Every round of teaching the brush what to draw, newest first. Heart the ones you like.
Rolled eyes, no examples
What the morning drawing does now: three candidates, each with its own kind of picture and mood, and now the eye style rolled too, because left to choose every face got the same closed arcs. No worked examples: they made everything look alike.
The prompt, as sent for this round's first drawing
Draw one small sumi brush picture for a fridge. Today's date is 2026-09-26.
It should make whoever opens the fridge smile. Today the dice say:
kind an animal doing something
mood funny
Recently drawn: ["a cat chasing its own tail","a snail leaving without hurry","a mouse sniffing the air","an owl dozing on the crescent moon","a fox pouncing on nothing in the snow","a heron standing in shallow water","a dragonfly on a reed","a squirrel and one very large acorn","a friendly horse","a very scary tarantula","a snail out for a very long walk","a dachshund at full length","a heron pretending not to see the fish","a frog with a very wide grin","an owl who is definitely awake","a mouse with far too much tail","a whale surfacing beside a very small boat","a snail at top speed","a crescent moon over water"]. Draw nothing named there, not even with a
new joke: a snail at top speed is still a snail.
WHAT WORKS
One subject, big, instantly readable, with one small joke: a frog's tongue
already halfway to a fly, a cat pretending to be a loaf. The joke is a single
extra mark or prop, never a second drawing. The title is the punchline, a short
line of diary, not a label.
Round soft masses drawn as open contours with deliberate gaps and big empty
interiors, never a closed loop. A tiny delicate face on a big simple body.
Leave out the ground line unless the joke needs one.
FRAME
World frame 1200x900: x -600..600, y -450..450, y points down. Keep every point
within x -520..520 and y -370..240; the strip below is for the title. Span at
least 800 wide or 450 tall. It must read at 400x300 pixels, three world units
to a pixel. 4 to 9 strokes, SVG M/C/Q/L only, no text or fills.
Draw the identifying line first and make it unmistakable: a heron's S-neck, a
cat's ear triangles, a pine's flat tiers. With the caption covered, would
someone name it? If not, nothing else matters.
WEIGHT AND INK
A stroke keeps one width, so a body that swells is 2 to 4 strokes stepping down
in weight, heaviest at the base. Make contrast by making fine marks finer.
weight wetness dryness tooth
main contour 0.30-0.34 0.28-0.32 0.85-0.92 0.80-0.88
secondary 0.20-0.23 0.28-0.32 0.85-0.92 0.80-0.88
limbs, stalks 0.14-0.16 0.34-0.40 0.75-0.85 0.65-0.75
hairlines 0.10-0.12 0.34-0.40 0.75-0.85 0.65-0.75
accents 0.50-0.90 0.65-0.72 0.30-0.40 0.35-0.45
Low wetness with high dryness and tooth is what gives kasure, the dry break
into flying white; 0.45 wetness is a flat grey bar. Wetness is also reach:
0.32 lasts about 540 world units, 0.28 about 340. Start at the heavy end and let
it run out at a tip, never through the line that identifies the subject; split a
long line with a gap rather than raising wetness. Give every path its own seed,
0 to 12.
FACES
If it has a face, the eyes this time are: no visible eyes at all. Draw them as in this table.
small dot tight curl 16-20 units across, weight 0.5-0.6
big dot curl 26 across at 0.88 renders about 30px: goggling, only for the joke
closed eye short arc, smiling or sleeping
glance short tick or comma
dash flat short stroke, unimpressed or dozing
Line eyes vanish below about 0.5 weight, so draw them at 0.55 or more with
accent ink. Accents must be wet or a dot opens into a spiral. Put a pair in one
path as two subpaths with a second M. The tool warns that a dot "reads as a
blob": on an eye, ignore it.
OUTPUT
Only JSON, no prose and no code fence, all five values on every path:
{"title":"a cat pretending to be a loaf","paths":[{"d":"M ...","weight":0.32,"wetness":0.30,"dryness":0.88,"tooth":0.84,"seed":3}]}
Three different ideas each morning
Each of the three candidates gets a different kind of picture, today's first. Still had hearted examples, which is where the pear joke came back from.
The prompt, as sent for this round's first drawing
Draw one small sumi brush picture for a fridge. Today's date is 2026-09-26.
It should make whoever opens the fridge smile. Today the dice say:
kind an animal doing something
mood funny
Recently drawn: ["a cat chasing its own tail","a snail leaving without hurry","a mouse sniffing the air","an owl dozing on the crescent moon","a fox pouncing on nothing in the snow","a heron standing in shallow water","a dragonfly on a reed","a squirrel and one very large acorn","a friendly horse","a very scary tarantula","a snail out for a very long walk","a dachshund at full length","a heron pretending not to see the fish","a frog with a very wide grin","an owl who is definitely awake","a mouse with far too much tail","a whale surfacing beside a very small boat","a snail at top speed","a crescent moon over water"]. Draw nothing named there, not even with a
new joke: a snail at top speed is still a snail.
WHAT WORKS
One subject, big, instantly readable, with one small joke: a frog's tongue
already halfway to a fly, a cat pretending to be a loaf. The joke is a single
extra mark or prop, never a second drawing. The title is the punchline, a short
line of diary, not a label.
Round soft masses drawn as open contours with deliberate gaps and big empty
interiors, never a closed loop. A tiny delicate face on a big simple body.
