Drawing

Smartphones can be great for taking notes on the fly, but are not quite as satisfying as pen and paper. The reMarkable 2 is claimed to offer users a distraction-free, paper-like writing experience, and we've spent the last week or so trying one out.

Though doodling on a touchscreen tablet can get the job done, some prefer pen and paper. reMarkable combined the two in 2016 with a real paper look and feel, but digital tech running the show. Now the second generation has been announced.

A team of Australian researchers has developed a novel early detection test for Parkinson’s disease based on a short series of drawing and writing tasks. The team is aiming to move through final trial stages and bring the new test to market by 2022.

Whether a computer-created render or hand-drawn sketch, drawings play a crucial role in the creation of the buildings that surround us. With this in mind, the World Architecture Festival has declared the winner of the 2019 Architecture Drawing Prize.

A group of Polish entrepreneurs claim to have developed a pen that writes in almost any color, in the form of the Artera.

Imagine if you were working with a robot that could leave you written messages, or draw diagrams to explain concepts. Such a scenario has come a step closer to reality, as a university student has taught a robot how to copy what we write, and what we draw.

A London-based design team has combined a love of engineering, drawing and cameras to create one of the most elegant tools for drawing circles seen to date. Dubbed "Iris," this ingenious compass is part objet d’art, part engineering wonder, and part Spirograph for grown-ups.

​In a process similar to the pointillism style of painting, some pen-and-ink artists create drawings consisting of tiny dots and dashes. Belgian startup Dozendots has set out to make doing so easier, with its power-tipped Inki ballpoint pen.

Paper engineer Robert Sabuda has teamed up with the Leonardo da Vinci Robot Society to create the Drawmaton drawing machine that's based on a rumor, that da Vinci's so-called Robot Knight coudl not only sit, stand and hug guests at parties, but could also draw.

Archaeologists have uncovered what may be the oldest human-made drawings ever found. Discovered in a cave in South Africa, the cross-hatch pattern was drawn in red ochre and found to date back over 70,000 years, making the image more than 30,000 years older than the previous reigning champion.

As we discovered for ourselves during CES 2014, raising objects up from a flat surface using a 3D printing pen is not as easy as seasoned 3Doodlers make it look. Clearly, the earlier you start, the better. So WobbleWorks has launched educational creativity kits designed for use in schools.​

​A couple of years ago, design firm Carlo Ratti Associati showcased a system in which drones were used to draw images on walls. It was very clever, but perhaps not something that could become a commercial product. The company's Scribit wall-drawing robot, however, is intended to be just that.