Board Thread:Off Topic/@comment-26397825-20181027021942/@comment-26397825-20190424064129

About the dust, it's more that if you draw a picture of a fire you might get a flash of flames, but they'd disappear very quickly because there's no sustenance to them. It'd be like flicking your hand through a flame; the fire doesn't touch the skin for long enough to actually burn or cook anything, it just warms your skin for half a second. Adding Dust to it gives it the sustenance to become a proper flame.

And because you are drawing the shape you want the fire to be in, you are doing high level Dust Manipulation vthrough the use of your semblance. It basically gives you a shortcut, so you don't have to spend all the time training to use the Dust. The downside is that you actually have to draw what you want, so it takes a little bit longer in the heat of the moment than someone who controls how Dust manifests with thought alone.