As Moore House Home School's primary teacher, it is inevitable that Art is part of every day's class work. Pictured above is our ART apps folder contents (To make folders: rest finger on app it until all apps begin to shake or wiggle then, place one app on top of another and folder should appear. Place other apps into the folder when apps are in wiggle mode. Also, one can take a screen shot pressing the power switch and the central front button together). As an artist and art teacher I highly recommend every free app listed.
Art History
free PleaseTouch the Exhibit Melbourn Museum
free MoMA AB EX NY
free iPhone app Louvre-
free ArtHD
Art Making
free Learn to Draw
free Glow Paint byDC
free Peg Light
free Doodle Buddy
free Spray Paint byDC
free DrawCast byDC
free Pottery HD Lite
$2.99 Manga Art
$6.99 Art Rage
$2.99 Zen Brush
free FlipBook Lite
free Sculptor
free Color Effects byDC
free Stamp It! byDC
Daniel Cota by DC is a wonderful developer of 5 of the free apps. His apps have made me love our iPad. The most ultimate free Art app that I have found is Phyzios' Sculptor app. OMG, this is the coolest art app ever being able to rotate a carved object 360 degrees. When visiting their website: http://www.phyzios.com/eng/phyziossculptor_portal.html one will find miniature sculptures that match contest winning carvings. Honestly, I find it hard to process that this Japanese company hasn't figure out how to produce sculptures that the public can purchase. The Sculptor app can be intense if one is not use to the sounds of making art. I highly recommend the user wear headphones hearing their work. Sculpture is about making the stagnate speak; sound is a fundamental and crucial element constructing and creating.
My student took a wood carving class summer of 2010 at the Crucible with Cuban wood carving Master Felix Torres. It was his favorite class. This morning it was so exciting to see him shaping binoculars from memory. He didn't save his efforts because he was experimenting but, it was so amazing to discuss his thoughts of the shapes without him seeing any reference image. More importantly to see how he thought it should be shaped. It was beautiful.
The Art Rage app is a paid app and personally, I have enjoyed it immensely. It is a bit complicated for kids. However, if one's student has a bit of color theory and some decent navigational skills this app is a close as one can get to simulating actual physical painting/drawing. It has a very awesome template overlay feature to trace imagery in the iPhoto library. Mr. Cota's art apps allow one to draw on any image stored in iPhoto where Art Rage forces the user to create their own picture that can then be saved and exported to iPhoto. Both are good. The biggest fun is layering the programs.
This watermelon image is called Digital Genetics. I used Stamp It! app, the Sculptor app and the Spray Paint app. Most of the Art making apps, allow the image to be saved in iPhoto. The Sculptor app saves the image inside the app. There is a feature to email the completed sculpture to the developer's website that I CC or BCC to my email, I download. Then, I imported the sculpture to iPhotos on the computer and sync it to the iPad using iTunes. This melon image was sheer play. I didn't set out to make a piece of great art; it just happened. This image carries class discussion over to our Science where we discuss genetics and agriculture.PleaseTouch, PegLight, Pottery HD Lite and Doodle Buddy are apps for any elementary school age. However, like with physical Art materials if a child is exposed to the highest quality of materials, a child can produce a high quality piece of Art or at the very least have fun trying. Also, Pottery HD Lite is a simple introduction to the concepts of the pottery using a wheel. I'm surprised at how often my son casual plays making variations of the same vase. Learn to Draw will help children who have a good reading comprehension level. Otherwise, I suggest going through the app with your student. Skipping directly to the lessons the processes are fantastic practices tracing. The super cool factor is the practice trace lessons can be saved into iPhoto and reworked or added upon. I don't recommend purchasing Manga Art unless your student really likes comic books/manga. If the student does like comics, I recommend this purchase for reading practice, as well. And also, buying a physical book like MEGA manga: The complete reference to drawing Manga by Keith Sparrow. This book helped my budding artist draw face better than I ever have. ArtHD only has 15 Artists Frida Kahlo is one of the fifteen artists presented and the app contains none of her images. The perk of this app is it has a feature to go online and provide images of her work. I use this app. I show my son the images. I want him to be able to recognize classical great works. ArtHD can be a great introduction to Art History along with the other museum apps I have listed. The Louve is an iPhone app. The biggest perk of the iPad is that it can use apps made for iPod and iPhone, too. This is where the Mona Lisa is housed, obviously. If a child only knows da Vinci, he or she may be remarkable, especially if that child is inspired to follow in his footsteps. Primarily, the Zen Brush app is for me. However, my student wants to learn the Chinese language. There is a physical must purchase small book titled The Spirit of the Chinese Character: Gifts from the Heart by Barbara Aria and Russell Eng Gon. There is another book by the same authors if title I mention cannot be found either title will suffice. The book explains the directions, strokes and culture of Chinese characters drawings. For Chinese characters to be readable, each stroke forms an interaction with the next strokes. This process requires teacher and student learning together. I love our classes when they operate having both of us learning! FlipBook Lite I haven't figured out how to work it, as of yet. The key with any ART is PLAY. One has to be given permission to PLAY because this is where the best and most compelling works evolve. Artists are not special people. Artist are regular people who allow themselves to play using materials. Great artists master playing. Thus, remember when school is over it is the teacher's responsibility is to play these apps alone, as well.
