Fresh Minds - Kids and Digital Art
17 October 07The things that kids come up with are amazing when it comes to digital art. Show them the way, and they’ll become masters at manipulating the tools of a graphic art program designed just for people their age. I do a part-time gig teaching computer lessons to children ages 5-11.
One of my focuses for ages 5-7 is graphic art. At this age, children are still developing dexterity so it’s a little difficult for them to control the mouse. However, with patience on my part as well as theirs, they come up with crazy creative stuff. I really wish I could post some of my students work here but it is against school policy to do so.
Anyway, I wanted to share with you all some programs I’m using in my classes right now.
A Suitable Tool to Teach Kids Digital Art
It’s a terrible idea to attempt to teach Photoshop to a kindergartener. Something more suitable would be a program like Kid Pix (I personally use the latest version 4.0 in my classes). It’s designed for children 5 and up.
It has an interface layout of a basic graphics program but with a skin that appeals to kids. I believe that this is the best program out there for teaching and introducing this age group to the world of digital art. It’s very easy to incorporate into regular school subjects.
I am not a school teacher, but I have implemented the use of this program in projects varying in subjects. For all you full-time school teachers out there, there is a resource and activities binder available for purchase. There are also custom stamps made by other educators that are available to download online.
I would like to start an online project about a free resource for teaching computer skills to children. I’m a little busy with other projects right now, but if anyone would care to read more articles or tutorials for Kid Pix to share with your children feel free to make requests in the comments area…like most bloggers out there, I’m always looking to please my audience.
This program has the basic drawing and painting functions as well as filters and special effects. There’s also a stamp-pad and animations, and it also has functions allowing you to create slideshows and simple animations.
I’ve taught my seven-year-olds how to make very simple animations in as little as 2 class sessions. I love that it gives you the ability to export images to jpeg format…I admit that I occasionally use Kid Pix for small parts of some of my web design projects hehe.
A Child’s Viewpoint on Digital Art
Teaching kids to use software that they think is fun makes your job a lot easier. One feature that engages them the most (in my observations) is the sound effects in the program. For each line they create, every scribble that they draw, and every pixel that is erased a different sound effect is played.
If you have kids or little brothers, sisters, nieces, or nephews, this is a great way to expose them to the digital world. Today Kid Pix…Tomorrow Photoshop…The Next Day, The World!!!
Free Kid Pix Digital Art Programs Alternatives
Tux Paint
Looking for a freebie program? I know I always am. Tux Paint is a nice painting program. It lacks a lot of the features of Kid Pix such as the animations and slideshow capabilities, but it’s still a decent alternative.
You are able to draw and paint, there’s a fair amount of special effects brushes, and the stamps are always a crowd pleaser. Tux Paint also has some sound effects (if you were wondering), but not as many as Kid Pix.
However, I should point out that it’s a lot easier to figure out than Kid Pix. I’ve noticed that a lot of my younger students would rather use Tux Paint than Kid Pix because of this reason.
Here are some other drawing programs that are designed for children and free to download. I have no comments on them right now because I haven’t yet tried them out:
Smooth Teddy
3D drawing, modeling, and painting
Drawing For Children
The name says it all
I hope this article generated some interest into molding young minds towards the digital way. As I said before, feel free to comment and make requests as to other article topics you would like to read about.
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This sounds like a great idea. I remember something similar to this when I was younger.
The only program I remember in elementary school is Word Munchers and Oregon Trail.
I added a link to your site to the kick-off edition of the Active Learning Blog Carnival.
Thanks for the submission!
Kid Pix was something that got me into Photoshop, so for that, I’m so grateful. It’s an awesome piece of software.
I actually never used it until I had to teach it. Right now my class is working on math picture problems with stamps.
Kids at their young age are not capable of understanding too complicated things. But this young ones have potentials within them that can be honed. But early on their age i agree that they should be taught of simple but advanced program because kids today are far better than us tomorrow.
In my opinion, kids today will understand what you are teaching by getting them involve. Computer is an interactive device that can let you have their hard to catch attention.But of course keep your cool while teaching.
Thanks for the info, I’ll go check out Kid Pix and the other programs you mentioned!
When I was young, we used the primitive Paint Brush, it was a whole lot of fun for us as kids!
But wasn’t enough to create polished looking artwork though..
Maybe we’ll create more lessons using the programs you mentioned! Will update you when we have them