An A1 drawing of a male model, drawn using eight Bic Biro pens. There are roughly 20,000 circles in the complete picture, with some black circles overlaying the coloured circles to darken the image. The image is calculated so that where the tones are more intense the circles are both thicker and more rigidly arranged in a grid formation to preserve the integrity of the image.
The slightly random pattern came about through necessity. Ball pens can go blotchy when used this way, but taking one out of a plotter, cleaning it, and replacing it is almost impossible without it being obvious where you made the change. So, I introduced a degree of randomness in the lighter circles, which aren’t so important in defining the structure of the image. That way, I could remove the pen and do whatever was necessary, and replace it without any potential mis-alignment being obvious.
Materials: Bic Biros on paper
Equipment used: Pen plotter; Raspberry Pi single board computer; Inkscape software for plotting; Affinity Designer for drawing circles; LibreOffice Calc to organise data
Size: A1
