Psykopaint

Personally, I was never really that good at art.  I remember one time doing a stencil drawing of a still image and being impressed with my skills...after that, it all went down hill.  Needless to say, my artwork at 4 was better than at 14.

Psykopaint is a website for those of us that have a limited ability to think abstractly or understanding colors and shading.  We also might struggle understanding the different styles of art.  With Psykopaint you can upload and photo and turn it into a fascinating work of art.  From the picture the software knows what colors go where, you just determine the style.  When you are finished you can pay to have your artwork put on a canvas, thus making it a great gift idea.

So what about classroom use.  Psykopaint would be a great way for Arts and Humanities teachers to discuss the various styles of art, both modern and contemporary.  It might be a neat way to take images that you share in class and change the appearance and then have students guess what they are looking at, and then reveal the original, especially famous people. 

The site still takes some artistic creativity, but at least you can start with something instead of a blank canvas....but the site also allows you to use a blank canvas if you so desire.  Just visit the front page of Psykopaint and see the samples and play around with the samples.