(kinder)Garden, Monuments #30 - Pen-plotter drawing - edition 1 - 49.5 x 35.8 cm
This video documents the creation of a pen-plotted version of (kinder)Garden, Monuments #30, a generative artwork by Zancan and Yazid. Since this piece had already been produced as a Fine Art Print using an inkjet printer, the pen-plotted version offers an interesting comparison between two very different ways of bringing the same digital artwork into the physical world.
My goal was to remain as faithful as possible to the original digital version. At the same time, pen plotting is an extremely sensitive process that requires constant supervision and human intervention at every stage. The creation of this drawing involved numerous technical and artistic decisions, including the choice of technical pens, custom ink mixtures, the use of a graphite mechanical pencil, and the manual application of opaque white pigmented ink with a brush.
The entire process took several hours and demanded constant concentration. A single mistake during the inking stage would have been almost impossible to recover from.
- 0'00"Starting the plot with some medium strokes with a Rotring Isograph 0.4mm (my most reliable pen I think)
- 0'10"The piece has a color them called "Sketchbook". We'll be drawing on a yellow-colored paper of 300 gsm
- 0'22"The vegetation is traced with a Rotring 0.4mm, with a dark brown, custom mix of inks to give the drawing a warmer feel
- 0'35"Switching the pen for a Rotring 0.2mm for tiny details.
- 0'44"The sky hatch pattern uses the same pen tip of 0.2mm, to avoid a too strong presence.
- 0'55"The ground pattern is made with a mix of red inks, that turned out looking too vivid
- 1'04"Tracing the outlines of the blocks in pencil, in order to define the areas that I will paint by hand
- 1'16"Applying a white pigmented ink manually with a brush. It will make those blocks stand out over the yellow-colored paper.
- 1'30"We're back to the pen-plotter for tracing the outlines in red.
- 1'47"Switching to a pencil again, to trace some hatch patterns over the white blocks with a faint effect, adding a subtle texture.
- 2'07"The red blocks are filled with a hash pattern with a custom ink mix close to a Brick Red (Rotring Isograph 0.4mm)
- 2'26"The sky pattern, of the "Abstract Leaves" trait designed by Yazid, is plotted in Rotring 0.4mm
- 2'45"Attempting a second pass on the ground hatches, to fix the initial colour and get bolder strokes. Second passes always require a very precise calibration.
- 2'53"0.4mm wasn't enough, we're going much bolder with a third pass in Rotring 0.8mm.
- 3'12"The plot is finished !
