Art

About this course

Sixth grade is where art turns into a real studio course. The first four units are technique. Drawing fundamentals cover line, shape, form, value, texture, positive and negative space, contour drawing, composition, and still life. Color theory goes past the wheel into monochromatic schemes, deliberate color mixing, the theological color language of medieval Christian art (gold, blue, red, and white), and color psychology. Painting introduces watercolor washes, wet-on-wet, and dry brush, then moves to acrylics with impasto and glazing, traces the history of oil paint through Van Eyck, Rembrandt, and Vermeer, and finishes with portrait and outdoor landscape work. Sculpture covers additive versus subtractive approaches, pinch, coil, and slab building, relief, carving, paper sculpture, mosaic, and how glaze and kiln firing actually work.

Units five and six broaden the picture. Art history runs from Egypt, Greece, and Rome through Byzantine icons, illuminated manuscripts, the Renaissance, the Baroque drama of Caravaggio and Rembrandt, the Hudson River School, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and Holman Hunt's The Light of the World, Christian symbolism, and Christian artists working today. Mixed media covers collage, linocut printmaking, calligraphy, stained glass, camera basics, fiber arts including weaving and quilting, digital art, assemblage from found objects, and how to assemble a portfolio. Units seven and eight then return to drawing and color at an advanced level: cross-hatching and stippling, one- and two-point perspective, figure proportion and gesture, dramatic lighting across a full value scale, hands, portrait features, copying master drawings, mixing flesh tones and neutrals, atmospheric perspective, pointillism, Rembrandt lighting, and building a personal palette. One note you will want in advance: the figure drawing lesson raises the classical practice of drawing from the nude and then tells the student directly to work only from clothed reference such as sports photographs or family members, learning anatomy from diagrams instead.

The course is 72 lessons in eight units at about 40 minutes each, which makes it a light subject rather than a daily one. Each lesson is a substantial reading of roughly six hundred words with clear headings, a Scripture connection, a specific Practice Exercise at the end, and a short glossary of key terms, followed by a ten-question quiz that grades itself. That structure means the reading and the making are genuinely balanced here, and the exercises are specific enough to follow without you designing them. No artwork images are included, so keep a book or a screen nearby for the history lessons. Supplies are the real consideration at this level. Over the year plan on watercolors, watercolor paper, and brushes, a basic set of acrylics with a palette and a mist bottle, drawing pencils in a few grades, air-dry or kiln clay, a linoleum block with carving tools, printing ink and a brayer, a calligraphy pen or broad-tip marker, yarn or fabric for the fiber lesson, and a camera or phone. The ceramics glaze lesson assumes access to a kiln and gives a research exercise as the alternative, so no firing equipment is required to complete the course.

What the course covers

• Elements of art, composition, and still life
• Color wheel, monochromatic and limited palettes, and color psychology
• Watercolor, acrylic impasto and glazing, and the history of oil paint
• Portrait and plein air landscape painting
• Pinch, coil, and slab clay building, carving, mosaic, and glaze firing
• Art history from Egypt and Byzantium to the Pre-Raphaelites
• Linocut printmaking, calligraphy, stained glass, and fiber arts
• Photography, digital art, assemblage, and portfolio building
• One- and two-point perspective, hands, and portrait drawing
• Flesh tones, atmospheric perspective, pointillism, and Rembrandt lighting

What your student will be able to do

• Draw accurate perspective, figures, hands, and faces from reference
• Mix flesh tones, neutrals, and a working limited palette
• Paint competently in watercolor and acrylic and know when to use each
• Hand-build and finish a ceramic piece and cut and pull a linocut edition
• Trace the development of Western art and identify major periods on sight
• Select and present a portfolio of your own best work

Scope and sequence

All 8 units of Art for Grade 6, in the order they are taught.

Every lesson, by title

All 72 lesson titles are listed here — nothing is withheld until you download. Open a unit to read its contents.

One whole lesson, exactly as it comes

This is a real lesson taken from the middle of the course — the teaching text, the practice, the homework, and the first three quiz questions with their answers. It is not a marketing excerpt.

What you will need

Drawn from the materials named across all 72 lessons of this course. Most families already own most of it.