Leave out the ground line unless the joke needs one.
Two drawings the owner loved, as their plans. Learn their scale, stroke count,
weights and how the joke sits in them. Do not redraw their subjects.
{"title":"a fox sitting very politely","paths":[{"d":"M -380 -235 Q -300 -255 -255 -290 L -228 -368 L -190 -300 L -150 -352 L -128 -262","weight":0.32,"wetness":0.32,"dryness":0.88,"tooth":0.84,"seed":3},{"d":"M -120 -250 C -60 -180 20 -60 20 60 C 20 150 -40 200 -120 205","weight":0.32,"wetness":0.31,"dryness":0.9,"tooth":0.86,"seed":7},{"d":"M -372 -226 Q -300 -195 -270 -160 C -250 -80 -270 40 -255 200","weight":0.22,"wetness":0.3,"dryness":0.86,"tooth":0.82,"seed":11},{"d":"M -200 -40 C -196 60 -204 150 -198 204","weight":0.15,"wetness":0.36,"dryness":0.8,"tooth":0.7,"seed":1},{"d":"M 10 150 C 150 225 350 205 460 60 C 520 -20 480 -120 400 -110","weight":0.3,"wetness":0.3,"dryness":0.88,"tooth":0.84,"seed":9},{"d":"M -500 222 Q -100 212 180 226 Q 380 236 520 214","weight":0.2,"wetness":0.3,"dryness":0.9,"tooth":0.88,"seed":5},{"d":"M -302 -266 Q -289 -279 -275 -267 M -384 -240 C -378 -246 -370 -240 -376 -234 C -382 -230 -386 -236 -382 -240","weight":0.6,"wetness":0.7,"dryness":0.35,"tooth":0.4,"seed":2}]}
{"title":"warm enough to have a little nap","paths":[{"d":"M -270 -130 C -278 20 -262 160 -215 222 Q -100 248 20 246","weight":0.32,"wetness":0.31,"dryness":0.88,"tooth":0.84,"seed":3},{"d":"M 205 -125 C 215 20 212 150 185 215 Q 150 238 80 244","weight":0.3,"wetness":0.3,"dryness":0.87,"tooth":0.82,"seed":7},{"d":"M -265 -140 C -200 -185 150 -185 205 -140 C 170 -105 -100 -100 -200 -118","weight":0.21,"wetness":0.3,"dryness":0.88,"tooth":0.84,"seed":11},{"d":"M 212 -60 C 330 -80 360 60 290 110 C 260 130 225 125 205 110","weight":0.22,"wetness":0.29,"dryness":0.86,"tooth":0.83,"seed":1},{"d":"M -130 20 Q -100 44 -70 20 M 30 20 Q 60 44 90 20","weight":0.6,"wetness":0.68,"dryness":0.35,"tooth":0.4,"seed":5},{"d":"M -35 78 Q -10 94 15 78","weight":0.55,"wetness":0.67,"dryness":0.34,"tooth":0.4,"seed":9},{"d":"M -40 -195 C -90 -240 20 -270 -20 -310 C -50 -340 10 -370 45 -350","weight":0.12,"wetness":0.36,"dryness":0.8,"tooth":0.7,"seed":12}]}
FRAME
World frame 1200x900: x -600..600, y -450..450, y points down. Keep every point
within x -520..520 and y -370..240; the strip below is for the title. Span at
least 800 wide or 450 tall. It must read at 400x300 pixels, three world units
to a pixel. 4 to 9 strokes, SVG M/C/Q/L only, no text or fills.
Draw the identifying line first and make it unmistakable: a heron's S-neck, a
cat's ear triangles, a pine's flat tiers. With the caption covered, would
someone name it? If not, nothing else matters.
WEIGHT AND INK
A stroke keeps one width, so a body that swells is 2 to 4 strokes stepping down
in weight, heaviest at the base. Make contrast by making fine marks finer.
weight wetness dryness tooth
main contour 0.30-0.34 0.28-0.32 0.85-0.92 0.80-0.88
secondary 0.20-0.23 0.28-0.32 0.85-0.92 0.80-0.88
limbs, stalks 0.14-0.16 0.34-0.40 0.75-0.85 0.65-0.75
hairlines 0.10-0.12 0.34-0.40 0.75-0.85 0.65-0.75
accents 0.50-0.90 0.65-0.72 0.30-0.40 0.35-0.45
Low wetness with high dryness and tooth is what gives kasure, the dry break
into flying white; 0.45 wetness is a flat grey bar. Wetness is also reach:
0.32 lasts about 540 world units, 0.28 about 340. Start at the heavy end and let
it run out at a tip, never through the line that identifies the subject; split a
long line with a gap rather than raising wetness. Give every path its own seed,
0 to 12.
FACES
Choose eyes for this subject and mood; do not default to the same eye.
small dot tight curl 16-20 units across, weight 0.5-0.6
big dot curl 26 across at 0.88 renders about 30px: goggling, only for the joke
closed eye short arc, smiling or sleeping
glance short tick or comma
dash flat short stroke, unimpressed or dozing
Line eyes vanish below about 0.5 weight, so draw them at 0.55 or more with
accent ink. Accents must be wet or a dot opens into a spiral. Put a pair in one
path as two subpaths with a second M. The tool warns that a dot "reads as a
blob": on an eye, ignore it.
