Simple Photoshop Exercises 4 Kids

Making Christmas JigSaws

2007-11-19T06:22:00.001+10:00

You can make your own online jigsaws from your own pictures.
I have been working with this for a while and it is worth sharing.
In this article Online JigSaw Theatre Invitations
I explore how to use JigSaws as Theatre Invitations.
In Jig Saw Activities in The Art Classroom
I talk about how beneficial to the kids the whole process of making and completing Jig Saws can be.

Have a go at making a jigsaw for yourself and send them out as jigsaw Christmas Cards.
You will love it. One of the best parts is that if you sign up as jigsaw buddies you can challenge your family across the world to a duel.
Jo

read more digg story

Adding a paint can to a hand by drawing a cartoon into a photograph

2007-09-27T13:14:00.000+10:00

I write articles about how to teach young children drawing and painting on programmes such as MS Paint and Photoshop My latest effort is called Creating Mood and Atmosphere
Theatre is Artificially Constructed Ambiance

The picture above is a small one I created when I needed to have a picture of Mary MacKillop holding a spray can. I was making this for a book cover. All I did was take a picture of the saint and scan it into Photoshop. I then cropped the hand right down to a managable size and then copied and pasted it into Paint.

I drew the can in place with the Line Tool and the Pencil Tool- coloured it and then copied it - pasting it back straight on top of the other picture.

Once it was in place in photoshop I just cleaned it up with an eraser and it looks fairly real.

When I was looking for texture so that I could make the brick wall she was spraying paint on I found a link to a Photoshop Tutorial site called Painting Realistic Graffitti on a Brick Wall in Photoshop http://www.photoshop.0tutor.com/archive/17/Painting-realistic-graffiti-on-a-wall-in-photoshop.shtml

When I have entirely finished the whole picture I will post it here with a link to the article

MSPaint Enhanced By Photoshop Elements

2007-09-25T21:17:00.000+10:00

MSPaint is a simple programme that is available on all computers.
This makes it ideal for teaching kids how to draw and paint on the computer.
Teachers can teach the kids how to draw at school and they can practice at home to their hearts content .
This exercise is great fun for all the family.

http://visual-arts-education.suite101.com/article.cfm/stencilled_underwater_scenes_in_ms

Stencilled Underwater Scenes
Trace Stencils for an Underwater Composition in Microsoft Paint

Raindrops 'n Bees

2005-09-09T11:13:00.000+10:00

Draw bubbles in your visual journal http://www.busywomen.com.au/visual_journal.htm using cool colours. (Blue, Green or Purple)

We do this by drawing circles all over the page any old where.
And then colouring dark around them. (This creates contrast)

When you have done this go over the edges very lightly and gently. Do this on just one side and it will make it look like the light is shining on the other.
(We will call this shading.)

Now draw an insect

You can copy one from Enchanted Learning. Don't forget if you can't get it to look right draw it upside down (lesson one)
Don't print it out though - draw it about half the A4 size - so that you can cut it out and fit it on to the other page.

Colour it very warm colours.

Don't forget to rescue your outlines by going back with black at the very end and carefully going over them.,with a fine tip black felt pen.

All you have to do now is cut out the insect out very, very neatly and stick it on top of the background of bubbles!

You will see that I tried fancy edged scissors in this one and it didn't work well. That is how we learn art.

Try things out see how they look and if they aren't very good.
Change the plan and try something different.

Use your scanner like a composition tool.
This means shift things around and see which place for the insect looks good.
Shift the insect from place to place and put the back ground on top of it.
Scan the two pictures at once. (Bee is placed on the scanner glass and the background is placed on top of the bee.) and the lid is closed. No mess no fuss no glue.

Of course if later on when you have the picture away from the expensive equipment

you can glue it into the position you thought was best for it.

I have decided that this will be the composition I will choose..
So I have copied it and saved it.

I have tidied it up on the graphic software. (Photoshop) If you are happy with your picture take it to the school library or the stationary shop and ask for it to be laminated.
This will seal and protect it.

Have a good time kids and let me know how it goes!

Tic Tic Tic!

2005-08-29T18:30:00.000+10:00

Take a clear simple picture of a clock.

Cut and paste it into Photoshop
Rub out the hands
Clear the background using the Background Eraser Tool
Save as PSD
Make a set of hands using the line tool crossed
Make sure the hands are positioned in the middle and set it to the time you want
Play with this.

You can of course have the words tic tic tic etc.

Do you have suggestions for exercises for kids?