In order to create content that demonstrates the reference and inspiration images in the application’s supportive materials, I’ve been sourcing images with creative commons licenses to use within the app. I will create the tutorial material and technique demonstrations myself to avoid copyright issues with existing tutorials, while I will still base them on existing reputable guides and books. While there are many art tutorials online, most of them are either hours long, behind a paywall or require browsing through a lot of content before finding the relevant one. When I asked people what format they prefer for tutorials, the most popular were blog-post like short explanations with images. Tutorials like that usually circulate in social media. They are easy to read and understand, but they get lost in the social media feed. The tutorials will follow the short and snappy principle the interviewed art teacher mentioned, as this will be more efficient for the user and save them the time, leaving more time for actual drawing. Time is especially a constraint for people with full time jobs, so it’s important that the tips provided will be efficient. Additionally, the reference images displayed during each prompt path will be relevant to that specific path and stage making it easier for the user to find relevant support.
Instead of being a random prompt generator, this application takes into account the user’s own comfort zone and goals when providing prompts and drawing ideas, making it more customised to each user’s individual needs. This is important as the target group people’s needs vary from softer to more structured approach. Ideally the application would have a team of people behind it generating the prompts and supportive materials and tutorials for each path. The application maintains the database it uses to determine the prompts by using the background questionnaire from the registration process, and also collects feedback from the user after each completed prompt path.
The prompt paths I’ve thought of so far are:
- “Relax” is something the user is familiar with, and thus it has less stages and less new tutorials, but still the inspiration and reference material.
- “Challenge” is something the user doesn’t usually draw, featuring a new subject or medium. It is longer and has more stages.
- “Practise” is croquis-like prompt that changes the images after a short time period, and the idea is to do quick sketches of animals for example.
- “Have an idea” gives the user an option to look for relevant reference material and tutorials to their own prompt idea. For example, if the user wants to draw still life kitchenware with markers, the app provides reference images of kitchen utensils and tutorials on how to use markers. The available media and time selected by the user determine what kind of prompt the application suggests.
For example, if the user would like to learn to draw cityscapes, the contents would include materials such as things you would find on an alley, different kinds of people etc. If they had problems with perspective, the app would provide a perspective grid.
The following are examples of the reference materials and inspiration the app provides:
As this is an application focused on drawing, I need example content of illustrations. I have asked a permission from some hobbyist artists to use their work as an example or inspiration within my application, so I will now be able to create prototypes with example gallery content.
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