See the Light–Product Review

See the Light is a Christian based, DVD art program that has several options to choose from.  If you are looking for a full, one-year program, you can check out their Art Class DVD’s.   If you would like to work on one project at a time, check out their Art Projects section.   There is also an amazing Bible Stories series that incorporates art lessons and Bible lessons.

As part of the Mosaic Reviews team, we were privileged to review the Horsing Around Art Project Pack. ($14.99 value).  I picked this particular one because Olivia loves to draw horses, and I thought this would give her a little boost in her art skills.

This project studies the art of impressionist Edgar Degas and works step by step in teaching students to use chalk pastels in creating their own masterpiece.  This product is recommended for students age 10 and up, but I let my 8 year old set in on the lesson and she did pretty well with it.  However, my review is written based on my 10 year old’s experience and comments.

The DVD’s are broken down into 4 lessons.   Each lesson presents information about the artist, and some of their pieces of art, and ties in scriptures as well.   The art instructor, Pat Knepley, is very personable and engaging.  I love the fact that she tells you what supplies are need at the beginning of each lesson.

Lesson one covered basic drawing of the main horse, the fence line, hill and companion horse.   Olivia’s LOVED this lesson.  She was completely engrossed in her work, and her basic horse structure really turned out well.

Lesson number 2 worked on laying off some foundational colors and getting some basics added into the painting.  Again, Olivia had a blast with this lesson.  She loves working with her hands, so chalk pastels are a great fit for her.  She is SO intent when she works on art.

Lesson 3 was a bit more challenging as the instructor worked on layering colors and adding highlights and shadowing.  The instructor really got into this part, but was going really quickly.  We had to pause the DVD and back up a lot trying to see what we were being told to do.  Olivia became frustrated trying to keep up with how and where to add colors.   Most of the filming of the actual techniques is done from the side view and this further frustrated Olivia as she had to contort her head around to try and see where things were placed.  There was a bit (or more) of grumbling during this lesson, and she really felt that not being able to see what was being added and trying to guess messed up her picture.  I have to admit, it did look a lot better before adding all the extra colors to the horse.

Lesson 4 wrapped up the painting with filling in detail and layering a bit more color, and then we finished it off with a good spray of hairspray.

Pros:

• art history is taught alongside of the art lesson
• scriptures are tied into the lesson
• being on DVD allows you to pause, and rewind when necessary
• the girls both instantly recognized a different Degas picture in a magazine after finishing the project

Cons:

• instruction goes a bit too quickly at times, and even with rewind you don’t necessarily get to see what she said she was doing
• filming of the actual art is from the side angle and is sometimes hard to see or translate onto project

Overall, I was really pleased with this DVD.    I’ll tuck it back into my bag of tricks and pull it out again in a couple of months or revisit it during the cold winter months.   I think I’ll even create one of my own next time.

Oh, and if you’re curious what an 8 year old can do with the project, here is Lindsey.   The back legs need work, but hey, she’s 8 and she did her best..