Microsoft Paint is an ideal program for teaching young children and beginners how to do digital art. It is a very simple program without many tools at all. This means that children can’t be distracted by trying to do too many things and attempt to achieve too many complicated effects all at once.
Learning in this simple uncomplicated manner allows young people to really understand the basics of digital art before they explore broader and more dazzling possibilities.
How to Draw Divers in Microsoft Paint
In the article, MS Paint for Little Children the simple painting project described is an introductory lesson about how to draw and paint underwater divers. It is easy to teach children the basics of design by setting and demonstrating very small one lesson projects such as this one. Children find it fun to work in pairs so that they can discover artistic process together.
How to Draw Under Water Scenes in Paint
Once beginners get the idea of how to draw objects and people they can move on to places and environments. The article, Draw Under Water Scenes sets out how to create a whole scene under the sea. Divers swim around a diving capsule. Some figures are very small and they swim in the distance. This exercise encourages the use of a broad range of MS Paint Tools.
As you read MS Paint for Little Children imagine with the students other kinds of scenes that may be found under the water. Brainstorm the kinds of objects and situations you might find if you went diving as an underwater photographer. This scene is a diving capsule with divers swimming around it. The divers have been kept very small and in are in the distance. However in another drawing the crab has been placed close up so that the sea has many layers of depth.
Slowly Morphing a Cartoon Character in Paint
As beginners improve progressively, challenge them to imagine more complex layered pictures. This is easily done by taking a simple clip art cartoon and having each participant slowly morph the character. It may surprise you how wide the range of variations might be.
Creating Variations in MSPaint: Draw Versions of a Character in Microsoft Paint explains how to draw many versions of the same character (in this case a monkey) to bring out the creativity of participants in your learning circle. It is a great lesson for Friday afternoon school or for youth group and other learning spaces.
Combining Paint with other Programs
These sorts of projects draw the best out of the MSPaint Programme. MS Paint is a very simple programme and many teachers shy away from it thinking that it is not useful, challenging or interesting for their students. And yet when simple back grounds created in Paint are uploaded into PIVOT the effect is fantastic.
Not everyone is a fan of Microsoft Paint. For some it is too simple, but , is an ideal program for teaching young children and beginners how to do digital art. It is because of its simplicity that so much can be achieved. By remaining focused, avoiding distraction and trying to do too many things ,beginners develop an all round knowledge of how digital art is done.
Resources:
- Draw Under Water Scenes: Layering Under Water Scenes
- MS Paint for Little Children: How to Draw a Diver
- Creating Variations in MSPaint: Draw Versions of a Character in Microsoft Paint
Join the Conversation