Summary

As part of my senior Capstone project, I did research into generative drawing and computer-based drawing tools. I built several applications to play with some of the ideas I saw in that research. Eurydice was the second application I built, along with Episketch and Harmon.

In building Eurydice, I wanted to try out a different concept from what you would see in a more typical drawing application. Whereas most of those tools have a number of affordances to improve the quality of drawings, I wanted to see what would happen if the application was not quite so supportive, and added a few elements of randomness to the experience.

The result is an application where drawing is a more ephemeral experience. Like most drawing applications, Eurydice lets you draw simple lines. After you draw the line, though, it falls out of your control. The line thickness is determined based on how you drew the line, and it will eventually decay over time until it disappears. The lines will also rotate or fizzle away depending on how you drew it.

You can choose lines with no behavior, or lines that dissolve or rotate. You can also pick the decay rate and color for those lines. Ultimately, the application makes drawing feel more like playing an instrument than creating artwork for a project. I would like to think that it acts as a sort of digital doodle that's fun to play with and open ended.