Effect of colour sensing and drawing pen on children’s colour perception and feature detection of objects when drawing

Commercial digital drawing pens have incorporated color sensing capabilities to improve the interactive experience of drawing. However, despite these improvements, it remains unclear whether color sensing and picking functions improve drawing learning performance. This study observed third and fourth grade elementary school students, who were in the “dawning realism” stage of artistic development, to determine how using a digital drawing pen with a color sensing function affected their color perception and feature detection abilities. This study analyzed quantitative data on color choice, with some students directly picking colors from the surface of an object and other students choosing colors from the app's default palette. This study also interviewed a focus group of experts who compared between the two aforementioned methods of choosing colors, as used in drawings. The results revealed the following advantages of using a digital drawing pen to directly pick colors off object surfaces: (1) children better utilize and depict the color gradient; (2) children interact with and observe objects and their shapes more thoroughly; (3) children draw objects' shapes and colors more precisely; and (4) children, being in the dawning realism stage, are better able to satisfy their need to perceive the colors and features of objects.