Exploring Co-creative Drawing Workflows

This article presents the outcomes from a mixed-methods study of drawing practitioners (e.g. professional illustrators, fine artists and art students) that was conducted in Autumn 2018 as a preliminary investigation for the development of a physical human-AI co-creative drawing system. The aim of the study was to discover possible roles that technology could play in observing, modelling and possibly assisting an artist with their drawing. The study had three components: a paper survey of artists' drawing practises, technology usage and attitudes, video recorded drawing exercises and a follow-up semi-structured interview which included a co-design discussion on how AI might contribute to their drawing workflow. Key themes identified from the interviews were (1) drawing with physical mediums is a traditional and primary way of creation; (2) artists' views on AI varied, where co-creative AI is preferable to didactic AI; and (3) artists have a critical and skeptical view on the automation of creative work with AI. Participants' input provided the basis for the design and technical specifications of a co-creative drawing prototype, for which details are presented in this article. In addition, lessons learned from conducting the user study are presented with a reflection on future studies with drawing practitioners.