Nature Drawing & Journaling
with Barry Stebbing DVD
How Great Thou ART Publications
1.800.982.3729
http://www.howgreatthouart.com
God gave us a beautiful world. He put so
many amazing things in it for us to enjoy, and being able to draw these works
of art is a wonderful skill to have indeed.
How Great Thou ART Publication’s instructional DVD helps young students
to be able to capture some of that beauty.
This series is a three DVD disc series,
with 6 lessons total. Each lesson is an
hour long and is quite extensive. What
makes this art DVD series unique
is that it not only teaches the skill of
sketching but also spends time talking
about the art of journaling. These lessons can be watched in one sitting for
older children or they can be split into a
couple of sessions per lesson for younger learners. Mr. Barry Stebbing is the
artist-instructor, and does a very good
job of explaining the artistic methods.
At the very beginning of the lessons he explained the goals of the class
and the supplies that are needed. This
course can be completed with a sketchbook, colored pencils, black pens, and
water-soluble markers. Glossy paper
and a brush round out the supplies that
are needed.
Each lesson focuses on a different
aspect of art. Flowers, landscapes, in-
sects, and trees are some of the aspects
covered. The beginning of the lessons
introduce the art focus but instead
of jumping right into the actual pen-
cil drawing, Mr. Stebbing gives some
background information on the subject
matter. But the DVD did move quickly
into the actual art instruction, and he
does draw his examples right before
your eyes, on his easel. He spends a
good amount of the instruction time
outlining, shading, and mixing, and
giving verbal instruction to the student
as he sketches. He does emphasize de-
tail, shading, and making sure that the
drawing is proportionate.
Mr. Stebbing highly suggests going
out into nature to do your sketching,
and because of this, journaling is a great
way of verbally recording your experiences. Towards the end of each lesson
he does spend time talking about writing and journaling. He gives examples
of how you can use sketching on a journal page; as either a border, centerpiece,
or decoration. He also gives great ideas
for your writing, such as the weather,
using quotes, and increasing your vocabulary to describe the area you are in.
Throughout the DVD he also showed
art from master artists, including Da
Vinci and Audubon. There are also
quotes from scripture and great thinkers from history. At different segments
in the DVD, there is pleasant music
playing in the background.
I liked that he would focus on aspects
of each subject. For instance, in the
flower segment, he spent lots of time
mixing greens to get very intricately
colored leaves. In the lesson on landscaping, he spent some time on forming clouds. I also really liked that his
technique combined fine markers with
colored pencils. These are tools that we
have sitting in our school bookshelves,
and to know that they can make such
beautiful art is inspiring.
I had my two girls, ages 11 and 16,
watch these six lessons over a six week
period. It is almost mesmerizing to
watch an artist work, and we all loved
watching his drawings come to life on
the screen. My girls had their pencils
and sketchbooks ready, and sketched as
he gave instruction. Now Mr. Stebbing
is a wonderful artist so much of this
comes easy to him, so at times I would
pause the DVD so the girls could draw
at their own pace. I also appreciated
his attitude during the lessons; he truly
gave God the glory for all of the beauty
in our amazing world.
At the end of each lesson he did give
some homework. Because his subject
matter focused on nature, it was a very
easy extension to find a spot outside
where we could draw more of what
we saw in the world. When we learned
about insects and butterflies we did find
them in a nature book at his suggestion;
they can be hard to sketch since they
won’t stay still that long!
We really enjoyed this DVD series!
My girls learned so much more about
sketching and mixing colors. They also
both started nature journals and began
recording their thoughts in them. And
another added bonus that I noticed?
They both really began to see and spend
time observing God’s creation. One of
the benefits to learning how to draw
things in nature is that your attention
is now drawn to the beautiful things
around us, where before they went unnoticed. The patterns in a pinecone, the
wings of a butterfly, are now observed
and carefully copied into their notebooks. This series is the perfect addition to your homeschool art library and
I am thankful that it added depth and
beauty to our homeschooling.
—Product review by Charlotte
Gochnauer
Anywhere.
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