Great things are not done by impulse,
but by a series of small things brought together.
Vincent Van Gogh
When the turtle moves around the screen it can leave a trace (with a little pen attachets to its tail). With the programm called ‘Turtle goes painting’ we can easily draw houses, plains.
We draw using the the buttons at the bottom or the following keyboard keys:
- Space or Arrow up ↑ – moves the turtle foreward.
- Left arrow ← – turns the turtle 30 degrees left.
- Right arrow → – turns the turtle 30 degrees right.
- Button pen down / pen up shows when the turtles pen is up (no trace) or down (trace). The turtle can move around without leaving trace when its pen is up.
S – Saves the current drawing with a specified name
D – Draws the drawing with the given name on the screen
C – Clears the drawings from the screen
Now we are ready to draw. If we want to draw a house we can use the following sequence:
↑ ↑ ↑ → → → ↑ ↑ ↑ → → → ↑ ↑ ↑ → → → ↑ ↑ ↑
Now the roof:
→ → → ↑ ↑ ↑ → ↑ ↑ ↑ → → → → ↑ ↑ ↑
Name the drawing pressing S and enter HOUSE.
With the sliders for pen size, pen color and step we can change the width and the color of the turtle’s trace and the how much the turtle goes foreward when we press the space key.
If we want to draw a whole village of houses we need to place the turtle on different spots on the screen and ask the turtle to draw a house on each spot by pressing the D key and enter HOUSE.
For convinienve we have the undo button which undoes the last command.
The button draw current / draw saved determines if the turtle will use the original drawing colors or will use the current values of the sliders.
Draw
Assignment 1
Make the turtle draw other things and you’ll see that it feels at home not only when it draws houses.
Get to work
Assignment 2
Using the program Turtle goes painting draw a space rocket.
Assignment 3
Using the program Turtle goes painting draw the first letter of your name.
Развихри се
Assignment 4
Draw a tree. Draw a forest.
Tips:
- Save the tree’s drawing with the save button.
- Move the turtle with pen up or with the mouse where you want the next trees to be.
- Draw the other trees with the draw button.
- Use the sliders to change the trees’ height, thickness and color.
Assignment 5
Draw a flower.
Tips:
- Draw a circle, square or other figure. This will be our petal.
- Get the turtle to the initial position (place and direction) and save the drawing with the save button.
- Turn the turtle once left or right.
- Draw the drawing saved on step 2. Turn the turtle the same way from step 3.
- Repeat step 4 until you get a flower.
Assignment 6
Draw a garden of flowers.
Tips:
- Using the previous assignment draw different kinds of flowers. You can use different figures for the petals to draw different flowers. Draw them using different colors and sizes.
- To draw a flower you need to draw the petal 12 times. Why 12 exactly? Can you make it easier?
Share
Share one of your drawings which you like the most.
Tips:
- Right click with the mouse to open the menu and choose Save Image As …

Send the saved file to someone close to you.
If you send your drawing using the following button it may take part in the gallery below.
Be curious
Assignment 7
Imagine that you are a gardener and draw different kind of flowers. How would you draw chrysanthemums, lilies, daisies? Your faviourite flower?
Notes & Credits
The program Turtle goes painting is published in the book ‘Informatika za nachinaeshi – chast 1 – ili s konstenurkata napred ‘, E Sendova, R. Nikolov, 1989.