Mini Guides – Art & Graphic Software

Introduction

Art & graphics software opens up a whole new world of creative possibilities for young children in the world of creating art. The graphic tools and image choices you will find amazing, if you have not seen this type of software before. What is also nice about good art software, is that you can still do artwork using computer versions of all the traditional tools of art (pencil, crayons, pastels, etc.), the only difference being that you are now using a mouse and a screen instead of paper and a hand held drawing instrument.

Over the past five years, many software programs have been created and many have also been improved upon. Here are four programs that, in our experience, are the ones we would recommend you consider.

Choosing Art and Graphic Design Software

Kids Pix Studio Deluxe (ages 3-12) developed by Broderbund was the first really good general art program created for kids. With improvements made over the last couple of years, it is still one of the top programs available. It is an easy program to learn how to use and has lots of hidden sophistication to explore for the more advanced artist. It is also the one your kids may already be familiar with through it's presence in a lot of schoolroom computers. Also among all the programs we are going to mention, Kids Pix is probably the most accessible (i.e.. easy to use) for children in the 3 to 5 age range.

Crayola Make a Masterpiece (ages 5 –12) is also an excellent general arts program of comparable quality (some would say better) to Kids Pix Studio Deluxe. One very interesting addition you will find in this program, is an area called "the journal", where you can learn some of the fundamentals of famous art techniques such as impressionism, as well as read about famous artists. This is a nice addition, as you can look at a technique and then try it out yourself, within the program. A personal preference for several of us, also was the quality of the layout of the main art creating area.

The new version of Disney’s Magic Artist Studio (ages 4-12) is another exceptionally good general art program that has a unique activity area in the program providing instruction and lessons in the basic techniques of creating animation. This program also has lots of animated graphics as do the other programs above. What is unique about these graphics is that they are all the Disney characters from Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck on down. The animation learning component of the program is definitely for the older users in this age range.

Orly Draw a Story (ages 5-10), five years later, is still a very unique, contemporary and engaging program that mixes story and picture making together to encourage both creative writing and visual creativity in young kids. This program starts off with a story from Orly and then has you adding pictures to go with the story. The ingenuity of this program is found in the way that the pictures you create come alive and become part of the story and also in the way the characters interact with you, as you do various activities. You have to see this to believe it. This is one of our all time favourite programs.

You can’t go wrong with any one of the programs above. They are all good. It is a question of which specific features you may prefer. All these programs have lots of depth, in terms of range of tools and what you can do, in the way of creating different combinations and styles using both art and graphics tools together. The quality of any of these programs allow you to create many different types and styles of artwork, as well as provide an excellent range of tools and choices to create a wide range of styles in your artwork.

N.B. If you already have some budding artists in the family using art software, a real enhancement to the drawing experience is what is called a tablet or stylus. This instrument is a pen instead of the mouse and is your drawing instrument. It allows you to draw in a much more accurate and detailed fashion, than you are able to do with a mouse. It is great especially if you want to do free hand drawing. Mice were not designed for the artistic hand. Worth considering.