OUTPUT
Only JSON, no prose and no code fence, all five values on every path:
{"title":"a cat pretending to be a loaf","paths":[{"d":"M ...","weight":0.32,"wetness":0.30,"dryness":0.88,"tooth":0.84,"seed":3}]}
Hearted drawings as examples
Best of three with two hearted drawings in every prompt and animals four days in six. All three candidates shared a kind, so the pick was often between three rabbits.
The prompt, as sent for this round's first drawing
Draw one small sumi brush picture for a fridge. Today's date is 2026-09-26.
It should make whoever opens the fridge smile. Today the dice say:
kind an everyday object or a plant, with character
mood funny
Recently drawn: ["a cat chasing its own tail","a snail leaving without hurry","a mouse sniffing the air","an owl dozing on the crescent moon","a fox pouncing on nothing in the snow","a heron standing in shallow water","a dragonfly on a reed","a squirrel and one very large acorn","a friendly horse","a very scary tarantula","a snail out for a very long walk","a dachshund at full length","a heron pretending not to see the fish","a frog with a very wide grin","an owl who is definitely awake","a mouse with far too much tail","a whale surfacing beside a very small boat","a snail at top speed","a crescent moon over water"]. Draw nothing named there, not even with a
new joke: a snail at top speed is still a snail.
WHAT WORKS
One subject, big, instantly readable, with one small joke: a frog's tongue
already halfway to a fly, a cat pretending to be a loaf. The joke is a single
extra mark or prop, never a second drawing. The title is the punchline, a short
line of diary, not a label.
Round soft masses drawn as open contours with deliberate gaps and big empty
interiors, never a closed loop. A tiny delicate face on a big simple body.
Leave out the ground line unless the joke needs one.
Two drawings the owner loved, as their plans. Learn their scale, stroke count,
weights and how the joke sits in them. Do not redraw their subjects.
{"title":"a fox sitting very politely","paths":[{"d":"M -380 -235 Q -300 -255 -255 -290 L -228 -368 L -190 -300 L -150 -352 L -128 -262","weight":0.32,"wetness":0.32,"dryness":0.88,"tooth":0.84,"seed":3},{"d":"M -120 -250 C -60 -180 20 -60 20 60 C 20 150 -40 200 -120 205","weight":0.32,"wetness":0.31,"dryness":0.9,"tooth":0.86,"seed":7},{"d":"M -372 -226 Q -300 -195 -270 -160 C -250 -80 -270 40 -255 200","weight":0.22,"wetness":0.3,"dryness":0.86,"tooth":0.82,"seed":11},{"d":"M -200 -40 C -196 60 -204 150 -198 204","weight":0.15,"wetness":0.36,"dryness":0.8,"tooth":0.7,"seed":1},{"d":"M 10 150 C 150 225 350 205 460 60 C 520 -20 480 -120 400 -110","weight":0.3,"wetness":0.3,"dryness":0.88,"tooth":0.84,"seed":9},{"d":"M -500 222 Q -100 212 180 226 Q 380 236 520 214","weight":0.2,"wetness":0.3,"dryness":0.9,"tooth":0.88,"seed":5},{"d":"M -302 -266 Q -289 -279 -275 -267 M -384 -240 C -378 -246 -370 -240 -376 -234 C -382 -230 -386 -236 -382 -240","weight":0.6,"wetness":0.7,"dryness":0.35,"tooth":0.4,"seed":2}]}
{"title":"held very still so the butterfly could stay","paths":[{"d":"M -215 -50 C -265 -150 -275 -280 -228 -318 C -198 -312 -184 -230 -178 -110","weight":0.26,"wetness":0.34,"dryness":0.86,"tooth":0.82,"seed":3},{"d":"M -140 -55 C -110 -170 -60 -290 -5 -305 C 20 -290 -40 -160 -95 -45","weight":0.24,"wetness":0.34,"dryness":0.86,"tooth":0.82,"seed":8},{"d":"M -150 -45 C -30 -85 200 -70 330 40 C 400 100 400 190 330 222","weight":0.32,"wetness":0.32,"dryness":0.88,"tooth":0.84,"seed":1},{"d":"M -232 -38 C -310 -20 -362 60 -342 130 C -322 190 -252 220 -182 226","weight":0.22,"wetness":0.3,"dryness":0.88,"tooth":0.84,"seed":11},{"d":"M -120 234 C 20 242 150 240 250 230","weight":0.11,"wetness":0.36,"dryness":0.8,"tooth":0.7,"seed":5},{"d":"M 382 118 C 422 98 442 140 410 162","weight":0.15,"wetness":0.38,"dryness":0.8,"tooth":0.7,"seed":6},{"d":"M -292 36 Q -276 50 -258 36 M -352 80 L -342 90","weight":0.58,"wetness":0.68,"dryness":0.35,"tooth":0.4,"seed":2},{"d":"M -228 -335 Q -258 -366 -252 -334 Q -242 -324 -228 -335 M -224 -335 Q -196 -366 -202 -333 Q -212 -324 -224 -335","weight":0.14,"wetness":0.38,"dryness":0.78,"tooth":0.68,"seed":10}]}
FRAME
World frame 1200x900: x -600..600, y -450..450, y points down. Keep every point
within x -520..520 and y -370..240; the strip below is for the title. Span at
least 800 wide or 450 tall. It must read at 400x300 pixels, three world units
to a pixel. 4 to 9 strokes, SVG M/C/Q/L only, no text or fills.
