Catherine Liu*, Tao Long*, Asya Vaisberg, Chau Vu, Jiaju Ma, Jingyi Li (*equal contribution)

In submission at ACM Designing Interactive Systems (DIS 2026)

Creativity support tools (CSTs) aim to elevate the quality of artists’ creative experiences and the artifacts they make. Yet most current CST evaluations overlook temporal and social aspects of tool use. To address this gap, we present a longitudinal, group-based CST evaluation through a three-week deployment of ArtKrit, a computational drawing tool that supports disciplined drawing. Nine digital artists, organized into three communities of practice, completed weekly “master studies” alongside a researcher-artist. Our results show users’ evolving relationships with ArtKrit over time—from early experimentation to selective incorporation or misuse—alongside changes in their ways of artistic seeing. These changes unfolded within artist support networks that fostered confidence and creative safety, and validated individual expression. Overall, our findings suggest that CST evaluations can—and should—be designed as opportunities for meaningful artistic engagement rather than purely extractive measurement exercises.