On the one hand, we are collecting specific drawings from expert designers and artists and on the other hand, we are looking at how to use the pens in drawing classes.

Working with Experts

Expert subjects have been recruited from the architecture, landscape and art faculty and students, and from the local architects' organization. They are asked to perform drawing tasks such as drawing from a photo, drawing a room interior from life, diagramming a building and designing a simple structure within to suggested time guidelines. We then review the results with the authors.

Working with Students

We summarized the drawing techniques into lessons, culling expert drawings to illustrate specific techniques. For the initial sessions, we created a presentation explaining the pen technology and these drawing approaches (interior perspectives and annotated visual notes). We used them in one beginning session and two intermediate sessions during the summer of 2003, as a pilot project to determine the usefulness of electronic pens as a teaching tool.

After seeing the examples, the students used the digital pens to make their own drawings. The drawings were collected and reviewed as a group using the digital projector.

To stimulate interaction, students were shown several ways to start a drawing (construction lines, contour, tones, landmarks) during the lecture. After they created drawings, we asked them to look at the final result and guess how the drawings were started.