Walter van Rijn, Hybrid Drawing10, 2022. Ink and pencil on paper, 42 x 30 cm

The Creative Process: Human vs. Robot Drawing

In 2022 I was commissioned to create an artwork and I like to show you a part of the making process. What I want to focus on here is the interaction between me and the digital world of software and robotics. I started with days of testing different ways of working and trial and error. What software can I use to make what I have in mind? How does it convert between pixels and vectors, or how is it interpreted by the drawing robot? What drawing materials and papers work? How do I interfere with all the systems in place?

When I had enough, I stepped back and started to look at and sift through lots of drawings. I ended up with only a couple of drawings that worked out for me.

Talking about it and showing it to several people, I realised that something surprising has happened. Something I did not anticipate or was aware of at the time.

I got a question about who is actually leading? Drawing by hand or drawing by a robotic arm? Trying to answer that, I discovered that the drawing robot is teaching me a new way of drawing. It is setting me free from the way I learned to draw over many years. More fluidity and all the lines seem to be drawn on the surfaces of 3 dimensional objects and space, filling space and surfaces. Everything in the drawing becomes a world of moving, vibrating always changing lines.

Have a look at the video. It shows the making process of one of the drawings, Hybrid Drawing 08, using ink on paper. The drawing starts off with the plotter and I react to what has been drawn. Then back to the plotter, etc.


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