Weekly App Review: Spooky Edition Part II

As we continue to celebrate the spooky season, let us remember some of the apps that are no longer with us. We can all enjoy a few chills as they haunt us with their memories.

Effusio: Effusio was a website developed as an art therapy tool. It allowed users to create a mood board and journal with all of their entries saved in a portfolio. When you opened the app you would be prompted to type a word describing how you feel then adjust the font, color, and background color of that word. This word was then pinned to a virtual cork board. You could then draw or add premade images (a house, tree, or different people) to the image to embellish it further. Users had the option to write a brief journal at the entry at the end for processing. When the site was still active I used it during my thesis research with children in an after school program. If future website or app developers were to create a similar tool in the future the features worth building upon are the emotional check-in (though I would probably use pre-written words or faces to assist younger users in selecting emotions) and the portfolio.

Auryn Ink: Auryn Ink was an app that simulated the process of painting with watercolor. Some of the strengths of the app were working wet-in-wet, ability to lift color with water, glazing effects, control over drying time, and custom color pallet. Admittedly, though, I was not a huge fan of this app because I didn’t find it intuitive to use. Some alternative to Auryn Ink include Procreate, Artrage, and Tayasui Sketches.

Bellish: Bellish was an app and website that allowed users to develop knitting patterns for projects with various stitches, sizes, and yarn weights. The app was a good introduction to pattern making for beginning knitters and those who are not fans of figuring out sizing and math. If you are sitll looking for patterns online you can try Ravelry.

Weekly App Review: Spooky Edition

This week I’m doing something a little different. To celebrate Halloween I’m going to be highlighting some apps/software that have shuffled off this mortal coil. That’s right, this week we will be haunted by apps from the, admittedly, not so distant past.

PicassoHead: I used this website as one of the tools in my master’s thesis research. It allowed users to collage abstract shapes and facial features into Picasso-like portraits. From an art therapy perspective it supported art making by making portraiture approachable. Clients who were not confident in their drawing abilities could still make expressive portraits by selecting the size, position, and color of all of the elements of the face.

Hero Machine: I used to use this website with child and teens in an evening community center program. It allowed the user to collage their own super heroes and super villains from pre-made parts. The characters were completely customizable from the facial features, hair, armor, and sidekicks to backgrounds, logos, and colors. With the teens I had them color their images in online and with younger children we printed out the images and colored them by hand. From an art therapy perspective these images allowed clients to think about their strengths and weaknesses, create aspirational or realistic versions of themselves, and develop narratives, all at a safe projective distance (through a character). Like other collage techniques, the user did not have to confident in their ability to draw in order to make a satisfying art product. The theme of super heroes/villains also appealed to youth interested in comic books, video games, and graphic novels. Despite the hard work of developer Jeff Hebert, Hero Machine is no longer operational due to the discontinuation of Adobe Flash.

Flying Colors demonstration video

Flying Colors: Flying Colors is a software program by Magic Mouse productions. I used it as part of my thesis work with children in an afterschool program. It is essentially a digital sandtray that allows the user to select different stamps/objects and place them on pre-made or hand drawn backgrounds. It added in animations and sound effects, options for symmetrical drawing, paring down the number of tools based on age-level, and the ability to play back the artistic process which made it for for kids and useful for art therapists interested in their clients’ creative process. Magic Mouse no longer offers the CD-ROM of this software (if you can even find something to play it on), however, you can find a link to download the demo version to your computer on the Wayback Machine.