Free Digital Drawing Software
I know you get that itch. Quickly you survey the surroundings looking for a pen, a pencil, a marker.. anything! Then you proceed to grab a napkin or one of those unsolicited fliers you receive on the mail every few days, and then you start. “Doodle doodle doodle” while at the same time thinking of your finances, your plans for the weekend, what to make for dinner.. “doodle doodle doodle” and then you have it, a masterpiece on a scrap of paper.
Sadly it is not long before that unique piece of art is lost forever in the garbage. But hold on one second, YOU are not the only one who gets these urges to doodle. Children also need to doodle very often, and away they go using new and clean pieces of paper every time they feel like doing art. But not anymore! In a few moments you will learn to let them use as much electronic paper as they need. Heck, let them use one sheet of e-paper for every line they want to draw if you wish.. nothing is going to waste.
First we have a program by Mark Overmars, the creator of game making program called ‘GameMaker’.
Drawing For Children
Drawing for Children (yeah, that’s the actual name of the program) is an excellent replacement to Windows Paint. It has many more tools and can be used with a drawing tablet or a computer mouse. It is a very small download and can be used to create pixel drawings of all kinds.
You can draw with many different pens, you can put stamps on your drawings, create all sort of text effects, and much more. The program is suitable for very young children and has a child mode especially for them. But it also provides lots of fun to older kids. It is used by hundreds of thousands of kids all over the world.
Drawing for Children: http://drawing.gamemaker.nl
Tux Paint
Tux Paint is a free drawing program for children between the ages of 3 and 12. Is one of the few that is available for Windows (95 to Win7), Mac OS X and Linux.
Tux Paint combines an easy-to-use interface, fun sound effects, and an encouraging cartoon mascot who guides children as they use the program. Kids are presented with a blank canvas and a variety of drawing tools to help them be creative.
Tux Paint is available at http://tuxpaint.org
ArtRage Starter Edition
Now this is what I call a real painting program. What I like most about Artrage is the interface. It completely fills the screen so that you can focus on your paintings and drawings without being interrupted by anything on the background. It has very powerful tools and it really feels as if one is painting on a canvas.
With ArtRage you can paint with oils, sketch with pencils, sprinkle sparkling glitter and much more. Stencils and rulers let you create precise shapes or smooth curves freehand. ArtRage doesn’t force you to learn complex tool settings, it lets you get right down to painting with tools you already know how to use.
ArtRage Started edition (make sure to select the correct download to get the free version) http://www.artrage.com/artragedown.html
Pencil
This is more than a panting program, since it includes animation tools that will allow you to create moving images from your drawings.
Pencil is an animation/drawing software for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux. It lets you create traditional hand-drawn animation (cartoon) using both bitmap and vector graphics.
Download Pencil here: http://www.pencil-animation.org
Project Dogwaffle 1.2
The final contender is the free version of Project Dogwaffle.. a painting and animation program that gives a lot of freedom and flexibility while giving a lot of creative options to the user, with the included tools.
Project Dogwaffle lets you be creative without the fear of mom or wifey yelling at you because you messed up your clothes again. No sudden spills, no funny fumes. You can paint, erase it, and try again, and again, and again.
Get Project Dogwaffle 1.2 here: http://www.dogwaffle.info/dogwaffle/free/index.html
Enjoy!
