Art

About this course

Seventh grade art is written for a student who can already draw a little and is ready to be taught properly. Drawing covers one-point perspective, gesture, observational drawing, the classical proportional canon for the figure, contour with varied line weight, value contrast, rendering texture, composition, and a portfolio review. Color theory works through primary, secondary, and tertiary mixing, warm and cool, the standard harmony schemes, complementary and analogous relationships, the difference between value and intensity, the symbolic use of gold in Byzantine art, and the discipline of a limited palette. Painting covers watercolor with both wet-on-wet and wet-on-dry, acrylics, traditional egg tempera, mixed-media painting, palette mixing versus optical mixing, painting outdoors in the plein air tradition, and a closing lesson on the particular difficulty of painting a Christian subject well.

Sculpture covers clay history, pinch, coil, and slab building, relief, wire, papier-mache, assemblage, three-dimensional design thinking, and functional pottery, then finishes with a frank lesson on sculpture in Christian history that lays out the Second Commandment's prohibition of images made for worship alongside the golden cherubim, the bronze serpent, and the carved temple decorations, and draws the distinction Scripture draws. Art history runs from Lascaux through Egypt, illuminated manuscripts, the Renaissance, the Baroque, Impressionism, twentieth-century movements, American painting, and two thousand years of Christian art. The modern art lesson is direct about the fact that Cubism and Surrealism grew partly out of a rejection of Christian assumptions, names Freudian influence, and then points to Rouault, Fujimura, and other believing artists working in modern idioms, arguing for discernment rather than blanket acceptance or blanket rejection. Mixed media covers collage, printmaking, photography, digital art, combining drawing with painting, physical texture, book arts, environmental art, and a final lesson on developing your own artistic voice.

The course is 72 lessons in eight units at about 40 minutes each, so it is a light subject rather than a daily one. Units seven and eight revisit drawing and color at a higher level, adding the history of perspective systems, cross-cultural proportion conventions, pigment history including why ultramarine cost more than gold, and color psychology. Each lesson is roughly five hundred words of clear explanation, an assignment introduced as an Activity, and a closing paragraph tying the work to Scripture, followed by a ten-question quiz that grades itself. It is worth knowing that a good number of those assignments are research and writing rather than making, such as a one-page analysis of a Christian sculpture, a two-paragraph comparison of an artist's technique and faith, or an artist's statement, so this year has a genuine written component alongside the studio work. No artwork images are included, so the research assignments assume a book or internet access. Supplies are moderate: drawing pencils and a sketchbook, watercolor and watercolor paper, acrylics and brushes, air-dry clay, craft or armature wire, newspaper and paste, printmaking block and ink, glue and collected paper and fabric, and a camera or phone for the photography lesson.

What the course covers

• Perspective, gesture, contour, line weight, and value
• Figure proportion and observational drawing
• Color harmony, intensity, symbolic color, and limited palettes
• Watercolor, acrylic, egg tempera, and plein air painting
• Clay hand-building, relief, wire, papier-mache, and functional pottery
• Sculpture and the Second Commandment in Christian history
• Art history from cave painting through Impressionism and modernism
• Christian engagement with modern and contemporary art
• Printmaking, photography, digital art, and book arts
• Portfolio building and developing an artistic voice

What your student will be able to do

• Construct convincing space using perspective, value, and composition
• Plan a painting around a deliberate color scheme and limited palette
• Work confidently in watercolor, acrylic, and clay
• Research an artwork and write a clear analysis of how and why it works
• Evaluate art movements thoughtfully from a Christian point of view
• Assemble a portfolio and write an honest artist's statement

Scope and sequence

All 8 units of Art for Grade 7, 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.