u/lostPixels

No probs! Regular water actually makes the ink “more dry” paradoxically, which means it doesn’t flow as well and appears fainter. One way to make an ink “more wet” is by adding a very, very small amount of dishwashing soap or special product such as Vanness White Lightning (that’s what I use). You can adjust this ink characteristic on anything (but do it in the cartridge, in case the results aren’t to your liking). These OF inks can be just a touch dry and I’ve been tempted to alter them just a bit in extra fine nibbed pens.

Excellent choice of pen and ink! I love the octopus fluids line. Consider buying some de atramentis dilution fluid and you can make all shades of gray! You can also mix these inks together, which is probably more helpful once you get Into colors.

Maybe it’s like the stock screensaver from the manufacturer?

I love a good notebook plot, kudos!

I love the exact calculation of the fps, and of course your setup!

Where do you source boxes? That’s my biggest annoyance shipping flat artwork.

Yep, the ownership changed hands in the last year or two and that made a big difference to the food quality, prices, and overall feel of the place.

Damn that sucks man… I know that plotter is huge, it’s unfortunate that it got banged up on the way to you.

FWIW they didn’t kill the axidraw. They made it better with the homing function. And the people who invented it still work there.

I’ve got 4 and they seriously kick ass too, so idk about it being a bad machine… I’ve put 2250 hours on mine since I started tracking and have had zero issues.

Fantastic update! I could stare at this for quite awhile.

Bright's definitely tough. If you've got .5mm nibs or above you can use acrylic inks to get a lot of pop out of colors. Otherwise I'd chuck some Diamine Forever Magenta or Octopus Fluids Write & Draw colors on this.

I also realized that you're occluding nearly everything except the black lines behind the colored elements. Is there a way to introduce occlusion there? That's give you more clarity in the visual read too.

Love the work, hope you don't mind the feedback!

https://preview.redd.it/0eepmg6894mh1.png?width=840&format=png&auto=webp&s=afea2e0584577536911ca8f9995e8acd9056233b

This is awesome! I'd love to see you nail down those secondary colors and really make them pop.

Gotta factor in the perspective of collectors making an investment once you reach a certain price threshold. Before then do whatever you want. Be warned though, I was inconsistent about using archival quality materials in some of my earliest sold works, and those collectors came back talking about colors fading. I replaced their works for them, at my own cost and time.

I mix Octopus Fluids and DA inks fairly regularly and have no issues. I do tend to flush my pens out afterwards though.

Getting commissions is far more difficult than tracking them. And by that I mean having someone pay a deposit and respond to DMs. Obviously this may be a bit different for others who go for volume, but I follow the practice of pricing things what they’re worth in galleries and factoring in my time etc.

A simple kanban board is really all you need though.

It’s probably mostly the spacing of the lines that influences the fills. I find with fountain pens you’ll get a very consistent flow and resulting line, so once it’s dialed in you can rely on it.

I actually just used one Pilot Kakuno Medium nib for this drawing, washing it out and switching cartridges between colors. To do fills I simply have a hatching algorithm.

I'll send you a DM to chat about it ;)

Thank you very much! My background is in digital art and software engineering. I’ve been focusing on plotter art for around 7 years now. I’ve got a site here if you’d like to learn more https://lostpixels.io

Thanks for asking. To be quite honest, I hadn’t planned on it. This one will be exhibited next month at a museum in Vermont. I definitely would be open to making a commissioned one though if you’re interested!

Yep. More cool things like this at r/plotterart.