My kids love writing and they love doing art, but sometimes they don’t know what to do with that blank sheet of paper or the empty Procreate screen. (That’s my manga-obsessed daughter’s digital illustration iPad app of choice, by the way.)
Since anything suggested by Mom automatically sucks, I found ArtPrompts.org, a clever, very simple site that helps spark imagination.
Click on categories like creature, (“warden of the wild”), character (“centaur picking flowers”), environment (“alchemist’s lab”), object (“a delicious looking bowl of steaming ramen”), then go to town on the results.
My own favorite category is situation which yields imaginative, open-ended idea-starters like “I will protect you” or “What happened to your pants?” There are also art challenges for older kids, including weekly character or environmental prompt that you they can submit to the community; and I love the other resources on the site for artists scouring the web for inspiration. But if you only use the prompts, you’ll find it pretty fantastic for creators, writers and makers of all kinds.
My daughter was iffy about the whole thing — once again again, idea suggested to skeptical tween by Mom — until I showed her the prompt “girl consumed with darkness.”
Can’t wait to see what she does with that today.
Visit ArtPrompts.org, and inspire your kids to create something new.
Top photo: Tim Arterbury via Unsplash
