Procreate Is a Drawing App for Kids
The app allows kids ages 2 and up to create digital art and animations.
When I was a kid, I remember sitting in art class. I drew my dream house with thick crayons. The rectangular house had a very typical triangular roof, and it was surrounded by flat green grass and a tree. The entire art piece was devoid of detail with no attention to shadows. Basically, it was a stereotypical kid drawing. And it was this drawing that won a first place prize of $100 at mall. If only there was the iPad when I was growing up.
How To Experiment With Digital Art
Now, the Apple Pencil is my brush and the iPad is my canvas. Digital art allows for quick iterations and it is easy to erase mistakes without any mess to cleanup.
Procreate is one of my favorite apps. Once your child learns how to use this intuitive art app, you’ll see how it can be used to capture their imagination. It has an animation tool, a vast array of brushes to create different styles, a dynamic color wheel with eye catching color defaults, and the ability to use layers to draw. Here is a kid drawing inspired by the show Numberblocks using Procreate and finger strokes.
While Procreate is pretty easy to figure out, you’ll find that there are a lot of tutorials online because so many illustrators use the app. For instance, children book author E.B. Adams created a video series for beginners and kids. Here’s the first one:
One of the tips I have after using the app for a few months is to learn to draw in layers. This gives you the option to animate the drawing, as well as the ability to export the file without the background. You can export the drawing as a photo or video time-lapse, which can be used to share with grandparents or in other creative pursuits such as short movies or books.
The link between drawing and literacy
Researchers at Charles Sturt University discovered that drawing and storytelling can help children become better at writing. Noella Mackenzie realized that prioritizing drawing, verbal communication, and storytelling skills helped children learn how to write. Why is that? Children really like to draw.
That brings me back to my first point. When I was a kid, art class was taught separately from writing class. I wish they didn’t do that.
We are living in a visually-dominated world. Kids learn via YouTube videos before they do textbooks. They have access to educational videos game apps, virtual reality, and augmented reality - technology I would have never have dreamed of. In fact, storytelling tools for all aspects of the content creation process are at their fingertips. They can use the iPad’s camera to film home movies, create stop motion animation, and take photos for their ebook.
Here’s a study describing why visual communication is important.
Okay, enough theory. Time to get those creative juices flowing.