Copy the Drawing

Category: Arcade, Puzzle Plays: 0 Rating:

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How to Play

Game Overview

Copy the Drawing is one of those games that sounds simple but turns out to be weirdly addictive. You get a picture at the top of the screen--could be a cat, a rocket ship, or some kind of Japanese temple--and you have to reproduce it on a blank canvas below using three brush sizes. The visual style is clean and colorful, almost like a children's app, but don't let that fool you. Some of those levels are genuinely tricky. The game has 300 levels organized into 18 categories, from basic shapes to fantasy and space stuff. Each day there's also a new drawing challenge, which is a nice way to keep coming back without feeling like you're grinding through the same old stuff. Playing it feels a bit like doing a puzzle with your hands--you're constantly checking your line placement against the example, going back and forth, undoing strokes, trying to get the proportions right. What gets you hooked is the medal system: bronze at 50% accuracy, silver at 70%, and gold at 90% or higher. I found myself redoing levels just to get that gold, especially on the simpler ones where I knew I could do better. The vibe is relaxed but focused, perfect for winding down after work or killing time on a bus. People who like drawing, puzzles, or just chasing high scores will probably get into it. It's not trying to be fancy, and that's honestly its strength.

About Copy the Drawing

So you pick a category -- there's 18 of them, from Simple Shapes which is basically training wheels, to Animals, Transport, Space, even Fantasy and Japanese Culture. Each category has a bunch of levels, and you start with the first one locked until you score a bronze or better. The core loop is dead simple: look at the example drawing at the top of the screen, then recreate it on the canvas below using your finger or a stylus. You've got three brush sizes -- tiny for details, medium for most stuff, and a big thick one for filling in areas fast. The undo button is a lifesaver when you mess up a line, and clear wipes everything if you want a fresh start.

But here's where it gets interesting. The first few levels are just a circle or a square, so you breeze through. Then you hit a cat where the proportions are weird -- the head is too big or the ears are at an angle you didn't expect. Suddenly you're zooming in with that tiny brush, trying to match the curve of a tail or the spokes of a bicycle wheel. The game doesn't tell you how to improve, you just get a match percentage when you tap Check. Gold is 90%+, silver 70-89%, bronze 50-69%. Below 50% and you get nothing, which feels awful but pushes you to retry. The satisfying moment is when you nail a complex drawing like a dragon from the Fantasy category -- those curves are brutal, but when you see that gold medal pop up, it's a genuine rush.

Later levels introduce small details like stars in a space scene or the pattern on a kimono in Japanese Culture. There's no time limit or lives, so you can sit there for 20 minutes tweaking a single brushstroke. The hint system (costs coins you earn from medals) highlights where you're most off -- it's actually useful for those 85% attempts where you can't figure out what's wrong. The drawing of the day is a fresh random level every 24 hours, and building a streak of daily golds becomes this low-key obsession. You'll find yourself cursing the game when you're off by 2% on a bird's wing, then coming back an hour later to nail it. No fancy upgrades or enemies -- just you, the example, and the canvas. It's calming until it's not, and that's the whole point.

Tips & Tricks

Start with the biggest brush size for the main shapes. I spent too many early levels fiddling with tiny brushes for the outline, and my match score suffered because the proportions were off. It took me a while to realize you can block out the large areas first, then switch to the medium or small brush for the details.

Undo is your best friend, but don't rely on it too much. I used to undo a whole stroke if it was slightly off, but that just ate up time. Instead, I learned to keep drawing over the mistake with the correct line -- it's faster and the game's scoring seems to favor completed shapes over perfection on the first try.

The daily drawing is a trap if you're chasing streaks. I got obsessed with getting gold every day, but some daily drawings are just harder than others. It's better to aim for silver on tough days and keep your streak alive rather than rage-quitting after ten tries. The medals from daily drawings don't count toward level unlocks anyway.

Hints are useful but expensive. Each hint shows the exact position of the next stroke, but you only get a few per day or you have to watch ads. Save them for the Japanese culture and fantasy categories -- those have weird curves and overlapping elements that are easy to misplace.

For the transport category, always draw the wheels first. I kept starting with the body of cars or planes, then the wheels would end up too big or too small. If you place the wheels first, the rest scales naturally. That little trick pushed me from bronze to silver on those levels.

Finally, the match score isn't just about line position. The game also checks how complete your drawing is. If you leave big gaps or skip a section, your score tanks even if the parts you did draw are perfect. So always fill in the whole shape, even if it's a little wobbly.