Time to get all Banksy on your DS

With the nature of the DS touchscreen and stylus input, it's no wonder developers have tried to emulate the process of putting pen to paper in more ways than one. Whether it's drawing the path in which Link's boomerang will travel in, or more art-orientated implementations, it's certainly a fun and inventive method to play around with.

We just got word that Nintendo has scheduled a retail release date for its latest Art Academy title for the DS and the full title is ridiculously long. Art Academy: Learn painting and drawing techniques with step-by-step training might sound like a more polished-up Borat sequel, but it couldn't be more wholesome if it tried. The latest title in the Art Academy series will come in cartridge-form instead of the download format that the first two came in and offers various step-by-step lessons and art materials to get accustomed to. Advanced 'art courses' are available for users with a bit more experience.

The Touch Screen on the range of Nintendo DS consoles enables you to effortlessly paint or draw with realistically behaving paints and pencils. The pencils come in three different grades of lead; 2B, HB, 2H and also enable you to draw in soft or hard lines to blend and layer your pencil mark. Learn to use the eraser function to create interesting effects, such as mark marking and, of course, unlike with a real life painting, should you make any mistakes, it can easily be easily erased without wasting any paper. The paint function behaves similar to acrylic paint and the paintbrush set comes in three round or flat brushes allowing you to paint in thick or thin lines simply using your Nintendo DS stylus.

Ten set of paint tubes make up the game’s basic paint palette and there are 20 empty spaces for you to mix your own original colours. You can also control the amount of paint on your brush to give different effects such as dry brushing, and the level of brush wetness which will affect the transparency of paint to allow for a variety of painting effects in your artwork. Zoom in to your masterpieces to perfect the finer details close up and why not take advantage of the grid function, to help you achieve the right scale and proportions.

A helpful tutor, Vince, is also on-hand to show you how to use the art materials and what to draw, as well as teaching you art theory and techniques to explore independently. Some lessons are inspired by work from famous artists such as Albrecht Dürer (German), Paul Cézanne (French), Leonardo da Vinci (Italian), Jan van Huysum (Dutch), John Constable (English) and many more will get your creative juices flowing.

Use the Free Paint mode to allow you to freestyle your artwork, letting your imagination run wild and check out the material library for a wide range of stock images to get you inspired. If you are a Nintendo DSi or Nintendo DSi XL owner, why not also use your built-in camera to capture images and redraw them at leisure. With such realistic artist training, you can use your Nintendo DSi & Nintendo DSi XL to help improve painting and drawing skills in real life!

When Art Academy: First Semester launched last year, it scored very respectably in our review, although the justification of Art Academy: Second Semester as a separate release was a little harder to comprehend.

European art fans and doodlers can pick up Art Academy: Learn painting and drawing techniques with step-by-step training on 6th August.