Blog - Childhood Recall: Drawing with Crayons
Thursday, September 25, 2008Being at an art school after all, I've found myself in a traditional art class (i.e. drawing) this term.
Based on my professor's recommendation, I tried out this new material to draw with today (Prismacolor sticks) and found them very pleasurable to work with.
Now, I'm not one of those artists that like to get all dirty and paint-smeared when they work. That's why I find the primarily digital art required of video game development to be appealing. No mess! So, I've never been a fan of many kinds of art materials. Pastels, chalks, and charcoals get all over my hands and clothes and that bugs me. Paint can as well, and requires too much set-up and clean-up for my tastes.
I assumed this suggested material would be similarly annoying to me (it LOOKED like pastels/chalks) but was surprised when I touched it that it was waxy and didn't rub off onto my skin at all. That was a huge perk, but it also performs its function very well. It smoothly draws very nice, thick lines.
What does this have to do with game design, you ask?
I recognized that I was really enjoying something -that this particular tool was making drawing more pleasurable for me- and my game designer brain couldn't just ignore that fact. I had to think about why it was making the act of drawing more... well, "fun".
Now, it could have just been any of the things I've said above. It had a nice feel to it (tactile quality, which is always interesting to examine in games), and made drawing slightly more effortless then the pens and pencils I'm used to using.
But thinking about that, I'm wondering to what degree I enjoyed using this material because it reminds me of a crayon. It does, after all, come in short sticks, makes thick lines, and has a waxy sort of surface to it.
I already note that many play experiences found in games owe some degree of ancestry to common forms of play people experience as children.
The Sims involves elements of 'playing house', 'playing pretend', and dress-up, for example.
Doodling/playing with crayons is something we do as children, and I'm wondering if using this new material is recalling that experience in a similar way. posted by Brian Shurtleff @ 2:10 AM
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