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I Programmed A Plotter Bot To Draw With A Pen
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I Programmed A Plotter Bot To Draw With A Pen

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In my free time, I program my plotter bot, Karel, to draw with a pen. Because the plotter uses a simple pen all I can use are simple black lines, not too much to play with. But I came to love the simplicity and elegance of a simple line and started to utilize it in my drawings. In contrast to most photo editing algorithms I do not transform the photo pixel by pixel but really create a set of strokes that only make sense altogether.

This style was inspired by Van Gogh. I wanted to use simple lines to create an expressive drawing. Some of the drawings are made of over 35.000 individual lines. It takes the plotter a little bit more than 2 hours to finish the drawing.

This and more styles can be found on my Etsy shop or on Kickstarter.

More info: Etsy | kickstarter.com

A miniature drawing of Dali

To test the limits of the plotter I like to make the drawings as small as possible. Here is a miniature drawing of Dali. It was drawn with the same pen as shown in the photo.

Dali drawing close up

The algorithm in work

Drawing on A4 aquarelle paper

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Errors made by the code

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When I finished the drawing with the plotter. I found out that my algorithm got confused in completely black areas and did not produce lines in those. Luckily this was easy to fix.

Here is a close up on the eye. I use Italian aquarelle paper for the drawings

The corrected algorithm in work

A drawing on A3 aqarelle paper

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I scanned this drawing for better quality.

Digital girl portrait

Digital Alcia Vikander portrait

Comparison of my first algorithm with the newest version

A simulation of the drawing

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d1713308 avatar
DaveTheBraveWarrior
Community Member
6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Great job! I would be interested in your code any chance you will opensource it?

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d1713308 avatar
DaveTheBraveWarrior
Community Member
6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Great job! I would be interested in your code any chance you will opensource it?

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