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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.
The paper dried curled, and created an uneven texture when plotting 42 straight lines with a Faber Castell Artist Pitt Pen with a soft brush tip.
This direction could also work for the multiple line widths prompt for Day 2 of Plot Party!
Weather Motifs – Clouds, Winds, Waves
Besides using your local weather, there are many classic graphic design visuals that come to mind with weather, from clouds to waves to wind. Clouds are definitely a pen plotting favorite, such as this mega pen plot by Jimmy Kirkus-Lamont.
This pen plot was also created during the last Plot Party, and involved carefully moving and registering of the design so as to create a bigger pen plot than the AxiDraw pen plotting space normally allows for!
Jimmy created this work by processing a landscape photo using vpype (Python!) and the flow-imager technique which will produce vector lines for pen plot artwork.
This pen plot is available for sale online along with more info on how it was created. Plotted with a white Uni-ball Signo pen (1mm).
Waves is another weather related motif that could definitely work, such as this work by Marinus de Beer.
Marinus processed this popular wave artwork by Debussy (‘La mer’) with a custom hatching algorithm to turn the image into vector art.
Plotted with a bright cyan ink and a Rotring Rapidograph technical pen (0.25mm!)
Mixed Media Work: Photos and Pen Plotting
Don’t have a design that says weather in mind?!
You can also invoke the atmosphere by plotting on a sky heavy landscape photograph like the mixed media work of Howard Gould.
Keep in mind that you may need to test plotting on different photo papers and different pens to make sure your pen plot will dry properly!
Abstract Weather Art
You can also more abstractly reference a feeling of wind similar to the colorful flowing work by Jeff and Evan also known as 90 Percent Art.
Plotted using cyan, magenta and yellow Stabilo Point 88 fineliners (where these inks overlaps results in additional colors!), made with P5.js.
Math as Weather Art
Nothing says weather more than designs that invoke the processes of wind that shape natural landscapes (or water!) especially waveforms. Such as this sine wave plot by Vernon Miller that maps lines to a sine wave whose amplitude, frequency, and phase fall to zero as the lines progress upwards.
The final design definitely gives a feeling of receding waves!
Plot Party: Weather Prompt Ideas Recap
- Use your local weather: sunlight (think cyanotype prints), rain (a la Danieal Kroehnert), snow, etc.
- Reference classic graphic design visuals that we associate with weather such as clouds, wind or waves
- Create a line drawing from an atmospheric photo or incorporate photographic work into your pen plot art
- Explore natural processes related to wind such as flow fields, or waveform art
- Incorporate weather related data in generating a design (i.e. data art!)
Images in this post were used with permission by Daniela Krohnert (@daniela_kroehnert), Jimmy Kirkus-Lamont (@jimmykl), Marinus de Beer (@themarinus), Howard Gould (@howardgould), 90 Percent Art (@90percentart), and Vernon Miller (@aldernero).
If you are thinking of picking up a NextDraw pen plotter (the successor to the AxiDraw pen plotter), you can take 5% off a NextDraw pen plotter or accessories with discount code DIRTALLEYDESIGN2024 when you buy directly from Bantam Tools.
About the Author
Michelle Chandra studied art, design and code at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program. Her work has been featured in many publications including Gizmodo, the Washington Post and Engadget. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram @dirtalleydesign.