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!
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.
Painting with Plotters
One of the first plotter artists that comes to mind when it comes to watercolor painting is Licia He.
Licia’s colorful pen plot art are created with code and painted with an AxiDraw v3 using a custom program.
Find out in more detail how Licia paints with a plotter on the Dirt Alley Design blog!
Cory Haber also experiments with painting using a pen plotter and custom 3d printed painting tools.
This work was created with several different 3d printed paint “brushes” and acrylic paint.
Martin Bauer & Maj Mlakar use a thick brush and oil paint with their plotter to create expressive and bold work.
Chris Mercerhill created a recent series on Instagram painting simple geometric designs using watercolor paint.
I highly recommend checking out the Instagram accounts of all these artists as there are many fascinating videos of plotters painting including the mesmerizing work of Joseph Wilk.
Joseph layers paint down thickly and uses the plotter equipped with a stylus to push the paint around. The final result is all the hard work of the plotter!
Alternative Paper Mediums: Sand, Wood and Stone
Why limit yourself to paper when it comes to plotting?!
BARBE Peco carved on stone with their pen plotter with a precision knife to create this custom stamp.
Alternative mediums to paper also include sand such as this work by Dan Malec.
The arms on this spiral generative design are shaped by a sine wave!
Also checkout the amazing sand plots of Giorgio Cecatto (@il_cek).
For the Mixed Media prompt for the last Plot Party, Marinus de Beer went experimental creating a wood burn plot!
Images in this post were used with permission by Licia He (IG: blahblahpaperblah), Cory Haber (IG: coryhaber), Martin Bauer & Maj Mlakar (IG: mmachine.berlin), Chris Mercerhill (IG: @chris.mercerhill), Joseph Wilk (IG: @joseph_wilk), BARBE Peco (IG: barbe_generative_diary), Dan Malec (IG: @dan_malec), and Marinus de Beer (IG: @themarinus).
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.