Surfing the Net with Kids: Interactive Coloring

August 22, 1999

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Interactive Coloring

Many of the coloring pages found on the Net are the print-and-play
variety. Print out the black and white picture and use your crayons to
color them in. Today’s sites, however, are virtual coloring books —
you color, paint and draw right on your computer screen. These
interactive coloring pages are great for preschoolers, kindergartners and
budding artists of all ages.

Coloring.com

This site hits the mark with a large selection of pictures and the
ability to email your completed masterpieces to friends and family with a
small personal note. Coloring.com loses a star, however, for only letting
you color within the lines — no free form coloring is possible. Pictures
are grouped into topics such as cars (the largest topic), animals,
birthdays and holidays. What a fun way to send electronic art across the
Net!

Disney
Online Paint & Play

To find the Disney coloring pages, click on "Online Paint and
Play" and a list of characters (Ariel, Mulan, Lion King and Winne the
Pooh) will appear on the right. Choosing your favorite character will load
a Java-based Paint Center which includes a variety of paintbrushes for free
form painting (hooray!), a paint can tool for filling spaces, lots of
colors, an eraser, water to lighten your paints, a stamp pad with a nice
selection of stamps (fun, fun, fun) and several pictures. Use the arrow or
Mickey’s pointing finger to advance from one picture to the next.

Kaleidoscope Painter

Now for something totally different: Kaleidoscope Painter creates
colorful spiraling fractal designs based on the movement of your mouse.
You can change the effects by moving your mouse or resizing the brush. You
can even put it on Auto and watch as the mesmerizing lacy designs create
themselves. Guaranteed to capture your imagination.

Radicalman’s Coloring
Book

These four Shockwave pictures from the cartoonist Radicalman are
equipped with not just one palette of colors, but four that range from
pastel to bold. Another unique feature is Scramble, which automatically
colors the picture with a selection of random colors. Very young
point-and- clickers will enjoy being able to paint an entire picture with a
single click — and watching the colors change with each subsequent click.

Zeeks Art
& Music

These sixteen Zeek art and music games are my pick of the day. To find
the coloring sites, simply click on Sort by Subject, and you’ll find them
listed under Art Tools and Drawing. Which of these games are the most
popular? Sort by Popularity and the number you see listed by each game is
the number of times it’s been played. My favorite clicks are Array
("create cool animations on this colorful lightboard,") Snowflake
("practice your paper snowflake making technique,") and Coloring
Book("Color away! Use our coloring book or make your own
designs.")

Surfing the Calendar Women’s Equality Day Aug 26, 1999 ML King gives “I have a dream” speech Aug 28, 1963 Jerry Lewis MDA Marathon Sep 5, 1999 Chats & Net Events	Related Book (in association with Amazon.com)