Draw the identifying line first and make it unmistakable: a heron's S-neck, a
cat's ear triangles, a pine's flat tiers. With the caption covered, would
someone name it? If not, nothing else matters.
WEIGHT AND INK
A stroke keeps one width, so a body that swells is 2 to 4 strokes stepping down
in weight, heaviest at the base. Make contrast by making fine marks finer.
weight wetness dryness tooth
main contour 0.30-0.34 0.28-0.32 0.85-0.92 0.80-0.88
secondary 0.20-0.23 0.28-0.32 0.85-0.92 0.80-0.88
limbs, stalks 0.14-0.16 0.34-0.40 0.75-0.85 0.65-0.75
hairlines 0.10-0.12 0.34-0.40 0.75-0.85 0.65-0.75
accents 0.50-0.90 0.65-0.72 0.30-0.40 0.35-0.45
Low wetness with high dryness and tooth is what gives kasure, the dry break
into flying white; 0.45 wetness is a flat grey bar. Wetness is also reach:
0.32 lasts about 540 world units, 0.28 about 340. Start at the heavy end and let
it run out at a tip, never through the line that identifies the subject; split a
long line with a gap rather than raising wetness. Give every path its own seed,
0 to 12.
FACES
Choose eyes for this subject and mood; do not default to the same eye.
small dot tight curl 16-20 units across, weight 0.5-0.6
big dot curl 26 across at 0.88 renders about 30px: goggling, only for the joke
closed eye short arc, smiling or sleeping
glance short tick or comma
dash flat short stroke, unimpressed or dozing
Line eyes vanish below about 0.5 weight, so draw them at 0.55 or more with
accent ink. Accents must be wet or a dot opens into a spiral. Put a pair in one
path as two subpaths with a second M. The tool warns that a dot "reads as a
blob": on an eye, ignore it.
OUTPUT
Only JSON, no prose and no code fence, all five values on every path:
{"title":"a cat pretending to be a loaf","paths":[{"d":"M ...","weight":0.32,"wetness":0.30,"dryness":0.88,"tooth":0.84,"seed":3}]}
Best of three
Three candidates, each in its own mood, and one look at all three picks the best. No examples: the most surprising round. Three runs stopped at a render limit after picking, so their picks are unreviewed.
The prompt, as sent for this round's first drawing
Draw one small sumi brush picture for a fridge. Today's date is 2026-09-26.
It should make whoever opens the fridge smile. Today the dice say:
kind an everyday object or a plant, with character
mood funny
Recently drawn: ["a cat chasing its own tail","a snail leaving without hurry","a mouse sniffing the air","an owl dozing on the crescent moon","a fox pouncing on nothing in the snow","a heron standing in shallow water","a dragonfly on a reed","a squirrel and one very large acorn","a friendly horse","a very scary tarantula","a snail out for a very long walk","a dachshund at full length","a heron pretending not to see the fish","a frog with a very wide grin","an owl who is definitely awake","a mouse with far too much tail","a whale surfacing beside a very small boat","a snail at top speed","a crescent moon over water"]. Draw nothing named there, not even with a
new joke: a snail at top speed is still a snail.
WHAT WORKS
One subject, big, instantly readable, with one small joke: a frog's tongue
already halfway to a fly, a cat pretending to be a loaf. The joke is a single
extra mark or prop, never a second drawing. The title is the punchline, a short
line of diary, not a label.
Round soft masses drawn as open contours with deliberate gaps and big empty
interiors, never a closed loop. A tiny delicate face on a big simple body.
Leave out the ground line unless the joke needs one.
FRAME
World frame 1200x900: x -600..600, y -450..450, y points down. Keep every point
within x -520..520 and y -370..240; the strip below is for the title. Span at
least 800 wide or 450 tall. It must read at 400x300 pixels, three world units
to a pixel. 4 to 9 strokes, SVG M/C/Q/L only, no text or fills.
Draw the identifying line first and make it unmistakable: a heron's S-neck, a
cat's ear triangles, a pine's flat tiers. With the caption covered, would
someone name it? If not, nothing else matters.
WEIGHT AND INK
A stroke keeps one width, so a body that swells is 2 to 4 strokes stepping down
in weight, heaviest at the base. Make contrast by making fine marks finer.
weight wetness dryness tooth
main contour 0.30-0.34 0.28-0.32 0.85-0.92 0.80-0.88
secondary 0.20-0.23 0.28-0.32 0.85-0.92 0.80-0.88
limbs, stalks 0.14-0.16 0.34-0.40 0.75-0.85 0.65-0.75
hairlines 0.10-0.12 0.34-0.40 0.75-0.85 0.65-0.75
accents 0.50-0.90 0.65-0.72 0.30-0.40 0.35-0.45
Low wetness with high dryness and tooth is what gives kasure, the dry break
into flying white; 0.45 wetness is a flat grey bar. Wetness is also reach:
0.32 lasts about 540 world units, 0.28 about 340. Start at the heavy end and let
it run out at a tip, never through the line that identifies the subject; split a
long line with a gap rather than raising wetness. Give every path its own seed,
0 to 12.
