In honor of Youth Art Month, here are three new computer programs children can use to develop art skills. This version of the award-winning Kid Pix art series is a masterpiece of art creativity software. Kid Pix Deluxe 3 allows children to create art at their computers, save it, send it to friends and family over the Internet and even place it into a streaming video slide show. The program comes with a clean, inviting interface that makes creating art simple. Children will find a blank canvas surrounded by a slew of enticing, clickable icons.
Kids can choose from virtual pencils, chalk, crayons or markers.
Additional option trays present a wide array of mediums with which to create. Kid-testers had a riot singing, shouting, whispering and laughing into a microphone to see what effects their sounds would produce on the canvas. They come preprogrammed to perform animations and can be accompanied by sound or music. After children have created and saved several works of art, they can visit the slideshow area. Here children create the transitions between paintings, add sound and control the length of the time each piece of art is shown.