Make a
Stylus/
Draw Together
Making Time: 30 minutes
Age Group: 10-100
Project Designer: Lizzie Hurst
Build a digital tool called a stylus that will allow you to draw and write more easily on phones and tablets! A stylus is basically like a pen that conducts electricity to activate the touchscreen on your phone/tablet, or the mouse pad on your computer.
You can use your stylus in collaborative drawing apps to make drawings with other people who you can’t be with!
BUT FIRST . . . Follow these steps to build your own stylus using only tools and materials you already have at home.
Project
Overview:
My friend Sarah and I made this drawing together one morning...
Prepare
Your Workspace:
Set up your work space. Clear a surface on a table top where you can work.
Make sure you have some scrap material covering your surface to keep it clean (magazines, newspaper, cardboard, plastic trash bag...)
Make sure to ask other people who are using the space if it’s OK for you to set up there!
Gather Supplies:
Gather MORE Supplies:
NOW LET’S BEGIN
MAKING YOUR STYLUS
Step 1:
Take apart a pen and remove the ink cartridge.
Step 2:
Cut off the tip of a Q-tip. Hold your scissors at a diagonal angle so you get a pointy edge on the Q-tip end.
Step 3:
Reassemble the pen. You should have this and this:
Then, cram the Q-tip into the end of the pen! You might need to twist it a little bit to get it in there.
If you don’t have Q-tips, you can try experimenting with a tiny piece of sponge, cotton, or something else that can absorb water...
Step 4:
Wrap some tape around the Q-tip and the top of the pen to help hold everything together.
Step 5:
Cut a tiny piece of tin foil.
The exact size doesn’t matter, but it should be able to wrap around the pen a couple of times. Mine was about 2” x 2”.
Step 6:
Use a little more tape to hold the tin foil in place...
But only use tape where you need it - don’t cover all of the foil in tape. It is super important that your fingers directly touch the tin foil while you hold the pen!
Step 7:
Fill a cup with a tiny bit of water. Like, almost no water!
In order to use your stylus, you will need to dip the tip into the water so that it’s damp but not dripping wet! Squeezing the Q-tip out a little after dipping it can help.
So, what’s going on here?
What’s with the tin foil and water, you’re wondering? The answer relates to how electricity works...
Phones, tablets and computers nowadays use what’s called capacitive touch - aka touch screens. The surfaces of devices like this use variations in an electrical field to register where your finger is touching.
Materials that can transmit electricity are called conductive - metal (including tin foil) and water are both able to conduct electricity. If your stylus is made of a conductive material, it can transmit the electrical field from your body to register contact on your touch screen...
Oh yeah, did you know there’s electricity in your body?! There isn’t enough space to explain that here, but I’d recommend you google this if you want to know more!
Step 8:
Test your stylus. You should be able to use it to control your device or make a drawing.
If it doesn’t work well, try using trial and error to improve your design...
The most important thing is that the tip is slightly damp, and that the tin foil makes a connection between the cotton tip and your fingers.
Your stylus is complete! Great job!
Keep reading to learn how to use the collaborative painting app https://aggie.io/ to draw with other people at the same time.
Joining or creating a canvas
If someone has already created a canvas to share with you, they’ll give you the web address to join their drawing pad. Just enter this link in your internet browser to visit the canvas! The URL will look something like this...
If you want to start a NEW canvas, you can go to the Aggie home page and click Start Drawing. Then, invite other people by sharing your link with them.
Drawing
Choose your colors here, on the right side of the screen.
The circle is how you choose the color you want, and the square is how you choose the darkness or lightness of that color.
These are the pencil and pen tools. They seem to work mostly the same.
You can also draw circles and squares.
Drawing (continued)
The size bar is how you control the thickness of the line.
Drawing (continued)
You can control how transparent the line is using the opacity tool bar. 100% opacity means the line is not transparent.
Erasing
This is the eraser tool.
Move tool
This tool allows you to move your drawings around. This may be helpful if you accidentally draw on top of someone else’s drawing...
Lasso-ing
Use the lasso tool to trace around specific parts of your drawing that you want to move or erase.
Paint Bucket
You can fill a shape with color using the paint bucket tool. After clicking the paint bucket, choose the color you want to paint with, and then click the shape you want to fill.
Pasting Images
You can paste images from your computer onto the canvas by going to Edit>Paste File.
Then, you can draw on top of the photo.
Layers
Layers allow you to move things above or below each other in the drawing. You can only ever edit the layer which you are active in. To switch between layers, click on the layer you want to be active in.
Create a new layer
Here, I had to move the circle layer below the face layer so that my face showed up on top.
Good Job!
That’s it! Can you come up with some fun collaborative drawing prompts or games to do?
Make sure to record drawing sessions or take screenshots...
You can always revisit an old Aggie.io URL to keep working on the same drawing. It won’t get deleted when you close your window!
Here are two Collaborative drawings by students in BEAM TEAM!
PLEASE SHARE WHAT YOUR DRAWINGS USING THIS HASHTAG:
#beamanywhere