In the last few years, the digital world has become increasingly important to art and design. Art classes in schools need to keep pace with the times by giving students a chance to fully realize their innovative potential with the available technological and media resources. But without drawing paper, colored pens, pencils and brushes, what will students use to create their art? Surely not a large, clumsy mouse or the confining trackpad of a notebook?

Hong Kong's Cannosa Primary School seems to have solved this problem. The school is in the midst of implementing a digital art program. A visit to the school demonstrated how their program to introduce education in digital visual art was successfully achieved.

Cannosa's Interactive Art Class

It is class 6A's turn in the studio. Upon arriving, students sit down in front of their computers and pick up their grip pens. Their teacher, Chan Wai-Man, first explains the origins of hieroglyphics, and then asks the students to create their own. The students immediately begin to explore their imaginations. They select their colors from the painting software's palette with a gentle tap of the pen and begin their digital sketches.

However, the students don't just sit quietly and work alone. This curriculum was designed to be fully interactive. Thanks to the network which links all of the computers in the studio, the students can share their creations with their classmates, with everyone joining in a discussion of hieroglyph designs and their meanings.

A student shows the class his ideas by drawing directly onto the teacher's PL-510 Interactive Pen Display.

Next, Mrs. Chan explains the basics of visual art theory to the students, and uses the studio's network to display numerous pieces of abstract art on the students' computers. Using these images she illustrates a number of key points to the students, such as how to construct images from lines and how to express feelings in the artwork. Mrs. Chan writes her notes directly onto the abstract images displayed on the Interactive Pen Display, making her explanations easier for students to understand. The sight of students enthusiastically asking their teacher questions gives you a sense of just how much technology has helped make classroom learning environments more relaxed.

Teachers and Students Appraise Digital Art

How do students feel after an art class with no drawing paper or paints? Lee Cheuk-Lam and Leung Yee Ki pointed out that most of their art classes in the past used color pencils, watercolors, crayons, ink, and other traditional tools. Some students found such traditional tools to be hard to control, and their creations would be too light or too dark sometimes, with every mixture of colors. In contrast, computers make it easier to find the right colors. Also, there is no need to worry about making mistakes, because changes are easy to make, and there is no need to worry about wasting materials or getting your hands dirty.

Both students admit that it took a few practice runs to get used to digital graphics tablets, but by their third or fourth time, they had everything under control.

They have since discovered even more advantages in using graphics tablets, such as how you can doodle freely, which helps them find inspiration when they do not yet have a creative direction, without having to waste paper or worry about what materials and colors they will be using. Transfer Printing was never easy, but with a graphics tablet, all they had to do was place a portrait on the tablet and draw an outline with the pen.An extremely realistic portrait began to appear right away on the screen with beautiful results--drawing portraits has never been easier.

Encouraging Innovation in Students

Art teacher Chan Wai-Man believes that digital art can enhance students' creativity, raise their confidence, and make them more interested in drawing and creating works of art. Many students in grades 5 and 6 have a clearer understanding of the world around them, and thus often feel less than satisfied with their own works of art, complaining to their teachers: "I don't know how to draw!" and "it doesn't look like the real thing!" Such frustrations sometimes cause them to lose all interest in drawing. In contrast, digital creations can raise the quality of their drawings, and their products, filled with lively colors, will help them experience the joys of painting and encourage further artistic explorations.

Chan points out that the main advantage of digital art is that it is quick, convenient, and easy to store. In the past, whenever you wanted to do a drawing, you first had to do a rough draft. Then, when it was time to do the final draft, each and every stroke had to be executed with the utmost care. But with a digital graphics tablet, it is possible to quickly create and save a number of different versions. The pen is easier to control than the mouse, and the 512-level pressure sensitivity of the latest graphics tablet model allows a natural correspondence between the strokes of the brush and the force exerted. This enables precision in line thickness and shades demonstrating the similarities between the skills used in digital and traditional drawing methods. Chan also enjoys drawing, but always had problems storing her large works of art. With digitization, she can do as many drawings as she wants, and store them all on a disk to be kept safe forever.

Traditional Art vs. Digital Art

While there are a number of advantages to the use of digital methods in art, traditional drawing methods should not be ignored. The ink and other qualities of traditional drawings seem more real, resulting in a sense of a creation that is all your own. With computerized drawing, it is harder to feel that any piece of art is truly your own. And when you print a digital creation out onto a piece of paper, there's none of the texture common in more traditional media. Thus, schools are certain that they do not want more traditional artistic methods to be lost.

Poon Wai-Han, Director of the Visual Arts Division, told us that this is the first year of experimentation with digital art classes. The school plans to offer 6-8 such classes each year in a curriculum incorporating both traditional and digital methods, without leaning towards either method. She also told us that students particularly enjoy using their digital graphics tablets, and that she has witnessed many students discovering other functions of these graphics tablets on their own during class.

A Brief Summary

During this visit to the CannosaPrimary School's art class, it was obvious that the students were truly pouring their hearts and souls into their digital artwork. Everyone was constantly drawing and revising, the new technology generating interest even those who usually find art class boring. Bold creations and a great classroom atmosphere was the successful result. The incorporation of new technologies into an art class that once focused only on traditional methods has genuinely motivated the children to explore their creative energies.

Thanks to Hong Kong's e-Campus Today Monthly and Computer Today Monthly for providing their articles and pictures!

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