Young Krishna Kumar held the computer mouse with the same easiness with which he normally holds a paintbrush. For each mouse click, shades of blue colour flashed on the computer screen and he slowly traced the mouse to perfect his painting. With five minutes for the final bell, he looked happy and satisfied with the work he created at the digital painting competition held as part of the State School IT Fest at Technopark in the city on Wednesday.
The competition was held for students of high school and higher secondary sections, where they had to display their skill in mouse movements and apt use of colour scheme either using X-paint or GIMP, which are open source software used for digital painting. Twenty-nine district-level winners for each category participated in the competition. The festival was organised by IT@School under the Department of Education.
“The topic this time was a little difficult,” says Sreeraj Sanmayan, a student of Koduman High School, Pathanamthitta. Nevertheless, he had painted a beautiful picture of a boy playing with paper boats in a puddle of muddy water. A few others chose to bring out the shiny rainbows and umbrellas in their paintings.
The most difficult part of digital painting was to create the washed effect of the rain, especially on the trees and roof tops, says Krishna Kumar.
Students of higher secondary section were given the topic ‘Employment and Youth’. One of the participants remarked that competitions such as digital painting encourage them to try out new software in various areas.
Impressed by the paintings, Education Minister P.K. Abdu Rabb remarked in his presidential address at the inaugural function that the works were of high standard and displayed the IT skills of the children.
