Using the iPad in Art Class

Color Splash for iPad:  
As the number of education applications for the iPad continues to grow, schools across the country are finding new and unique ways to apply and incorporate them into the curriculum.  Editing and photography application are one specific type of app that are receiving high marks from educators everywhere.  At one private middle and high school in New Jersey, one instructor is using Color Splash as a tool to help enhance aspects of his art curriculum.
For $1.99, Color Splash is one of Apple’s most affordable digital editing apps for the iPad.  At its most basic, the app allows users to manipulate the colors of a photo to create dramatic images.  Beyond editing, the app also allows images to be shared through email or even posted directly to Facebook.  Using the iPad’s touch capabilities, individuals can use their finger as a paintbrush to convert a color image to black and white, while keeping specific areas or details of the image in their original color.  The results are stunning, especially in art classes, where a picture is indeed worth a thousand words.
Dr. Alex Curtis, an art teacher at Morristown-Beard School, is using the key feature of the Color Splash app to enhance and highlight aspects of the paintings he presents and discusses in his art seminar class.  By converting images from color to black and white, then using Color Splash to highlight a specific area of a painting, Dr. Curtis is able to help his students focus on individual sections within the painting, such as symbolic images or figures.  He can even help students identify specific techniques used by the artist by keeping them highlighted and converting the rest of the painting into black and white.
Color Splash’s ability to filter out unnecessary facets of a painting makes it significantly easier for teachers to direct their students’ attention to the parts of a painting that they want to emphasize or talk about in any particular lecture or lesson.  Forget about laser pointers or overhead projectors, with Color Splash and the Apple iPad, those days are gone.