Favourite weird programs to draw in?

[Moodle McDoodle]

I was just talking with a friend over discord about art programs we use or used to use, and while we were talking about more serious, art dedicated programs, my mind couldn't help but drift to my favourite weird way to draw digitally... The memo function in Professor Layton games!! An odd choice, I know, but something about the pixelly brushes and colour palette, along with being able to draw with the DS/3DS stylus is just really fun and appealing to me

I have some art I did this way from a playthrough of Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright that I did in 2021, mostly featuring Ghost Trick characters since I'd just recently played that game at the time as well and was hyperfixating on it, and I still really like all of them! I can't show most since there's a lot of spoilers for both PLvsPW and Ghost Trick involved but here's a few :)




I'd love to hear what other games or programs that people use to make digital art that isn't necessarily a serious art program!! I think making art within games or less serious programs like this is a really nice way to take pressure off of oneself and just make something for fun and it'd be great to hear about similar experiences or even maybe inspire someone to try making something in a more obscure medium!

[Stonehead]

Wow, those are amazing. Flipnote studios, and the 3ds in general, had such a distinct look. Very nostalgic.

I never used anything that interesting, but when I was a kid, I used the built-in sprite editor in Game Maker Studio to make all of my pixel art.

I don't have any of the really old childhood stuff anymore, but I think these were done pixel-by-pixel with a mouse:

I made like 30 or 40 of those portraits for a bunch of different characters. I wonder what happened to the hard-working attitude I had back then.

[probablyawizard]

i was going to say tux paint is the weirdest i've used, before remembering i sometimes drew in the sand in tomodachi life's judgement bay. i think everyone can agree that DSes are fun to draw with :3

[HunnyBon]

For a drawing app aimed at children, Tux Paint is actually pretty easy to make some really good stuff. I don't mean to talk down to children or the like, it's just you usually see very botched programs that barely have many tools to make something good or creative, yet here I am, showing a small work I made in Tux Paint.

[Nullcasting]

that is so cute!! Is there a term for emergent gameplay that isn't gameplay? ...emergent functionality? No clue, but it's lovely to see the way tools developers made get used.

My favorite Wacky Drawing Program is Kid Pix Deluxe, my childhood computer art program. Aaah, the sound effects in that game are so nice to listen to...

I don't do a lot of 2d art these days, though. My favorite weird 3D program is Bryce7. It's downright goofy. 

[Corrupted Unicorn]

I see your KidPix Deluxe and TuxPaint and I raise you: Magic Artist Deluxe. Essentially Disney's answer to Kidpix. I used to play this a lot as a kid with my cousins and doing silly things like Camp Lazlo comics and drawing a Homer Simpson with a huge open mouth and "feeding" him gummies 

Sometimes when I'm very stressed or self-doubting about my art I like to crack this bad boy open and fool around with it. I find it relaxing and amusing. It's a good way to help take yourself less seriously.

[BananaBoots]

Professor Layton memo function my beloved I used to be really good at drawing in it, back in the day. I do have a photo of one of my more recent doodles in it, though:



I'm pretty sure this one was done in Lost Future. It doesn't have quite as many features as the new ones (cough cough paint bucket) but I don't really care because Lost Future is easily my favourite game in the series

[akesi]

a few years ago i played this game called art sqool, and it got me putting effort into these little drawings & having fun making art, and kinda low-key inspired me to start learning how to draw in earnest

think there's something about the limitations of palette / subject matter that's actually kinda freeing, in removing the, like, paralysis of choice

here are a few of the drawings i made:

[CableCat]

Ooh I loved Flipnote Hatena and designing pixel art at Able Sisters in Animal Crossing! Back in Animal Crossing: Wild World, the official game guide had different nintendo-themed pixel art with instructions on how to make it by hand in the game! That was back before the design sharing features of New Leaf and New Horizons. I made the mario mushroom pixel art and placed it all over the ground on my town so I wouldn't get weeds, and then I would do the 10 year time skip in Wild World so I could have millions of Bells in interest haha!

PictoChat on the original DS was also great. I used to connect with my friends next door from our houses and then we would draw farting butts and rainbow poops and text them to each other. Aaahhh, to be a kid again~

I have a friend who used some kind of mathematical graphing to make vector images which he then composed into these really cool posters. But like, he didn't use vector graphic software. He came up with the raw math first and put it into some other non-art graphing software. But the poster he made and printed look like... like concert posters or movie posters or something. They're really great. He has a masters degree lol. I do not.

I spent my childhood sending pictures of rainbow farting butts to my friends on my DS. 

[CableCat]

Sometimes when I'm very stressed or self-doubting about my art I like to crack this bad boy open and fool around with it. I find it relaxing and amusing. It's a good way to help take yourself less seriously.

Oh yeah, that's the truth! That's probably one of the best ways to break artists block or burnout. That's why I love dollar store coloring books!

[Memory]

I had a phase where I really loved drawing in Mario Paint, but it feels just a bit too clunky for me to enjoy much now. but now I'm feeling like I oughta draw something in it, been so long!

[glitterpigeon]

i love shake art! you can use it in your browser! it makes art where the lines.. shake! it's really fun! :>

https://studionokoi.itch.io/shake-art-deluxe

[slimeteefs]

oooh i used to use some animation game in miniclip studio as a kid. i think the website died now so i don't have those animations anymore tho. i was hoping this would be flipnote for me now but i think the frame rate is so slow and it's really hard to use....is that just me? lots of people really love it and i adore amvs made in flipnote uploaded to youtube lmao....i really want to replicate that style. also not sure this 100% counts but i really like drawing in the notes app on my ipad sometimes, more than like,, procreate. but that's an app :P oh edit also i spent SO much time figuring out how to like....paint with pixels in animal crossing new horizons, the way the pixels correspond to how it actually blends on the objects......i miss it omg it's so fun and TIME CONSUMING

[litten]

I looove to draw in Animal Jam! The program itself is quite limiting but the things some people create in it are amazing and you can create items out of them to decorate your den with :o)

Here's everything I've drawn in the art studio so far:

[spuggidy]

Oh man, funnyjunk had an art program that I really liked way back in 2012 or so. I made a youtube video showing it off, I have it privated now but if anyone's curious here it is lol www dot youtube dot com/watch?v=HKnfS84qVng