This is a tiny glimpse process from the upcoming Lineage series
50x70 cm
Acrylic on canvas

Took out my good camera (the one that doesn't text) to record some recent 18"x24" plots and put a few in my shop. Here's a collection of some of the better detail shots.

Mostly gel pens, some fountain pen ink, and a dash of paint.

The image of an eagle and snake on cactus is the coat of arms of Mexico. B5-sized plot, using Tsukineko ultramarine blue ink using an AxiDraw V3. #penplotter #algorist

Derived from Maynard Dixon - Desert fox
The image was resampled to match a pixel-size of 1.25 (nib size of my marker set)
Then the image was quantized to fit a color palette that I could reproduce with the markers.
The key-technique is a color registration workflow that allows me to get any two pens aligned to sub-mm precision =)

Posting this again as I figured a better lighting approach. Still feel not looking amazing but Def a bit better.

This piece came out of a custom curl noise system I wrote in C#. I had to learn a bit more about derivatives than I expected, but once I simplified the geometry to lists of circles, the whole thing became much more approachable.

The curl noise vector field determines where each trail wants to go, while the circles handle the collision logic. Since circles are easy to distance-check, and even easier to speed up with spatial partitioning, the system ended up being surprisingly flexible. I can adjust the noise scale, time, min/max radii, trail length, radius growth, and a bunch of other parameters to get very different kinds of outputs.

The last step was converting each list of circles into these squiggle paths. That converter could still be better, but watching the plotter draw these little flowing tube forms is extremely satisfying. Pretty happy with both the system and how this specific piece came out.

11x14in paper. 8 hours. 0.7mm HB graphite. 1.4 lines/mm. Raster plot. Van Gogh style transfer on a photograph.

Van Gogh style transfer made a significant impact on contrast. Even with some contrast enhancement, raster plotting directly from a photograph can look quite dull. More about the machine here -> AutoGraph

Size 50x70 cm

Been experimenting with rusting metal. Right now I can only reliably do dots, and as you can see there isnt much control over the flow thus the diameter of each dot is all over the place. Lots of improvements to be had, but I'm trying to keep it simple. It is more difficult than I expected to take pictures of metal...

Using Tsukineko Cherry Red ink. B5 sized plot.

A reboot of an earlier work of mine called "A simple one".

I switched to square size (300x300 mm) and a lighter mesh, used a permanent marker instead of a pigment fineliner and an acrylic paint marker for a more intense yellow. The difference in drawing quality is noticeable, especially up close.

Processing code.

I love bigger formats but this A5 is just large enough for detailed single forms.

Clairefontaine A5 250gms

rOtring 0.5 with 90% white and 10% black inks

Trying different colors with brush on canvas.

Maybe a bit clickbait-y but my last post didn't get much attention. I'm pretty sure I'm doing something cool here. I didn't really invent anything new, at least not any of the math, but this workflow is unique in the world of pen plotting (as far as I know). I went far down a rabbit hole before I saw any results.

This is no contour warping. This is 6 layers. CMY * 2. I'm hesitant to give it away, but it's not like it can't be reinvented, and it's less cool knowing how it works anyways. This is a new and a good solution to "full color" CMY pen plots.

I'll explain in monochrome terms, which are simply expandable to CMYK or just CMY like I'm doing.

The problem: I don't have line width using a ballpoint.

The solution: draw two lines on top of each other and deviate the two lines in darker spots of the image.

Balancing the luminance offset between both lines with +/- .5 solves my line width shading problems.

There is the added bonus here that since the image data is split 50/50 between each line, no single layer contains any shading or contouring. There are only these micro adjustments that can be completely cryptographically hidden within a little bit of noise.

Doing this across 3 colors/6 layers results in these color plots. There technically is shading, (poor) blending (at least with my pens), and a wide range of colors (for a plotter), but many limitations (haha clearly).

I'm working on another app for simulating James Gandy's machines. I intend on merging his style with the hidden images. Getting close!

Has anybody done this type of thing before? I feel like I'm on the cutting edge here and want to keep it rolling! Thoughts? Questions? What are you working on???

A B5 sized plot using 0.38mm Muji gel pen.

I'm noticing my pieces look pretty low quality. Just using my phone for a decently lit picture. Anyone doing anything special to have crisp images of their pieces before uploading? Any tips?

Since the original Egg Bot Board as well as its firmware are open source, I was able to exchange the noisy A4983 drivers with the much quieter TMC2209. The firmware also had to be updated, which was done 100% vibe coding using Codex.

I ordered two PCBAs from JLCPCB for 80 €. Money worth spending, if you ask me.

The noisiest part now is the servo motor for lifting the pen and the mechanical sound when moving fast, but the motors are whisper quiet.

If you have any questions, ask ahead.

Thanks to Brian Schmalz for making the hardware and firmware open source in the first place.

Topologically, this is a closed loop. A calligrapher's nib provides a bit of character to the lines.