Art and music
Drawing, animation and music apps for kids who would rather make than watch
Updated
For drawing, Tux Paint is an open canvas aimed at ages 3 to 12, while Art for Kids Hub works through pictures step by step. For animation, Stop Motion Studio builds films from photos of toys and Piskel for Kids animates pixel characters. For music, Chrome Music Lab and Incredibox are built around playing with sound rather than lessons.
Some children want to be told what to draw; others want a blank page and no instructions. Some want to tell a story, and some just want to make a beat. The tools here are grouped by the kind of making they involve.
Drawing and painting
Tux Paint is a drawing program its developers aim at children aged 3 to 12, with simple tools, sound effects and a penguin mascot. Versions are listed for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and Chromebooks. It is an open canvas rather than a coloring book, which may suit a child with ideas of their own more than one waiting for a prompt.
Art for Kids Hub takes on the question “what should I draw?”. Each video shows a parent and child drawing side by side, step by step: animals, food with funny faces, vehicles and seasonal themes, plus painting and origami. Children can pause whenever they need more time.
National Gallery of Art Paint ’n’ Play offers brushes and palettes inspired by artists such as Vincent van Gogh and Alma Thomas. One idea: paint the same scene twice with different palettes and talk about how each one feels. The museum suggests it for ages 5 and up, on a computer or on a tablet held in landscape.
Telling stories with pictures
Draw and Tell lets children aged 3 to 9 draw a scene, add stickers and record themselves telling the story while they move the stickers around. Children with big stories who are not yet writing them down are the obvious audience. Vooks Creator works along similar lines on iPad, with a voice on each page of a full picture book.
Animation
Stop Motion Studio turns a toy, a lump of clay or paper cut-outs into a film, one photo at a time. Onion-skin guides show the previous frame, and sound and export happen inside the app. Patient makers could get a lot out of it; a child who wants something finished in five minutes perhaps less. A steady phone and even light seem to make a visible difference.
Piskel for Kids is a pixel editor: draw a tiny character, add a few frames, and it blinks or waves. The animation plays back while the child draws, and it exports GIFs. Its layout looks more at home on a computer than on a phone.
Music
Chrome Music Lab is a set of sound experiments that run in a web browser. In Song Maker, children compose on a grid of colored squares and can share the result. None of the experiments has a level to finish.
Incredibox lets kids drag sounds onto a group of animated beatboxers and build a mix layer by layer. It plays more like a game than a music lesson.
Ableton Learning Music comes from the makers of professional music software. It starts with simple beat boxes and moves on to tempo, basslines, chords and song structure. The site says no prior experience or equipment is needed, and it is offered in many languages.
Which one for which kid?
A rough sorting, not a rule:
- Wants a blank page: Tux Paint or Chrome Music Lab.
- Wants to be shown how: Art for Kids Hub or Ableton Learning Music.
- Loves telling stories: Draw and Tell or Stop Motion Studio.
- Loves games and screens: Piskel for Kids, then perhaps Scratch to make the sprite move.
- Loves music and dancing: Incredibox.
For drawing projects away from the screen, see screen-free learning activities.