The Ultimate Guide to Homeschool Artist Study

Looking for ways to incorporate artist study into your homeschooling plans? Today I’m sharing my favorite easy and practical artist study ideas in this guide to homeschool artist study.

The Ultimate Guide to Homeschool Artist Study

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Before we jump into artist study resources, let’s establish that artist study can be as simple as introducing to younger children to selected artists or as in-depth as unit studies based on specific artists. That’s one of my favorite things about it because it can be adjusted to meet the needs of any homeschool family.

The Ultimate Guide to
Homeschool Artist Study

As far as the logistics of homeschool artist study, I suggest spending a month or more on studying an artist. Spreading the study out over a month allows you to weave it into your homeschool plans without making it so intense that it becomes overwhelming.

When it comes to choosing artists to study, you can approach it a few ways. One practical way is to choose artists that correspond with the historical period you’re studying already.

The Ultimate Guide to Homeschool Artist Study

Another option is to encourage your child to become familiar with basic styles and movements and follow your child’s interests from there. Lastly, you can also choose your artists based on the availability of resources needed for the study.

Homeschool Artist Study: Books to Read

For pretty much any topic we study, books are our favorite place to start. Artist study is no exception. Here are some great go-to books for homeschool artist study. (Heads up: you can find them all in our Bookshop.org list!)

  • 13 Artists Children Should Know – Exactly what it sounds like, this book introduces kids to 13 famous artists and highlights some of their greatest work. It includes games, puzzles, and a timeline.
  • Anholt’s Artist Books for Children – This is a lovely picture book series and is a perfect way to introduce young learners to master artists.
  • Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Artists – These books from Mike Venezia are great for homeschool artist study. Not only do they have plenty of facts about the artists they cover, they also include examples of the artwork that made them famous.
  • For Kids series – This series doesn’t exclusively cover artists, but it does have several books for famous artists. This is an especially great artist study resource for older kids and middle schoolers because these books contain tons of information, art examples, activity ideas, glossaries, timelines, and recommended resources for further learning.

As for reading suggestions about specific artists, I have a few book lists to help you along:

Note that I’ll be adding artist-themed reading suggestions on a monthly basis. The above list may be small right now, but it will grow.

Homeschool Artist Study: What to Watch

In addition to books, we love to include video in our homeschool artist study whenever possible. Here are some to preview and consider for your studies:

  • Art with Mati & Dada – These short animated videos are helpful for introducing young learners to famous artists.
  • Famous Artists for Kids from Free School – These include a good mix of biographical information and works of art from the featured artists.
  • The Impressionists – You can find this series through Amazon Prime Video. It’s probably best for older students, but it’s packed with information on artists from the Impressionist period.

Homeschool Artist Study: Websites to Bookmark

There are several websites you’ll want to bookmark for artist study resources. Some of these primarily focus on information, but some include great activity suggestions. Let’s take a look:

  • Making Art Fun – This site contains more than twenty artist profiles. Each profile includes a short, kid-friendly biography, artwork examples, and worksheets to go with each lesson.
  • Among other art helps, Ducksters has a listing of famous artists that includes biographies, interesting facts, and examples from each featured artist.
  • Red Ted Art has a good roundup of lesson plans and activities organized by artist. You can find it here.
  • Crayola.com has some great artist-themed activities for elementary kids. Some activities feature well-known artists and some feature lesser-known artists. Either way, it’s worth perusing the site to see if you can find some inspiration for your artist study.
  • Created for use in school classrooms, The Masters from Deep Space Sparkle includes artist study lessons and activities for elementary age kids.
  • National Gallery of Art offers incredible lesson plans for teachers. These free lesson plans are great for analyzing specific pieces and are especially good for older children, middle schoolers, and teens.

Homeschool Artist Study: Courses and Workshops

If you prefer artist study that’s open and go, — as in allowing you to login and let your students work without much help from you — you’ve got a couple of good options.

The first is Masterpiece Society’s Mixing with the Masters Mixed Media Workshop. We absolutely love how this workshop combines the opportunity to create with artist study. Volume I covers six master artists and walks through their lives, artistic backgrounds, styles, and gives students a chance to create several pieces inspired by these art legends.

Masterpiece Society also has an art appreciation that we’ve used and loved. It would be a great option for anyone looking to approach artist study without necessarily incorporating opportunities to get hands-on. You can learn more about Masterpiece Society Art appreciation here.

Homeschool Artist Study:
Additional Resources

Books, documentaries, and courses are great foundations for homeschool artist study, but it doesn’t have to end there. Here are some other resources to consider using with your artist study:

Famous Artists & Picture Study Notebooking Pages
  • Famous Artists Sticker Book – The idea of sticker books alone is enough to engage some kids. That’s why this sticker book is so helpful for artist study. Similarly, The Art Masters Sticker Book from Dover accomplishes the same goal, but focuses on sixteen world-renowned artists.
  • Art-themed Go Fish cards are a fantastically fun way to build familiarity with famous artists.
  • Coloring pages – These coloring pages feature famous works of art and are a fun and easy compliment to homeschool artist study.

Hopefully by now you see that homeschool artist study doesn’t have to be complicated or intimidating. It’s just a matter of providing your students with the right resources and leading the way.

The Ultimate Guide to Homeschool Artist Study

4 thoughts on “The Ultimate Guide to Homeschool Artist Study”

  1. Being an artist myself, I definitely think art study is important. One of the great aspects of homeschooling is the ability to tailor your child’s curriculum. We are gearing up to start homeschooling my 5 year old in the fall, so art study will definitely be part of their routine. Thank you for the great resources.

    1. Thanks so much for stopping by, Christopher! You’re absolutely right, a customized education is one of the major benefits of homeschooling. I’m sure you’ll be able to add elements to artist study that I’ve never dreamed of doing. Your daughters will greatly benefit from your art experiences!

      By the way, I visited your site and noticed your recent book release. Congrats on that awesome accomplishment! It looks amazing and I’ve added it to my wishlist. :)

      1. Thank you for adding the book to your wishlist!

        I am glad I stumbled upon your site, It has a lot of great information. It is a little daunting trying to figure out a homeschool curriculum to follow.

        Both my daughters already love drawing and creating art. I am glad we will be able to incorporate that element into their study.

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