Apps to inspire the great artist in you

Are you getting tired of your boring desk job? Do you find yourself falling asleep in meetings that are too dang long? Does the idea of making another spreadsheet make you want to scream? Well then it sounds like it’s the time to finally quit your job, dust off your BFA and become the artist you always wanted to be. There’s no time like the present.

It’s probably been awhile since you’ve picked up a pencil or brush so I’ve collected some apps that’ll help you get back in the groove of creating again.

To transition from your daily office life, why not start by making art of something you’re used to: forms. With Jenn Schiffer’s “makecheckboxart” project, inspired by the fact that forms are the worst, you can let your imagination run wild. You’ll likely never look at another checkbox the same way again.

Here’s the “etch-a-sketch” app from Kate Preston which will give you the truly foundational building blocks that a visual artist needs. For example, first I made this sick castle drawing and now I’m ready to take Picasso himself. No better way to start drawing then with perfectly straight lines. But we’re just getting the creative juices flowing.

Now that you’ve mastered the art of drawing one infinite line, we can get a little more complex. With “magic-sketchpad”, from Monica Dinculescu, you can draw all sorts of things — with multiple lines. And don’t worry, if you’re thinking “wait, but I don’t know how to draw a chair,” that’s where the real magic comes in. Just draw the beginning of your chair and Magic Sketchpad will draw the rest for you.

Speaking of creating cool images with very little work, here’s “orbitalpaint.” Created by José Blanco Perales, Orbital Paint is an “experimental drawing web app that uses particles and attractors” to create cool patterns, and you can get a wide variety of cool images just by adjusting a few settings. If you don’t fully understand what each setting does, that’s fine, no one understands art anyway.

_Play with all of these apps and save them to your My Stuff with this collection_.