Painting with pixels

Using computers in art classes can bring out a whole new creative side in children, says Amy McLellan

Computers, now ubiquitous across the curriculum, have been slow to penetrate the art classroom. This may seem obvious. Think school art and you think poster paints, clay, paper-mâché and mess, not valuable, pristine computer equipment. But, as a quick trip to Tate Modern will demonstrate, the world of art has leapt off the canvas and into the digital editing suite and 3D multimedia installation.

Art teachers are, hesitantly, starting to embrace this brave new world. There are many reasons for their resistance, says Diane Mayers, manager of Newham's City Learning Centre, which recently organised an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) course for art and design teachers.

"They may be purists, or maybe they lack confidence with the technology, or there may be issues to do with access to computers in the art room, where there might be paints and water," says Mayers. "But we found that once teachers started thinking about using the technology, they are full of ideas and creativity."

Digital cameras are a popular starting point for many schools. Most people are familiar with the basic concept and packages such as Adobe Photoshop are simple to use.

Those daunted by the prospect of ditching the palette for the digital editing suite might want to investigate drawing on the services of professional digital media artists. Moorpark Primary School in Stoke-on-Trent, for example, secured a grant for £5,000 to work with professional artists on a project called Community in Focus. The children were given digital cameras to capture images of their school and community. They also collated old photographs of the local area. The images were enhanced, manipulated and cross-fertilised to create something really unique.

"Their work was part of a major exhibition in the city and the Arts Council couldn't believe this was the work of primary-age children," says Paul Bailey, Stoke-on-Trent's community arts officer, proudly.

"Children work on computers, play games on PlayStations and are constantly exposed to sophisticated images," he adds. "Once they can get their hands on the equipment it doesn't take long for their imagination to fly."

He agrees that art teachers have been slow to embrace ICT but says this is down to the way computers are used across all subjects. "The technology tends to be used in a very academic way and is rarely used as a tool for creativity."

The creativity doesn't have to stop with still images. The latest software packages allow children to get to grips with animation. Pupils at Linden Bridge School, a special school for children with autism and communication difficulties in Surrey, have been using the Stop Motion Pro package to produce their own animation films. The package, distributed by Kudlian Soft, can be used by any age group. Pupils create a storyboard, use a digital still camera or webcam to capture one frame of an object, make a small change and then capture another frame. This process is repeated several times to create the illusion of movement. The images can be edited and sound added. It's a time-consuming process, admits Mary Eaton, head of art and design, but the end results are worth it.

"We've had animations about volcanoes exploding, flying a kite and being chased through a farm yard," says Eaton. "Some of the older pupils are very skilled draughtsmen and to see their work in animation is really wonderful."

It's also possible to use computers to mimic more traditional artistic materials. One of the biggest selling art packages to both primary and secondary schools is Revelations Natural Art, which is published by Logotron. The software provides a realistic representation of a wide range of materials, including poster paints, water colours and oils. It also mimics the way the materials mix in real life: put poster paints on top of crayon and the end result will bead.

"It's quicker, easier and cleaner than the real thing," says Gerry Daish of Logotron. "It's not instead of the real media but it does bring art capability into other places so students can add drawings and paintings to other subjects, like geography and history."

There is, however, a slight suspicion that all this high-tech wizardry is somehow cheating. If a computer can draw an image in perfect perspective and mix "paints" to produce perfect skin tone or digitally render photographs flawless at the touch of button, then at what point has art ceased to be artistic and become just another branch of ICT?

Paul Bailey, arts officer for Stoke-on-Trent, dismisses this argument, pointing out that much traditional art is formulaic. "Once you know the technique, you can quite easily produce the same end result using the formula," he says. "Digital media art can be complex and challenging. It's about creating something unique and letting your imagination free using different tools."

Even so, teachers planning to let their young Pablo Picassos go digital would be advised to keep a close eye on their understanding and application of composition, colour and form to make sure the end result is their unique self-expression - and not a software programme's standard output.