If a picture is worth a thousand words, then these Web sites are priceless. The artwork they allow you to create is limited only by you and your imagination — even if you have no artistic talent.
jacksonpollock.org: Miltos Manetas’ clever Web site, which allows you to paint like a virtual Jackson Pollock, has been around for a few years, but renewed interest has made it one of the most saved links recently at the bookmark-sharing site del.icio.us (http://del.icio.us). Move your cursor around at the site, and “paint” splatters and drips on the white screen in the manner of Pollock’s trademark style. Change the color with a click of the mouse. Cool.
nga.gov/kids/zone: The National Gallery of Art’s Art Zone is aimed at children, but kids of all ages will find loads of time-wasting fun at the site. The newest of a dozen features, Jungle, lets you create a wild landscape modeled after the paintings of French artist Henri Rousseau. Other favorites: Build geometric sculptures with Cubit, design a 3-D image that can be rotated using 3-D Twirler and create a working virtual mobile with Mobile. You’ll need Shockwave to run the programs; just follow the link if you don’t already have it installed.
marie.epfl.ch/escher: With Escher Web Sketch, inspired by the pioneering work of M.C. Escher, you can create tessellations — repeated images that create a geometric pattern. There are many tools to inspire creativity, such as different pen sizes, a variety of patterns and color options.
jprost.club.fr/bio/biomorph: An artist of a different sort, French mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot, inspired the Biomorph site, which lets users create virtual creatures derived from the fractals (irregular geometric patterns) that he invented. Just enter three numerical values on the Giant Biomorph page, and the site will produce a fractal image that looks like something viewed under a microscope. Who says math isn’t fun?
drawapig.desktopcreatures.com: No matter what it depicts, artwork says something about the artist who created it. The ultimate proof of that is Draw a Pig, a popular site whose visitors have already added more than 1 million images to its gallery — that’s 50 drawn every 10 minutes. Their subject? One pig. Just draw a porker using the site’s simple online tools. Then answer some questions about your image. Was it at the top of the page? Can you see all four legs? How big are its ears? The way you drew the pig reveals things about your personality. Bigger is better for ears, for example, because it shows that you are a good listener. Draw a Pig is one of the cleverest online personality tests I’ve found. And, hey, it’s art, too.
