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Review: Art Lessons & Tutorials from The Virtual Instructor

The Virtual Instructor Art Lessons

I was recently introduced to a great art & drawing lessons resource for homeschoolers called The Virtual Instructor. The site offers both free and premium art lessons via video tutorials.

The instructor, Matt Fussell—who is not only an excellent artist but a wonderful teacher—contacted me a few weeks ago to let me know about his website. He also graciously agreed to give my family a complimentary membership so I can look over everything the site has to offer and review it for my readers. And I must say, I was quite impressed!

The Review

The Virtual Instructor is a website full of video-based art lessons and tutorials, some of which are accessible for free. The reasonably-priced annual membership option gives you complete access to the site (and it also has a 30-day money back guarantee). He's also offering a "try it for $1, and cancel anything" promotion so you can see what full access includes.

This is what members have access to.

  • 5 complete video courses that total over 20 hours of course video and over 600 pages of ebooks.
  • Live streamed lessons each week for 1 hour.
  • Downloads of every single video so you can watch offline.
  • Planning materials for teachers/parents. Each lesson includes presentation materials, handouts, videos, essential questions and more.

 

Here's an example of one of his art lessons about drawing hands.

My 10-year-old daughter Joely has been poring over the site for the last few weeks. She has completed "The Secrets of Drawing" course and has been watching as many of the other videos as she can as well. She's thoroughly enjoyed the lessons, and even though it's been a short time since she started The Virtual Instructor, I've already noticed a marked improvement in her skills.

Here's what Joely says about The Virtual Instructor.

"My favorite thing about The Virtual Instructor is that whatever you want to learn about, he has a video or a live lesson on that topic. There is watercolor. There is acrylic painting. Graphite. Anything you want to learn! I've been at it for a few weeks and I've improved a lot."

Comments

  7. Art Basics for Children by Visual Manna. It is a program more to familiarize them with terms related to art than a drawing course.

  9. I am a current subscriber to FiveJ's emails. I have four children ranging in ages from 6 to 13 yrs. When our schedule permits, we participate in a once monthly homeschool art class called Christian Art for Kids. The Christian Art for Kids is solely 2-dimensional art, and it depends on our availability.

  12. I've used Artistic Pursuits and pieced together my own. Artistic Pursuits got done, but my daughter got tired of the format. Putting together my own just didn't get done.

  21. I have not used any art curriculum; however my 11 year old wants to learn for fashion design. Thanks!

  23. We have used Artistic Pursuits as well, but my kids have requested video curriculum as I am not a talented artist. It is always much more instructive and enjoyable to watch from and learn from those who have a talent and a passion for what they are doing!

  24. Have used Artistic Pursuits in the past, but would appreciate the video instruction to help show a technique and not simply explain it.