Learning About the Basics of Sculpture with ARTistic Pursuits {Curriculum Review}

We have been blessed to have two of the great books from ARTistic Pursuits Inc. and have enjoyed exploring all the different lessons they offer. But my oldest really wanted to explore things in more of a 3D aspect, so when we had the chance to review Sculpture Technique Construct, I hoped it would give him what he was looking for. 

Product Information

ARTistic Pursuits Inc. is an art curriculum company believing that all children are able to understand the concepts of art, and enjoy putting ideas and visual images on paper. They are committed to helping children become observant in our world and to be able to work creatively in it. They are determined to offer parents and children a quality art education presented in an easy to understand format for both the teacher and child and gear their books towards the homeschooling community.
Through their program, they encourage children to look at the expressive and technical aspects of art according to their age level. The goal is for the children to be able to be free to explore their world however they see it...not the way that adults think they should see it! There are no "rules" or "boundaries" in the art lessons--no small boxes or limitations. ARTistic Pursuits is all about letting them color outside the lines!
ARTistic Pursuits offer curriculum for Preschool to High School age making it easy for you to find a curriculum just right for your school age child.

Each book has a comb binding, is non-consumable and sells for $47.95. One set of all the books can serve your entire family--from ages 3-18! 

We reviewed Sculpture Technique Construct with Little Britches though Baby Britches joined us when he could.

How Did We Use This Product?

Sculpture Technique Construct is one of the books designed for upper elementary through high school, so I knew that we were going to be doing more than just painting. Fortunately, ARTistic Pursuits partners with Blick to provide packages to match each of their art books, which makes it easy for me to view in advance what will be needed. I saw that I only had to purchase a few things for us to get started on the book when it arrived, which was great. When the book arrived, I flipped through it to get an eye for the different projects that would be done--mostly to see what will be easy to get started on and what has a lot of prep. Because we didn't have the corrogated cardboard paper yet, I decided we would skip ahead and cut our teeth on wire sculptures...I was happy to see that not only did I already own wire that would work thanks to my floral experience, but our local hardware store carried the other gauge that I needed for very inexpensive. Speaking of supplies, I was tickled to find corrogated cardboard sheets in cool neon colors at our local Dollar Tree store! It was a great addition to the package I purchased on Blick.
The book provides a nice introduction about sculpture and how it captures volume and how it deals with blank space. This is information any art teacher could easily provide, but something us parent teachers enjoy having at our disposal--so we sound knowledgeable! 

The book is very straight forward--you get a unit lesson. Within that unit are theme related lessons, an example of the project that matches each lesson, and then you get the list of materials and a guide for what the project is going to be. This same method is repeated throughout the book with each new lesson. In this book, however, there is also a simple unit quiz where the student can test their knowledge relating to the lessons in the unit--all questions that are art related and can be answered right from the book.
We were able to complete several projects over the course of the review period and are preparing for our big paper mache project in 2 weeks. We are collecting newspaper and plastic bottles for our form right now. We will be making paper soon after. I'm eager to use my Ninja blender for that. LOL.

Baby Britches enjoyed working on our plane projects. Although he STILL thinks we were creating airports and frontal shots for airPLANES. LOL. He enjoyed designing his posters.

If you guessed Star Wars, you are correct! :)

What Are Our Thoughts on The Product?

As always, the ARTistic Pursuits book has not let me down. I found the lessons to be easy to follow, and the lessons easy to teach--even as someone who isn't all that artistic. I really didn't have much trouble getting the supplies, though we chose not to purchase the paper making kit at this time--I am pretty sure we will end up making one for ourselves from various hardware we have on hand. 

I was surprised at how much Little Britches really took to the wire sculpting--which was his most favorite of the projects we have done so far. He patiently would work on it for up to an hour in an effort to give it the dimensions the lesson suggested. At one point, he said he liked it even better than his LEGOS, which is high praise indeed. He's very very artistic with a fine eye for detail, so this book was just what I wanted for him and it gave me the guidance that I needed to at least point him in the right direction when it came to working with the materials.
I did find, that unlike the previous two books we used, this one had projects which extended over more than one session. We usually ended up doing the same project for 2-3 days a week, and even went into a second week--especially for the wire projects. I felt like I had to clear out a lot more time FOR Art with this book because of that. Which isn't bad--just meant I had to rearrange our school routine to accommodate it.
As it was also for upper elementary through high school, Baby Britches couldn't do very much of the projects independently, though he did enjoy the corrogated paper projects for learning about shapes and planes.
Little Britches always has high praise for the art books because they feed his desire to be creative. I love that he never tries to replicate what is shared in the photos, always choosing to do something different--well, except the fish. He did try to make a fish in his wire.

Standing up 2D fish

Definitely a fish!

Meanwhile I attempted a butterfly

The only cons are really that it's not an open and go program, that it requires more unusual supplies, and that it might take you more than one sitting to finish the project--oh and it's harder to store the finished project! Like his wire duck. Where am I going to store this thing??

A 3D wire duck.

Will we continue to use this product? Absolutely. I have plans for that paper mache lesson, and I really do want to make our own paper. It will be a good book to continue to pull out as he gets older and his skills advance.

Would I Recommend This Product?

Yes and No. If your chid is wanting to take art into the 3D level and you need simple lesson ideas for you to do at home, this is a great product. If you are able to supply them with the more complicated supplies (paper making kits, wire, etc) than this will be a good match. 
But--if you are looking step-by-step directions? This probably isn't going to be your type, as the directions, while basic, are open to allow for your child to explore and create. There are photos with information to guide you, but not any that are "first, you need to...next you need too..." This is also not an open and go program, and it DOES require more complicated supplies that you wouldn't necessarily have on hand.

Want to Know More?

We reviewed the Sculpture Technique Construct book from ARTistic Pursuits Inc. I hope that you will take a moment to check out what the rest of our team created as they explored more of the ARTistic Pursuits books!

I encourage you to keep up to date with ARTistic Pursuits by following them via Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/ArtisticPursuitsInc

I am definitely going to be using this book some more, but we need to break it down to just a one day a week project, making it far more likely we will finish it. It is definitely something Little Britches enjoys and I am glad it's challenging him.

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