Sumo Paint is a free online paint and image editing program (you can register to get more features – like saving your creations online) that looks similar in feel to those higher end photo imaging programs such as Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator. Fun and easy to use, sumo paint provides a palette of tools that should be well-known to users of software based paint programs.
Some of the features and tools that you are offered are creating lines, special blending and opacity effects, cross-hatching, numerous brush types and variations, adjusting shading, colour balance, saturation, tint, hue, texture, contrast, tone, rotation, and the choice in picking colour schemes seem endless, just to name a few.
From an educational perspective, what I find really cool about this program is that students who have used a computer have more than likely messed around with a paint program of some description in the past and because of that will find Sumo Paint intuitively easy to use, with little or no instruction before they are creating their masterpieces.
Recently I began using Sumo Paint with the year 2 and year 3 classes at the school where I work with great success. Prior to this they had only used Microsoft Paint or Tux Paint! The students seem to be really enthusiastic in using and creating artwork with the web 2 application and will often tell me the next day that they used it when they got home from school or showed it to their parents.
They are able to save their work in either png or jpg format, and since the program is free and online, they can access it at home, in the library, basically from anywhere there is a computer and an internet connection. Plus any artwork they create can be instantly put up on to the classroom/school website/blog or sent, via email to friends and family if they wish to do so.
Sumo Paint is a fantastic tool to use with your students, and because it’s online and did I mention free, you don’t have to purchase or download any other software. Why not give Sumo Paint a go in your classroom and watch your student’s creativity flourish.
To get to Sumo Paint or learn more about this cool online paint program either click here or on the Sumo Paint icon above.
See what is possible with Sumo Paint in this four minute video.
