Two weeks ago I took part in Plot Party, which is a pen plotting art challenge (sort of like a game jam for pen plotter art). I posted a lot on social media, so I thought it would be good idea to consolidate everything into one blog post.
Monday: Weather
Tornado
I started the week with this minimalistic design. The tornado is generated by a random walk (biased to prefer horizontal motion) limited to the area above this curve: (x-0.1)0.4
Tuesday: Multiple Line Widths
Recursive Mondriaan
This one looks like a print to me, but the colored areas were carefully hatched by the plotter using felt tip pens. The theme was “multiple line widths”, so the smaller copies use thinner and thinner lines, but there is also a thin and a thick line on each scale level. I used a fineliner for the thinnest lines in the center and a felt tip pen for all other lines (the thicker lines are made from multiple strokes).
Wednesday: Glitches, Errors, Bugs
Test Print
This was an actual test print, but I decided to post it after plotting it, because it seemed to fit with the theme. You can see the intended design on the right. Originally, I wanted to test if I could mess with the cable to make the servo go crazy, but it did not work reliably (of course, if you don’t want this to happen, the slightest pull on the cable will ruin your plot). The problems with this plot are:
– printed on a failed attempt from the day before
– a few missing lines from messing with the servo
– pen accidentally installed wrong, so it always touches the paper
– pen almost gave up for the center shell (also not planned)
Vitruvian Glitch
This one was fully designed in Inkscape by copying the source vector art around and then ripping it apart as desired.
Thursday: Postcards
To make these postcards I decided to use my geometric designs and put them into a new form factor, as well as combining them with the black and red color scheme from Monday. Even though the shapes were already designed, this was a lot of work. I took part in the art exchange organized by @dirtalleydesign (who also runs the whole Plot Party) and plotting the backsides was also non-trivial, but at least everyone gets a unique design!
Friday: No Pen
Perspective Sphere
Since I have this laser, it was the obvious choice for the “no pen” challenge. The cool thing is that it can also cut the paper, so the black areas actually cut out (see the video below at 2:27). Unfortunately, this generated a lot of soot that smeared all over the paper, so it does not look as clean as I hoped. Also, because the laser has to move very slowly to achieve the desired effect, it took way longer than using a pen.
Conclusion
Thanks for looking and check out #plotparty on Twitter and Instagram to see all the cool art from the other plotter artists!
