Nick Jr Draw and Play HD Review

Nick Jr Draw and Play HD is an art app for iPad that goes well beyond simple drawing and painting.

This app, as the name may suggest, contains character themes from the kids TV shows found on Nick Jr, such as Dora the Explorer, The Bubble Guppies or the gang from Team Umizoomi, which can be found among the coloring book pages, eCards, and stickers as well as a few other creative elements.

It is nice to see that there is an abundance of choices not tied to kids series for older children as well, including an impressive series of backgrounds to choose from, as well as a nice selection of drawing and painting tools such as chalk, crayon, charcoal, colored pencils, spray paint water colors and simple paint brushes.

Each of these selections contains a large selection of colors and three sizes of these tools available, and I admire the choice to emulate the texture of a specific implement such as the hazy look of charcoal, the gritty uneven quality of chalk or the smooth opaque lines of marker, giving users the ability to control the transparency of their lines, even overlapping the markings from some of these drawing tools for a nice effect, close to doing so with real art supplies.

This app also contains some unique choices new to art apps, such as a Collage Maker, which allows one to draw with objects such as trails of butterflies, coins, or fancy pasta, also including a fun use of sounds.

Splatter Tops can also be selected which, when chosen, spin around the page, splattering the background with paint to create splatter effects, controllable by the touch of a finger to create a little splatter or a lot, nicely incorporating the sound of cymbals with each tap.

Magic Wands includes fancy animation to drawings that may include spiraling leaves, dancing bubbles or sparkling stars as well as a very nice use of sound effects or music heard with the tap during drawing, or by tapping the trails left behind to see and hear these animations over again. I also find it fun and interesting to have the ability to draw over previous lines created in this section.

The sticker section has many choices to choose from. Do tap on these choices to see included short animated moments and fire work explosions can also be added with the tap of a finger, also incorporating these Nick Jr characters.

Surprise blocks are also offered - colorful geometric shapes that can be added to pictures that open with a tap to also showcase short animated moments starring Nick Jr characters. Bouncing Balls are also an option that can be selected to bounce around the page and interact with some of these creative elements.

I appreciate all these interesting choices, which are a little different from those typically found in art apps such as this, my personal favorite being the Splatter Tops and the Magic Wands.

With so much to choose from, it is nice that narration by Dora the Explorer walks players through the many functions of this app and also includes a question mark that one can tap to get more help if needed. I also enjoy the pages of inspiration offered which showcase the different elements at work.

Saving one’s work is possible, both within this app to continue working on projects in the future as well as to save on the iPad’s camera roll, and one can share artwork on Facebook as well or turn off this feature if one so desires.

I would also like to make note that one fills in the coloring pages - a main area of this application - in a way that pleases me greatly. Typically I am a fan of the “paint bucket” style of filling in coloring book pages because using a finger to color in the sections found that make up these drawings oftentimes leads to sloppy-looking results - no matter how hard one tries to stay within the lines. Here, I am happy to report, one uses a finger to paint with, but one is not able to draw outside the line of the specific section that one is painting within, giving players the best of both worlds and creating a truer painting experience while maintaining crisp lines - a style I hope becomes more commonplace within coloring book applications.

While this app may be purchased for the toddler or preschooler in the family, the activities and other details not tied to these TV shows amount to an experience that can be enjoyed by any age, including those who may not feel inspired to draw or paint in the traditional sense.

For these reasons, it is easy for me to recommend that parents keep Nick Jr Draw and Play HD as an art app for families, especially, but not necessarily, for young fans of these Nick Jr TV shows.