The Drawing Paradigm between Representation and Interaction with Virtual Image

Abstract

Traditional drawing involves drawing on some surface, often a plane, e.g. a sheet of paper, a school board or a wall. This type of drawing therefore takes place in two dimensions of this surface. Transferring this activity to a computer, or rather to the surface of its screen, did not change the two-dimensional nature of this action. Practically all applications today, from Paint to sophisticated computer-aided design tools, still operate in two dimensions, with even three-dimensional objects being developed using only appropriately selected flat cross-sections. This is partly due to pre-computer drafting canons, partly to the construction of the most popular computer interfaces which are essentially two-dimensional (screen, mouse), and partly to the ease of presentation using popular two-dimensional devices (screen, printer). However, modern virtual reality devices enable drawing in three-dimensional space, and this does not mean 3D modeling, which involves building a scene from blocks (geometric solids) and surfaces (grids, meshes), but rather sketching lines and surfaces with a virtual pen in the air and thus creating a 3D drawing. But does this new drawing paradigm have a chance of catching on? Will artists, architects and designers reach for it in the future? Can they gain anything by using such a solution? This paper does not provide an answer to this question, it just shows possible ways of drawing 3D along with their advantages and disadvantages. It is left to the Readers to decide how useful this approach can be in their artistic, architectural, design, etc. activities. The author, being a computer scientist, also invites the Readers who give a positive answer to the title question to cooperate in searching for the optimal three-dimensional drawing interface and its useful applications.