Even the Worst Artists Can Learn to Draw With This Kids' App

Want to learn to draw basic cartoons? Pick up your phone and download Artie’s Magic Pencil, a new educational app by a digital design studio that previously sought to teach kids about space with a feline astronaut.

The game is designed for youngsters, but is still a pretty fun experience if, like me, you’re an adult who grew up in a world with limited arts funding for public schools and very little natural talent with a pencil.

It follows Artie, who finds himself traveling in the footsteps of a monster out to destroy everything in its path. Artie has to help new friends rebuild what the monster crushed with his magic pencil, and your magic tracing abilities.

The game presents users with a range of everyday sights, like houses, cars, bridges, helicopters, and ice cream, and shows them how to break those things down into basic shapes. Dotted lines help guide you through the drawing process.

It’s a little hard to draw a straight line on a touchscreen regardless of your talent with a real pencil, and the app sometimes stops working if your phone gets too hot, but overall, it’s a cute way to learn how to look at the world in a different way—and to add a few objects to your drawing portfolio that aren't just houses and Christmas trees. You know, like windmills.

Get the app for iOS.

All images courtesy Minilab Studios

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