FACES
Choose eyes for this subject and mood; do not default to the same eye.
small dot tight curl 16-20 units across, weight 0.5-0.6
big dot curl 26 across at 0.88 renders about 30px: goggling, only for the joke
closed eye short arc, smiling or sleeping
glance short tick or comma
dash flat short stroke, unimpressed or dozing
Line eyes vanish below about 0.5 weight, so draw them at 0.55 or more with
accent ink. Accents must be wet or a dot opens into a spiral. Put a pair in one
path as two subpaths with a second M. The tool warns that a dot "reads as a
blob": on an eye, ignore it.
OUTPUT
Only JSON, no prose and no code fence, all five values on every path:
{"title":"a cat pretending to be a loaf","paths":[{"d":"M ...","weight":0.32,"wetness":0.30,"dryness":0.88,"tooth":0.84,"seed":3}]}
Back to what worked
One big readable subject, one small joke, a punchline title, eyes chosen to suit it.
The prompt, as sent for this round's first drawing
Draw one small sumi brush picture for a fridge. Today's date is 2026-09-26.
It should make whoever opens the fridge smile. Today the dice say:
kind an everyday object or a plant, with character
mood a little mischievous
Recently drawn: ["a cat chasing its own tail","a snail leaving without hurry","a mouse sniffing the air","an owl dozing on the crescent moon","a fox pouncing on nothing in the snow","a heron standing in shallow water","a dragonfly on a reed","a squirrel and one very large acorn","a friendly horse","a very scary tarantula","a snail out for a very long walk","a dachshund at full length","a heron pretending not to see the fish","a frog with a very wide grin","an owl who is definitely awake","a mouse with far too much tail","a whale surfacing beside a very small boat","a snail at top speed","a crescent moon over water"]. Draw nothing named there, not even with a
new joke: a snail at top speed is still a snail.
WHAT WORKS
One subject, big, instantly readable, with one small joke: a frog's tongue
already halfway to a fly, a cat pretending to be a loaf. The joke is a single
extra mark or prop, never a second drawing. The title is the punchline, a short
line of diary, not a label.
Round soft masses drawn as open contours with deliberate gaps and big empty
interiors, never a closed loop. A tiny delicate face on a big simple body.
Leave out the ground line unless the joke needs one.
FRAME
World frame 1200x900: x -600..600, y -450..450, y points down. Keep every point
within x -520..520 and y -370..240; the strip below is for the title. Span at
least 800 wide or 450 tall. It must read at 400x300 pixels, three world units
to a pixel. 4 to 9 strokes, SVG M/C/Q/L only, no text or fills.
Draw the identifying line first and make it unmistakable: a heron's S-neck, a
cat's ear triangles, a pine's flat tiers. With the caption covered, would
someone name it? If not, nothing else matters.
WEIGHT AND INK
A stroke keeps one width, so a body that swells is 2 to 4 strokes stepping down
in weight, heaviest at the base. Make contrast by making fine marks finer.
weight wetness dryness tooth
main contour 0.30-0.34 0.28-0.32 0.85-0.92 0.80-0.88
secondary 0.20-0.23 0.28-0.32 0.85-0.92 0.80-0.88
limbs, stalks 0.14-0.16 0.34-0.40 0.75-0.85 0.65-0.75
hairlines 0.10-0.12 0.34-0.40 0.75-0.85 0.65-0.75
accents 0.50-0.90 0.65-0.72 0.30-0.40 0.35-0.45
Low wetness with high dryness and tooth is what gives kasure, the dry break
into flying white; 0.45 wetness is a flat grey bar. Wetness is also reach:
0.32 lasts about 540 world units, 0.28 about 340. Start at the heavy end and let
it run out at a tip, never through the line that identifies the subject; split a
long line with a gap rather than raising wetness. Give every path its own seed,
0 to 12.
FACES
Choose eyes for this subject and mood; do not default to the same eye.
small dot tight curl 16-20 units across, weight 0.5-0.6
big dot curl 26 across at 0.88 renders about 30px: goggling, only for the joke
closed eye short arc, smiling or sleeping
glance short tick or comma
dash flat short stroke, unimpressed or dozing
Line eyes vanish below about 0.5 weight, so draw them at 0.55 or more with
accent ink. Accents must be wet or a dot opens into a spiral. Put a pair in one
path as two subpaths with a second M. The tool warns that a dot "reads as a
blob": on an eye, ignore it.
OUTPUT
Only JSON, no prose and no code fence, all five values on every path:
{"title":"a cat pretending to be a loaf","paths":[{"d":"M ...","weight":0.32,"wetness":0.30,"dryness":0.88,"tooth":0.84,"seed":3}]}
Style and framing dice (abandoned)
A bold body line and framing dice. The brush holds one width per stroke, so bold came out a slab, and odd framings stopped the drawings reading.
The prompt, as sent for this round's first drawing
Draw one small sumi brush picture for a fridge. Today's date is 2026-09-26.
Surprise the owner. Today the dice say:
kind an everyday object or a plant, with character
mood cute
framing a close-up that crops part of the subject off the edge
Make something from that combination that nobody would have predicted, and that
a person smiles at when they open the fridge.
