Digital Art - Planets

This digital art project is great for kids as young as kindergarten. The basic skills of this project are just filling in a background color and drawing a circle.  While these two tasks may take a while and require assistance with kindergarteners, older kids will have fun adding all kinds of silly extra details.

Although we use a specific program at school called Drawing for Children, Microsoft Paint installed on all Windows computers can get the job done, too.

Basic Planet
1. To open Microsoft Paint, hit the Windows Key and type: mspaint
2. When Paint opens, change the background color by clicking the paint can that's tipping over.  It's like an entire can of paint is spilling all over the page.  If black isn't selected by default (or if you want a different color for outer space) click one of the color squares to the right.

3.  Next, select a color for the planet.  In Microsoft Paint, select a circle shape and change the fill to "solid color."

4. To change the fill color from the default white to another color, click the "Color 2" square and select a color.

5. If the planet has craters, create smaller circles of the same color within the main planet circle.

6. If the planet has rings, try using a solid rectangle of another color.

This should get kids up and running with a new planet.  Experiment with different colors for the planet or outer space.  Maybe the planet isn't even a circle.  If your kids have access to any drawing program with more features than MS Paint, add a clip art alien or dinosaur to the scene!  Blue scribbles can be a comet, and white dots can be background stars.  Do your kids know any constellations they want to add?  (Jake's favorite constellation is w-opia / Cassiopeia.)


Adding Continents
If kids want to create continents, they should have fairly solid mouse control.  The polygon shape is like a connect-the-dots sort of shape, where the student clicks on various points to create connected lines.  When the end is connected the the beginning, the shape is created.  If a student doesn't have the mouse agility to accomplish this, it can be frustrating for them.  I don't usually mention this to the kindergartners just starting out.  Creating craters is enough planetary detail for them.  If you have an older student who really wants to try this out, find the polygon shape at the top and set the fill to "solid."  Play with the line width and Color 1 for the outline and Color 2 for the color of the shape.

Adding Bands
If the students want to create bands, or lines, on their planet, first try using narrow rectangles.  To look like bands that are a little less solid than a rectangle, try painting or drawing freehand, with a different type of brush.  In Microsoft Paint,click the "Brushes" button near the top.  Select a brush style, like "Crayon."  Additionally, play with line size and Color 1 color.

To create a color different than the default 20 colors, click "Edit Colors."  Click a color in the rainbow box, and make it brighter or darker with the slider bar on the right.  When the custom color box looks to be the right shade, click the big "Add to Custom Colors" button at the bottom of the dialog.

 Example of solid rectangles used for rings, and crayon drawing used for gassy bands.

Pokémon Planet
Have a Pokémon fan in the house?  Here is a step-by-step to creating a Pokémon planet!
1. Create a white circle.  Change the line size to be the widest.  This will help the center rectangle blend with the outer edge of the circle.

2. Create a narrow, solid, and black rectangle in the middle.

3. Change the line size to be a medium width, and create a solid, white circle.

4. Select red for "Color 1" and use the spilling paint can to fill the upper arc.

Microsoft Paint and other basic drawing applications have a limited feature set, which helps prevent kids from getting too overwhelmed and lost.  However, even with a basic tool set, a little imagination can create lots of fun new scenes!

If you want to give kids an opportunity to explore with digital drawing, but don't exactly want them messing up your nice computer, the public library has computers that are free for members to use.  Last I checked, the Duvall Public Library had Microsoft Paint installed.  Before heading down, call to confirm, though.  Especially during rainy days, this can be a fun and free way to get out of the house and try something new!

It is fun to see what they will come up with!