Using our free 1st grade art curriculum, teach your child how real-world artists use computers to create digital works of art.
Digital Art is Important
Over the past several decades, technology has dramatically changed the nature of what it means to be an artist. It is entirely typical for professional artists to perform all of their work on a computer, never touching a traditional physical medium. In fact, several of the most promising career paths for young artists utilize computer science skills just as heavily as traditional artistic skills. Examples include web designers, animators, user interface designers, video game artists, and graphic designers. Unfortunately, K-12 schools have been slow to adapt to this change, and seldom recognize the importance of teaching the techniques of digital art.
Our art curriculum places a heavy emphasis on the development of technical art skills that are useful in the real world, and for this reason we recommend introducing children to digital art tools as early as possible. In the case of our 1st grade curriculum, this means switching from crayons and markers to a digital art tablet.
Getting Started With a Digital Art Tablet
The tools and processes used to draw art using a computer are very different from what most people are familiar with. To help you start teaching your child how to make digital art, we’ve created a small playlist that describes some of the most basic principles. It covers the basics of how digital art works, how to use a drawing tablet, and how to use the free drawing program Krita.
You should watch the playlist before your child starts on our 1st grade curriculum, but you don’t need to worry about remembering every detail. The rest of this guide reiterates the most important points from the playlist.
Prep Work
Before your child starts using our 1st grade curriculum, you should:
- Watch our Introduction to Digital Art playlist for parents. The primary purpose of this playlist is simply to help you understand the basic principles and tools of digital art. Don’t worry: you won’t be teaching all of this to your child this year, and you don’t need to remember every detail. The important thing is that you have a vague idea of what things like “layers” and “brushes” are, so that you can help you child if something goes wrong. Later on, you can use the playlist as a reference if you’re having trouble with something. Be aware that the last video in the playlist, “How to Start Drawing Digitally,” includes an instance of a cut-off word that is implied to be a four-letter word at the 13:34 mark.
- Purchase a simple drawing tablet. You absolutely don’t need to splurge on this. A cheap tablet with no screen is perfectly fine for students. Personally, we use a Wacom Intuos tablet that is available for $39.95 on Amazon at the time of writing (not a sponsored link). Keep in mind that you can continue using this tablet for many years to come, and it will spare you from the need to continuously purchase new art supplies every year. Generally speaking, digital art is much cheaper than traditional physical art.
- Plug your drawing tablet into your computer. If you are prompted to install any drivers for the tablet, go ahead and do that now. Then restart your computer.
- Download and install the free software package Krita. Follow the link to the download page, download the installer, launch it, and follow the installation instructions.
- Create a new Krita canvas by following the instructions in this video. Try using your drawing tablet to draw on the tablet. You should find that the thickness of the lines depends on how hard you press with the tablet pen. If it isn’t working, watch this troubleshooting video. In particular, check which brush preset and color you have selected, and ensure that the “Freehand Brush Tool” is selected (you can activate this by pressing the “b” key on the keyboard). If you don’t see any brush presets, look for a “Brush Presets” tab under the color picker, and click that.
Know the Absolute Basics of Krita
Krita is a very large program, with many features that are useful to advanced artists. For now, you only need to know how to do a handful of very simple tasks:
- Know how to open Krita and start a new canvas.
- Know how to select a color (first select a hue on the round rainbow-like circle, then click a point on the triangle inside it).
- Know how to select a brush preset.
- For the purpose of this grade level, your child will only need to use the “Freehand Brush Tool”. Know that if this is ever deactivated by accident, you can reactivate it by clicking the “Freehand Brush Tool” icon on the left side of the screen, or by pressing the “b” key on your keyboard.
In addition, you should be aware that some of the interface elements (such as the color picker and the brush preset picker) can be moved around the screen, and can even be removed altogether. It’s possible that your child might do this by accident, making it more challenging to work with Krita. If this happens, click “Settings” in the top menu bar, followed by “Reset All Settings”. When you are asked whether you want to clear the settings file, click “Yes”. This should reset the location of all the interface elements.
Using a Tablet for the First Time
In many cases, you may be able to simply plug a new tablet into one of your computer’s USB ports, and it will start working right away. To confirm that the tablet is working, move the tablet’s pen over the tablet’s writing surface, just as you would move a pencil over paper. The computer’s mouse cursor should move with your pen motion. You don’t actually need to make physical contact between the pen and the surface of the tablet for this to work; you typically will hover the pen a tiny distance above the tablet. Tapping the tablet has the same effect as clicking with a mouse.
If you find that your tablet doesn’t seem to be doing anything, and you are certain that the tablet’s USB cable is connecting the tablet to the PC, you should search for any installation information included in your tablet’s box. Sometimes, you will need to install drivers for the tablet, which you may need to download from the manufacturer’s website. For example, the drivers for Wacom tablets are available for download at this support page (just scroll down slightly, click the download button for the Windows or Mac drivers – whichever is appropriate for your system – and then run the file you just downloaded).
Using Our Curriculum
Much like our Preschool and Kindergarten curricula, the central component of our curriculum for this grade level is a YouTube playlist. The playlist alternates between small groups of instructional drawing videos and groups of videos about music and music theory (with typically 1-4 videos per group).
Each day you teach art, we suggest that you either cover a complete group of the instructional drawing videos, or a complete group of the videos about music. This should take roughly 90 sessions in total.
During the instructional drawing videos, students should follow along and draw the art themselves, using Krita and the digital drawing tablet you have set up for them. You can open both Krita and the YouTube video at the same time, and switch back and forth between the two. Alternatively, you can play the YouTube video on a phone or separate computer.
Give Your Child Time to Adjust
Learning to use a tablet is a difficult adjustment for everyone. This is one of the reasons it is so important to start the process early – no one is more adaptable than a young child!
That having been said, understand that your child will need some time to become comfortable with the tablet. Before trying any of the drawing activities in our playlist, it’s a good idea to let them play around with Krita and the tablet for a while. Let your child explore all the different brush presents while making silly doodles and random markings.
There may be some initial frustration, but with a little practice, your child will soon realize that the tablet can do all sorts of fun things that aren’t possible with crayons and paper.
