How to Draw Cartoons Online

Apr 16 2016 : The Times of India (Mumbai) 

  FUN ACTIVITY SITES FOR KIDS 

  ...that will keep them occupied and out of trouble It's the summer vacations and your children are probably driving you nuts at home. Savio D'Souza and Ashutosh Desai tell you about some... How to Draw Cartoons Online If your kids love sketching and colouring, then they'll love this website by artist illustrator Jeff Scarterfield. The resource is filled with simple step-by-step tutorials that teach children how to draw cartoons in over 25 categories, including animals, people, dragons, monsters, landscapes and flowers. The lessons are divided into three levels: Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced. At the start of each tutorial, children are shown a finished, coloured version of the cartoon that they'll be creating to give them a clear idea of what it is they'll be doing. Seeing the finished image also gives kids a better understanding of the process, making it easier for them to progress from start to finish. http:www.how-to-draw-cartoons-online.com Art for Kids Hub Also check out Art for Kids Hub ­ a website that's the brainchild of Rob Jensen ­ a Fine Arts graduate with three children of his own. This is where Jensen shares video tutorials on how to draw, colour and sculpt (the Origami and Play-Doh kind). Each instructional video is a step-by-step guide where parent and child work together.It even has an “under 5“ section for younger munchkins. You can also subscribe to the Art for Kids mailing list to receive drawing and colouring printables in your e-mail inbox, every Monday . Quiver Vision Quiver Vision is a website-app combination that takes simple colouring pages and makes them interactive and educational. All you have to do is take a printout of an activity page from the QV website, and let your children run riot over it with their colour pencils. In the meanwhile, download the accompanying app for your smartphone. When your child has finished colouring the page, lay the sheet on a flat surface and ­ via the app ­ train the rear camera on it to scan the drawing. The app immediately creates a threedimensional rendering of the page, complete with the colours your child just used. Say , she coloured a volcano. Quiver Vision will load a 3D volcano that will start smoking and rumbling when you tap on the screen. Keep tapping the explosion button and the volcano will gradually erupt, sending lava into the air. You can move the phone around to view the volcano from different angles, zoom into it, playpause and take screenshots of the scene as well. At present, there are over thirty free colouring pages on the QV website and many more paid options that teach children about wildlife, fish, plants, robots, shapes and more. quivervision.com, Android, iOS | Free Origami Make We have all made paper planes and balloons at some point of time in our childhood. With Origami Make, you can now introduce your child to the Japanese art of paper folding. Beginners can start with the sections on “Folding Techniques“ and “Origami Instructions“. Here, kids can learn about common folds, like mountain valley fold, insideoutside reverse fold, stair fold, etc. Or, you could head to “Origami Diagrams“ to browse projects ­ how to make animals, flowers, bags, birds, boats, etc ­ by the number of steps and level of proficiency. Each origami model is accompanied by instructions on the type of paper you need, and a step-bystep guide on how to make it. Most of the models on OM are created by Hyo Ahn, and while the website doesn't score on design, it is packed with over 200 origami models ­ from a basic mouse to a stealth fighter ­ which will surely keep your kids and you occupied. origami-make.org Rebel Magic & Magic Tricks for Kids Kids love magic, and any website that promises to teach them how to pull off a few tricks themselves is bound to be a success.Rebel Magic is a place where your Hermione Granger and Harry Potter can learn some cool tricks. These are explained by way of a video that first shows the “magic“ being performed, after which it is broken down so that viewers can learn the magician's secret. Then, there's also Magic Tricks for Kids that is home to over 50 trick videos, each with photos, videos and downloadable PDFs on how to perform the magic and even build the props (if any) with common household items.All the tricks are explained by Kenneth Kelly (who has been a professional magician for over 30 years), his daughterapprentice Kristen, and magic teacher Julian Mather. Both websites are fun places where parents and kids can learn and practise magic tricks together that can later be performed for friends and relatives during a vacation party. rebelmagic.com magictricksforkids.org Science Bob Your children probably ask you a thousand questions every day. With Science Bob, you can channelize their natural inquisitive nature to explore the world around them through experiments. Bob Pflugfelder is a science teacher who makes the subject super fun for children with experiments that can be carried out at home with regular household items. On this site, you will find videos, with detailed explanations and downloadable PDFs, on how to conduct experiments, and even questions that encourage scientific thought in your little boffins. And just in case you can't find the necessary materials for the experiments, you can also order them from the website itself. Science Bob ships worldwide. Additionally, it has a section dedicated to projects that kids can do for their school science fairs, and a listing of science websites. All the experiments on Science Bob are child safe, but would require some form of adult supervision. Check it out. sciencebob.com Scratch Scratch is a free visual programming tool designed by MIT for kids, aged 7 and above.It teaches them coding concepts such as conditional statements and loops with the help of `objects' that can be dragged, dropped, and joined like Lego blocks to create animations and games. With Scratch, children are encouraged to think creatively, apply logic and even work in a team on a project. Once you sign up for a free account, kids can post their creations onto the website, `Like' what other kids have created, click on “See Inside“ to check out what code they used, and even repurpose it. We recommend downloading the “Getting Started Guide“ in PDF format first to get acquainted with the system. MIT has created something for kids between 5 and 7 as well. Enter ScratchJr, an app for Android tablets and the Apple iPad.It uses the same concept, but in a more simplified format. Start with the guide to understand the ScratchJr dashboard, watch the video and play around with some of the prebuilt projects before creating a new one. scratch.mit.edu http:www.scratchjr .org, Android, iOS | Free