To most people "Kidpix" doesn't mean much, they either don't remember what it was or they weren't around when it was a thing. It may be surprising to know that I fall into the second category and never actually played the original game, or played any version of it until I was 23 years old. I am really wracking my brain to try to remember how I originally found out about it, I think it was from a youtube video of someone messing around on it and it looked so silly and I just had to try it out. Through out the time I have been using it I have used a couple different websites, both having pros and cons of their own, before sticking to the one I consistently use now.
To explain why I like this program so much I think it's relevant to explain that around the time I first found it and for years before that too, I would have considered myself a non-practicing artist. I was still very interested in art, but for many different reasons, I rarely used it the way most artists typically would. I had exhausted my love for painting by doing pet portraits during the holidays but I was also either drinking or working, making it difficult for me to actually find the time. I dabbled here and there with different types of art; collage, sewing, crochet, watercolors, and paint markers. All of these were well and good but the entire time I was trying to run from this idea in my head that everything I made had to be perfect.
I tried different things to try to train my brain to be okay not achieving perfection, one of my favorites was doing portraits of people while not looking at the paper, only keeping my eyes on the subject. This was freeing and fun, and often resulted in laughter from me and from the person I was drawing when the portrait was unrealistic. During this time I was also drinking a lot, as well as spending lots of time on Tik-tok. There was one night that I was drunk and finally had enough followers to be allowed to go Live, so I did, and it was a shit-show. At some point in the live I got a comment from someone named "Logic"... like the rapper, and I ignored it because I wasn't necessarily a fan and also I figured there was no way it was actually him. I was showing people on the livestream some of my art, specifically done in the no-look drawing style I explained before. The guy kept commenting, he was interested in the art I was showing and was trying to get my information to have his manager reach out to me and set something up, but I kept ignoring him. Finally I told him my instagram and was like "if this is even real I guess I'll hear from your manager tomorrow", and then continued my live stream, got drunker, and lowkey forgot about it. But I ended up with a DM from his manager the next day, I was given his number and told to text him more photos of my art etc. which I did. We talked back and forth a bit, and he explained that he wanted a drawing of him done in the style I had shown on live. Which was all of sudden weird and nerve wracking now that I had all this pressure on me. I avoided it and put it off, and when I tried drawing him it just never turned out the way the others had. I never sent him anything. Oh well!
Anyhow, years later I still have a similar relationship to art. It's fun until it's not. There has always been something about it as well that as soon as it becomes related to money it just doesn't really feel the same anymore. In 2024 I found Kidpix, and instantly became interested in making digital art on it. For awhile I made more random things that weren't based on photos, and were less realistic, before one day doing a drawing based on a photo of my cat Dennis, which is when I realized I could make things semi-realistic without it having to be perfect.
So I had found another one of my art loopholes. A couple months into it all I also had interest in editing videos again, and I had just found out how to screen record my laptop, so I decided I would combine it all and that's how I got the randomized kidpix drawing youtube video idea. Since the beginning of filming these videos I have found an increase in how much I am doing art, which is the main and only goal of all of this. It gets me in a more creative mindset, and the childlike unseriousness of it all is helpful in allowing my perfectionist brain to chill tf out.
As to try not to ruin the videos I have already posted by showing the final results of all of them, I will only post one of the finished drawings here. This is the one that has been my favorite so far.
Watch the youtube video where I draw this here: https://youtu.be/GZoe7-boOs4?si=RJg7qbK6PaJC9TPe and while you're there you can check out the others by going to the kidpix drawing playlist on my youtube channel.
Kidpix studio has a tons of different tools to use when drawing. There is a pencil that can change in color, thickness, and texture, which make it great for adding dimension to drawings. There is a variety of "paint brushes" that display different effects. "Mixers" that make changes to the entire screen. Multiple ways to erase things. Text that can be added, either letter by letter or typed (this varies on which website you use). Also tons of different stamps that can be used, like tons and tons. I will be making videos about both of the websites I have used and the differences between the two to help people decide which they want to use, orfor anyone who is vaguely interested.
This is the website I primarily use:
This is the website I first found and used to use primarily:
They're both good in their own ways, but both very different.
Here are some other drawings more random drawings of mine using Kidpix.
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