These were drawn recently: ["a cat chasing its own tail","a snail leaving without hurry","a mouse sniffing the air","an owl dozing on the crescent moon","a fox pouncing on nothing in the snow","a heron standing in shallow water","a dragonfly on a reed","a squirrel and one very large acorn","a friendly horse","a very scary tarantula","a snail out for a very long walk","a dachshund at full length","a heron pretending not to see the fish","a frog with a very wide grin","an owl who is definitely awake","a mouse with far too much tail","a whale surfacing beside a very small boat","a snail at top speed","a crescent moon over water"].
Do not draw any creature, plant or thing named there, even with a new joke.
A snail at top speed is still a snail. Pick something none of them mention.
FRAME
Use a 1200x900 world frame: x -600..600, y -450..450, y points down.
Keep ALL path coordinates within x -520..520 and y -370..240.
The bottom strip is reserved for the title, added separately with the text tool.
It must read at 400x300 pixels. No tiny details.
Use 4 to 9 strokes, SVG M/C/Q/L commands only. No text, fills or closed paths.
FILL THE FRAME
The picture must span most of the panel: at least 800 world units wide or 450 tall.
Those limits are edges to reach toward, not a box to sit inside. A small drawing
marooned in white space reads as a mistake, not as restraint. The one exception
is the framing "small in a big empty space": then the emptiness is the joke,
so make the subject small and put it somewhere deliberate, never dead centre.
STYLE
Aim for a good sumi-e cartoonist's economy. The masses are round, soft and
generous, a body is one big confident swelling line, and the features are tiny,
sparse and placed with care: a flick for an ear, a short curve for a closed eye,
three quick ticks for whiskers or grass. Most of the charm comes from how small
the face is on how big a body.
Humour lives in a situation, not a pose: a small prop, a second tiny creature,
something slightly wrong. The title is the punchline and should read like a
one-line diary entry, not a label ("the hedgehog who is sure this apple is
his", not "a hedgehog"). Cute is fine; never saccharine.
SUBJECT
Draw the one line that identifies it first, and make it unmistakable: a heron's
S-neck and dagger beak, a cat's ear triangles, a snail's spiral, a pine's flat
tiers, a wave's curling crest. With the caption covered, would someone name it?
If not, nothing else about the drawing matters.
Contours, not silhouettes: open outlines, deliberate gaps, big empty interiors.
Never a loop that closes on its own start. Where two parts meet, make them meet.
Never two near-identical strokes. Ground or horizon is ONE stroke that thickens
and thins, never a flat bar. A single subject has nothing else in the frame but its prop or companion; a
scene has 2 to 4 elements, one clearly dominant, horizon off-centre and most of
the panel left empty.
WEIGHT
main contour 0.30-0.34 limbs, stalks 0.14-0.16
bold body line 0.55-0.70 (BOLD register only, see INK)
secondary contour 0.20-0.23 hairlines 0.10-0.12
accents 0.5-0.9 (eyes, a nose, a berry; see FACES)
Get contrast by making the fine marks FINER, not the contours fatter. A body,
trunk or branch is 3 or 4 strokes of stepping weight, heaviest at the base.
INK
Kasure, the dry break where the hairs separate into flying white, is the point
of this picture, and wetness alone will not produce it. Measured on the real
panel: wetness 0.45 is a flat grey bar, 0.38 frays only at the very tip. It
takes all three knobs together.
contours wetness 0.28-0.32 dryness 0.85-0.92 tooth 0.80-0.88
bold line wetness 0.55-0.65 dryness 0.40-0.55 tooth 0.45-0.60
hairlines wetness 0.34-0.40 dryness 0.75-0.85 tooth 0.65-0.75
accents wetness 0.65-0.72 dryness 0.30-0.40 tooth 0.35-0.45
Choose ONE register per picture. DRY: contours as above, grey and full of flying
white, for quiet, weathered or wind-blown subjects. BOLD: the body line at
weight 0.55-0.70 with bold-line ink, which is about twice as dark, solid and
swelling, the look of a confident cartoon; keep limbs and features in the
lighter rows so the body line dominates, and let a bold line run out dry at its
tail. Measured: bold line averages about 80/255 grey on the panel against 130
for a dry contour, and neither gets darker than about 47.
Accents must be WET. Drawn dry, a dot opens into a small visible spiral and on
a face reads as a second eye. Give every path its own seed, 0 to 12, or two
strokes fray in identical places.
REACH
Wetness is a tank: 0.45 lasts about 1550 world units, 0.38 about 960, 0.32 about
540, 0.28 about 340. A contour crossing the 1200-wide panel will run out, and
that running out is the best thing the brush does, but aim it. Start at the heavy
end and let it die at a tip or an edge, never part way through the line that
identifies the subject. To span further and stay solid, split it with a gap.
Do not raise wetness above 0.34 to fix it; that trades the effect for a grey bar.
SIZE
Three world units make one pixel. A short mark lays down 61.5 x weight x
(length / 128), so short marks need more weight. The tool warns that a dot
"reads as a blob": on an eye that is the point, so ignore it there and obey it
elsewhere. Put pairs in ONE path entry as two subpaths with a second M.
FACES
Eyes carry the character, so choose them for this subject and this mood, and
do not default to the same eye every day. Weight sets how big a dot looks far
more than its path does, so change both together. Measured on the panel:
small dot tight curl 16-20 units across, weight 0.5-0.6: a clear, modest eye
big dot curl about 26 across at weight 0.88 renders about 30px, a
cartoon stare; only when the joke wants goggling
closed eye a short arc, smiling or sleeping
glance a short tick or comma, a sideways look
dash a flat short stroke, unimpressed or dozing
Line eyes (arc, tick, dash) vanish at hairline weight: a tick at 0.40 and an arc
at 0.22 both disappeared. Give them weight 0.55 or more and accent ink. Some
subjects are funnier with no visible eyes at all. A face is small and delicate
on a big simple mass.
