The last prompt for next week’s Plot Party is “no pen.” Do you need a pen to draw artwork with a pen plotter? Definitely not, below are many different ways to create pen plots without pens!
Painting with Plotters
One of the first plotter artists that comes to mind when it comes to watercolor painting is Licia He.
The second to last prompt for next week’s Plot Party is postcard! This will also be an art exchange for everyone participating in Plot Party (more info to come!)
Time to scale things down, what kind of pen plot postcards can you make?!
“Glitches” is the third Plot Party prompt designed to inspire letting loose and embracing mistakes, errors, bugs and experimentation in the design and plotting process!
Enough talk, on to some example pen plots!
Line Misalignment: How About DON’T Register the Pens
Normally I would advise checking your pen registration when plotting with multiple pens. Of course, you could always NOT do that to wonderful effect, as in this work by Jeff and Evan of 90 Percent Art.
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Plot Party is coming up (Nov 8-12), and the second prompt for the five day pen plot art challenge is “multiple line widths!” What does that mean exactly?! Whether you use one pen or multiple pens to accomplish, let’s look at some inspiring examples from some of my favorite pen plot artists!
Pilot Parallel Pen: Varying Line Width With Just One Pen
The Pilot Parallel Pen is a unique italic calligraphy pen (refillable!) that can also be used for pen plotting.
This pen is different from most calligraphy pens in that the nib is made from two plates which allows ink to flow evenly across the entire length of the nib. That means you can create broad strokes, but you can also use the corner to create a thinner line.
For the multiple line widths prompt, that means you can create thin and thick sections in one line!
Targz advises running the Pilot Parallel pen slowly, and filling the ink cartridge with watercolor. Overlapping your lines with different colored inks when plotting can create additional colors where the inks overlap!
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The second ever Plot Party is around the corner (Nov 8-12), and the first prompt for the five day pen plot art challenge is “weather!” Question is, what kind of pen plots can you make that might relate to the theme of weather?
Local Weather as Art
If you are in need of local inspiration, you can use the actual literal weather, for starters! Daniela Krohnert did just that at the first ever Plot Party (held last July) by leaving out a sheet of paper for a few minutes during a Viennese summer rainstorm.
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One of my favorite pens to use with a pen plotter (such as an AxiDraw) are Sakura gelly roll pens! They come in many color flavors from classic white, and metallic gold, to even fluorescent options such as the Moonlight gelly rolls which will glow under UV light! They work great on dark paper (and white paper!)
Example Pen Plots Using Gelly Roll Pens: Black Paper Edition
Nothing beats white ink on black paper! The ink density that builds over time as pen lines overlap is quite lovely.
Example artwork by Michelle Chandra, drawn with a white gelly roll pen!
White gelly rolls create strong white lines on black paper as in this work by Diana (@di_diff_world on Instagram!)
While you can achieve beautiful results with gelly roll pens, they can also be very trying to work with when it comes to pen plotting. But why?! The ink flow from these pens can be quite inconsistent. For this reason, I have found that the best gelly roll pens for plotting are medium width (I steer clear of fine gelly rolls!)
However, in order to use metallic inks for plotting, you will be limited to disposable gel pens or paint markers such as Posca paint markers. Unfortunately, metallic ink may clog refillable pens!
Posca Paint Marker Example Pen Plots
Since Posca paint markers will completely cover whatever they are drawn on, they are great for drawing artwork on acrylic ink paintings such as this recent series of “space” inspired artwork by Michelle Chandra.
Don’t know what to plot? Need guidance on making your creative code art plott-able?! Look no more! Find below a list of suggested workflows, and links to guides, blog posts, and wikis across the web that will help you make your pen plotting art!
If you are thinking of picking up an AxiDraw pen plotter, you can take 10% off your purchase from Evil Mad Scientist, the makers of the AxiDraw, when you use the discount code DIRTALLEY10.
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If you are thinking of picking up an AxiDraw pen plotter, you can take 10% off an AxiDraw pen plotter and accessories with discount code DIRTALLEY10 when you buy directly from Evil Mad Scientist, the makers of the AxiDraw!
It’s been two years since I bought an AxiDraw pen plotter and began plotting my code art! This is an update to an older blog post detailing my AxiDraw pen plotter setup, and my favorite pens.
Just me, standing on a street corner, holding some art like you do.
Plug and Play: Setting Up an AxiDraw vs3
The Axidraw pen plotter is expensive, which means it is mostly ready to go out of the box with minimal setup. Keep in mind that the AxiDraw will need a large dedicated area to operate as the arm of the AxiDraw needs space to extend back behind the plotter (along with out front over the drawing area!)