A free drawing app for kids: learn to draw from age 3, one shape at a time

How a step-by-step drawing lesson works

Every lesson teaches one idea about drawing, such as "big shapes first" or "far is small, near is big", and your child meets that idea with their own finger before anyone explains it.

1. See the goal. The sample picture fills the paper for about two seconds, so your child knows what they are about to draw.
2. Let's try! A small game shows the idea: build the apple from its shapes, draw on the left of the lotus while the right side copies, tilt the butterfly and watch it fly.
3. Did you know? A sentence or two, straight after the game, while the picture is still on the screen.
4. Draw one shape at a time. The app draws the shape first and your child follows. Every step names the shape: a circle, an oval, a triangle.
5. The end screen. Stars, "Today you learned", and the sample picture standing next to your child's own drawing.

Six levels of drawing lessons for kids

The ages in our planning run from about 3 up to 9 and over, but the app only shows Level 1 to Level 6, locks nothing, and marks the next lesson Up next.

1. Level 1: circles, straight lines, and shapes that build things. Apple, Ice cream, Saturn, Rice ball.
2. Level 2: squares, curved lines, big shapes first, and shapes in front. House, Bear, Rainbow, Lucky envelope.
3. Level 3: pointy shapes, lines that show feelings, repeating patterns, and the same on both sides. Crown, Lotus, Airplane, Pine tree.
4. Level 4: sizes that fit, tilted shapes that seem to move, and curves that show roundness. Sailboat, Butterfly, Castle.
5. Level 5: the outline, surface patterns, and rhythm. Sea turtle, Dolphin, Long train.
6. Level 6: far is small and near is big, near and far layers, building a character, and main and supporting parts. Whale and sailboat, Lotus pond, Fairy kingdom.

We planned this order by checking it against shape-copying milestones, England's National Curriculum for art and design, the US National Core Arts Standards and school art programmes in Vietnam and Japan. That is our own reference work and nobody has certified it. The thinking behind it is in How to teach a child to draw.

Advanced drawing: form, shading, perspective and figures

Older children want pictures that look real, and that takes techniques most of them have never been shown. Advanced drawing is a separate tile right after Learn to draw, planned for children from about 10, with 32 lessons at four levels. A card at the top says it is for big kids, and any younger child who wants to try can go ahead.

• Level 7, form: box, cylinder and sphere, construction lines, ellipses at eye level. Gift box, Cup of milk, Globe.
• Level 8, light and shade: light source, three tones, highlight, reflected light, cast shadow. Orange, House in the afternoon sun.
• Level 9, perspective: horizon, vanishing point, one-point and two-point perspective. Railway track, School corridor, House on the corner.
• Level 10, figures: gesture line, stick figure, solid shapes, measuring with the head, balance. A friend running, Wooden manikin waving, Kicking a ball.

In Let's try! your child drags the lamp, slides the vanishing point and turns the box. Then come light, medium and dark pencils, guide lines to show or hide, and a finished drawing that goes into My art room. The figures are clothed people or wooden manikins. Why this order helps a ten-year-old who has stopped drawing is in Drawing for tweens and teens.