OUTPUT
Output only JSON, no prose and no code fence. All five values on every path:
{"title":"a sleeping cat","paths":[{"d":"M ...","weight":0.32,"wetness":0.30,"dryness":0.88,"tooth":0.84,"seed":3}]}
Eyes
Creatures by name, to test a choice of eye styles instead of one big black dot.
The prompt, as sent for this round's first drawing
Draw one small sumi brush picture for a fridge. Today's date is 2026-09-26.
Surprise the owner: playful visual jokes, small creatures and quiet natural scenes.
Today's kind of picture: an everyday object or a plant, with character.
These were drawn recently: ["a cat chasing its own tail","a snail leaving without hurry","a mouse sniffing the air","an owl dozing on the crescent moon","a fox pouncing on nothing in the snow","a heron standing in shallow water","a dragonfly on a reed","a squirrel and one very large acorn","a friendly horse","a very scary tarantula","a snail out for a very long walk","a dachshund at full length","a heron pretending not to see the fish","a frog with a very wide grin","an owl who is definitely awake","a mouse with far too much tail","a whale surfacing beside a very small boat","a snail at top speed","a crescent moon over water"].
Do not draw any creature, plant or thing named there, even with a new joke.
A snail at top speed is still a snail. Pick something none of them mention.
The owner specifically requests this subject: "a cat". Honour it instead of choosing a surprise, even if it was drawn recently.
FRAME
Use a 1200x900 world frame: x -600..600, y -450..450, y points down.
Keep ALL path coordinates within x -520..520 and y -370..240.
The bottom strip is reserved for the title, added separately with the text tool.
It must read at 400x300 pixels. No tiny details.
Use 4 to 9 strokes, SVG M/C/Q/L commands only. No text, fills or closed paths.
FILL THE FRAME
The picture must span most of the panel: at least 800 world units wide or 450 tall.
Those limits are edges to reach toward, not a box to sit inside. A small drawing
marooned in white space reads as a mistake, not as restraint.
SUBJECT
Draw the one line that identifies it first, and make it unmistakable: a heron's
S-neck and dagger beak, a cat's ear triangles, a snail's spiral, a pine's flat
tiers, a wave's curling crest. With the caption covered, would someone name it?
If not, nothing else about the drawing matters.
Contours, not silhouettes: open outlines, deliberate gaps, big empty interiors.
Never a loop that closes on its own start. Where two parts meet, make them meet.
Never two near-identical strokes. Ground or horizon is ONE stroke that thickens
and thins, never a flat bar. A single subject has nothing else in the frame; a
scene has 2 to 4 elements, one clearly dominant, horizon off-centre and most of
the panel left empty.
WEIGHT
main contour 0.30-0.34 limbs, stalks 0.14-0.16
secondary contour 0.20-0.23 hairlines 0.10-0.12
accents 0.5-0.9 (eyes, a nose, a berry; see FACES)
Get contrast by making the fine marks FINER, not the contours fatter. A body,
trunk or branch is 3 or 4 strokes of stepping weight, heaviest at the base.
INK
Kasure, the dry break where the hairs separate into flying white, is the point
of this picture, and wetness alone will not produce it. Measured on the real
panel: wetness 0.45 is a flat grey bar, 0.38 frays only at the very tip. It
takes all three knobs together.
contours wetness 0.28-0.32 dryness 0.85-0.92 tooth 0.80-0.88
hairlines wetness 0.34-0.40 dryness 0.75-0.85 tooth 0.65-0.75
accents wetness 0.65-0.72 dryness 0.30-0.40 tooth 0.35-0.45
Accents must be WET. Drawn dry, a dot opens into a small visible spiral and on
a face reads as a second eye. Give every path its own seed, 0 to 12, or two
strokes fray in identical places.
REACH
Wetness is a tank: 0.45 lasts about 1550 world units, 0.38 about 960, 0.32 about
540, 0.28 about 340. A contour crossing the 1200-wide panel will run out, and
that running out is the best thing the brush does, but aim it. Start at the heavy
end and let it die at a tip or an edge, never part way through the line that
identifies the subject. To span further and stay solid, split it with a gap.
Do not raise wetness above 0.34 to fix it; that trades the effect for a grey bar.
SIZE
Three world units make one pixel. A short mark lays down 61.5 x weight x
(length / 128), so short marks need more weight. The tool warns that a dot
"reads as a blob": on an eye that is the point, so ignore it there and obey it
elsewhere. Put pairs in ONE path entry as two subpaths with a second M.
FACES
Eyes carry the character, so choose them for this subject and this mood, and
do not default to the same eye every day. Weight sets how big a dot looks far
more than its path does, so change both together. Measured on the panel:
small dot tight curl 16-20 units across, weight 0.5-0.6: a clear, modest eye
big dot curl about 26 across at weight 0.88 renders about 30px, a
cartoon stare; only when the joke wants goggling
closed eye a short arc, smiling or sleeping
glance a short tick or comma, a sideways look
dash a flat short stroke, unimpressed or dozing
Line eyes (arc, tick, dash) vanish at hairline weight: a tick at 0.40 and an arc
at 0.22 both disappeared. Give them weight 0.55 or more and accent ink. Some
subjects are funnier with no visible eyes at all. A face is small and delicate
on a big simple mass.
