Bomomo

New to Hayes K-8's interdisciplinary art program is the Pacesetter paperless-driven art environment (PDAE). Bomomo is a Flash-based art application that works on your PC or Safari browser.  Instead of giving you some simple MS Paint-like tools like a

paintbrush, bucket, and eraser, everything in Bomomo is dynamic and moving, leading to some kaleidoscopic creations that you can either e-mail to friends or squirrel away to your hard drive. If you know what you're doing you can create some really cool abstract creations.

The rationale behind having a paperless art environment is

Pacesetters will have the option and advantage, in addition to traditional artistic applications, of creating works of art of various media. These artworks are conceived and generated entirely on a desktop or laptop computer without the use of traditional art materials such as paper, paints, pencils, canvasses, etc. 

The focus of A paperless art environment is threefold: Firstly, in today's world where art supplies are more expensive yet pupil supply funds are eroding or nonexistent, art educators can supplement their traditional lesson plans with art projects that are

generated from the plethora of interactive art websites, many of which are free and can be implemented from existing computer labs throughout Birmingham City Schools.

Secondly, more often than not, many students either don't have the means to safely transport the many artworks they create or don't wish to keep their works of art. In a paperless art environment students can choose to not only save their computer generated works of art on a portable device and use it as a portfolio, they can also print their artworks in many

different sizes and on a multitude of paper choices.

Thirdly, creating artworks in a paperless driven environment virtually eliminates the fear factor associated with the learning process. Students no longer have to stress over making mistakes or not making the perfect work of art when all they have to do is literally wave a wand and start all over without having wasted materials and crucial studio time. 

Webapp Bomomo is a drawing application (best used with Google Chrome) that's slick enough to make random squiggles seem elegant, but also lets you fine-tune your design. Whether you're looking for a change of desktop wallpaper, wrapping paper that's really unique, or just an intriguing background, Bomomo's results almost always look pretty decent. And while the colors are randomly generated, they tend to come in complementary waves. Bomomo is a free to sign up for and use (instructional video below).

Select one of the dynamic brushes and start playing around, shortly after, you are likely to end up with something nice. Make sure to swap brushes from time to time though. If you are happy with the result you can save the painting on your PC. There are no ads or sign-up.

What makes the tool particularly interesting is that each of the 18 drawing tools are tied to your mouse in a different way. Some tools will follow it around, while others do their best to escape your pointer--creating some genuinely gorgeous effects. Some also take advantage of where your pointer is, either changing in size or color based on what part of the screen you're on.

Resources:

Lifehacker.com

CNET

Bomomo Gallery via Flickr