Seven Elements of Drawing have been taught that children as young as Kindergartners will be drawing in three dimensions after going through the first lesson a couple of times.
Once you see for yourself how easy it is to draw, you will wonder why drawing is not included in the school curriculums. It is easier to learn than reading and writing.

Have you used this curriculum? What levels? Yes, I have used the Drawing Textbook.

Strengths: It has been very easy to use. I glance at the directions (usually a short paragraph) and then begin to draw while also giving the directions to my children.

Weaknesses: I'm concerned about whether the drawing from the book will be transferred to being able to draw objects from life. If you use this book, you might wish to check out a book like Mona Brook's Drawing with Children and learn to set up a still life and draw it.


I'd also like to see a section where he shows problems and then gives you instruction on how to correct them. My 10 yo is doing well in the program except for shading.

Other Comments: We are not drawers or very skilled in the fine motor department so this maybe too easy for someone who is.

Sample: Here's a sample of a drawing we did. It comes from Lesson 11.




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[poolehall]

I've been using this program with my two boys who both have Asperger's Syndrome (and some fine motor difficulties). It has been working out really well since it begins with the basics.

They have motor skill difficulties, but they want things to look real. This has given them the ability to improve their skills in a way that satisfies THEM.

It's definitely worth what you get for the price. I had also looked at Thomas Kinkaide's program, but it was too text-bookish for our likes/dislikes--not just drawing--and it cost about 5X more.

[ThisJobRocks]

My copy of this just arrived today. I wanted to add "Art" to our plans, but I don't like things that are fussy and complicated. I think this will be just the right thing for us, as my kids enjoying drawing, and this will allow them to improve their skills.

Thanks for writing your review!