OUTPUT
Output only JSON, no prose and no code fence. All five values on every path:
{"title":"a sleeping cat","paths":[{"d":"M ...","weight":0.32,"wetness":0.30,"dryness":0.88,"tooth":0.84,"seed":3}]}
Variety and review
The kind of picture rotated, recent titles to avoid, and a review allowed to say OK.
The prompt, as sent for this round's first drawing
Draw one small sumi brush picture for a fridge. Today's date is 2026-09-26.
Surprise the owner: playful visual jokes, small creatures and quiet natural scenes.
Today's kind of picture: a small creature doing something.
These were drawn recently: ["a cat chasing its own tail","a snail leaving without hurry","a mouse sniffing the air","an owl dozing on the crescent moon","a fox pouncing on nothing in the snow","a heron standing in shallow water","a dragonfly on a reed","a squirrel and one very large acorn","a friendly horse","a very scary tarantula","a snail out for a very long walk","a dachshund at full length","a heron pretending not to see the fish","a frog with a very wide grin","an owl who is definitely awake","a mouse with far too much tail","a whale surfacing beside a very small boat","a snail at top speed","a crescent moon over water"].
Do not draw any creature, plant or thing named there, even with a new joke.
A snail at top speed is still a snail. Pick something none of them mention.
FRAME
Use a 1200x900 world frame: x -600..600, y -450..450, y points down.
Keep ALL path coordinates within x -520..520 and y -370..240.
The bottom strip is reserved for the title, added separately with the text tool.
It must read at 400x300 pixels. No tiny details.
Use 4 to 9 strokes, SVG M/C/Q/L commands only. No text, fills or closed paths.
FILL THE FRAME
The picture must span most of the panel: at least 800 world units wide or 450 tall.
Those limits are edges to reach toward, not a box to sit inside. A small drawing
marooned in white space reads as a mistake, not as restraint.
SUBJECT
Draw the one line that identifies it first, and make it unmistakable: a heron's
S-neck and dagger beak, a cat's ear triangles, a snail's spiral, a pine's flat
tiers, a wave's curling crest. With the caption covered, would someone name it?
If not, nothing else about the drawing matters.
Contours, not silhouettes: open outlines, deliberate gaps, big empty interiors.
Never a loop that closes on its own start. Where two parts meet, make them meet.
Never two near-identical strokes. Ground or horizon is ONE stroke that thickens
and thins, never a flat bar. A single subject has nothing else in the frame; a
scene has 2 to 4 elements, one clearly dominant, horizon off-centre and most of
the panel left empty.
WEIGHT
main contour 0.30-0.34 limbs, stalks 0.14-0.16
secondary contour 0.20-0.23 hairlines 0.10-0.12
one heavy accent 0.85-0.9 (an eye, a nose, a berry)
Get contrast by making the fine marks FINER, not the contours fatter. A body,
trunk or branch is 3 or 4 strokes of stepping weight, heaviest at the base.
INK
Kasure, the dry break where the hairs separate into flying white, is the point
of this picture, and wetness alone will not produce it. Measured on the real
panel: wetness 0.45 is a flat grey bar, 0.38 frays only at the very tip. It
takes all three knobs together.
contours wetness 0.28-0.32 dryness 0.85-0.92 tooth 0.80-0.88
hairlines wetness 0.34-0.40 dryness 0.75-0.85 tooth 0.65-0.75
heavy accent wetness 0.65-0.72 dryness 0.30-0.40 tooth 0.35-0.45
An accent must be WET. Drawn dry, a dot opens into a small visible spiral and on
a face reads as a second eye. Give every path its own seed, 0 to 12, or two
strokes fray in identical places.
REACH
Wetness is a tank: 0.45 lasts about 1550 world units, 0.38 about 960, 0.32 about
540, 0.28 about 340. A contour crossing the 1200-wide panel will run out, and
that running out is the best thing the brush does, but aim it. Start at the heavy
end and let it die at a tip or an edge, never part way through the line that
identifies the subject. To span further and stay solid, split it with a gap.
Do not raise wetness above 0.34 to fix it; that trades the effect for a grey bar.
SIZE
Three world units make one pixel. A dot is not a short line and 15 units is not
a dot, it is five pixels carrying two. A dot is a tight curl 30 to 35 units
across whose path runs 70 to 90 units, at weight 0.85-0.9, and wet. The tool
warns that this "reads as a blob": an eye IS a blob, so ignore it on dots and
obey it elsewhere. A short mark lays down 61.5 x weight x (length / 128), so
short marks need more weight. Put pairs in ONE path entry as two subpaths with a
second M. A face is tiny and delicate on a big simple mass, and two dot eyes at
the size above are usually enough.
OUTPUT
Output only JSON, no prose and no code fence. All five values on every path:
{"title":"a sleeping cat","paths":[{"d":"M ...","weight":0.32,"wetness":0.30,"dryness":0.88,"tooth":0.84,"seed":3}]}
Brush tests
Rendered on real test boards to choose the numbers in the prompt.