Artrage and Portraits

Artrage is another one of my favourite programmes for several reasons

1. it is free with a limited palette of tools (but it is worth paying the $1 per license only available to New Zealand schools for all of the tools)
   
2. it has been created by New Zealand developers
   
3. it is a fantastic programme

Martha's art lesson is all about portraits. She had thought about the children doing something using the computer. I suggested she use Artrage. There are some wonderful youtube movies that demonstrate drawings and paintings being created in Artrage. These movies are great motivators to show children how art can be created using software.

Another feature of Artrage is the ability to import photos into Artrage, by clicking on the Tracing button (0r add tracing image in the older versions), navigate and find where your photo is saved (for portrait photos ensure that the face fills most of the photo).

Use the pencil tool and set pressure high, softness and tilt angle low and draw around the outline. Remove the photo by clicking Tools- Tracing options - Clear Tracing Image. This can then be printed out, photocopied up to A3 and use what ever medium you choose to finish off the art piece.

Or maybe for some of those children who have those highly developed intrapersonal and visual spatial skills (and time) let them use the painting tool to finish the painting in full.

This programme is updated regularly so make sure that you download the free updates. The instructions in this post relate to version 2.5.20