The creative computer
Some days you just have to set aside the lush coffee-table books of gorgeous paintings by the masters and have a go yourself. And if the aroma of oil paint and turpentine is going to upset the neighbours, you go online and muck around fume-free.
There’s a segment of the dedicated browsing community at StumbleUpon.com that has an artistic bent and shares discoveries of interactive, Flash-happy websites where you can flex your creative muscles. One called ISketch involves many game rooms in various languages where up to a dozen people take turns speed-drawing while the others race to guess what it is.
Too frantically Pictionary for me, but the following sites are kinder, gentler and more aesthetically rewarding … well, sort of.
Cards, for lack of a name in a language I understand, is a Russian site that’s nevertheless easy to follow. The image at the top of this post shows its interface.
There’s a huge array of tools and clipart add-ins (like the little girl icon), indoor and outdoor settings and texting in several languages, but the best thing is the lines can be animated or appear as cascading drops. The purple hearts in my “finished” image here were pulsating. See the rest.
