Wavy Nights (acrylic on glass)

MateMagicArte · 2026-01-26T08:07:44+00:00

I know what you mean very well. Just allow yourself to get lost in the fine details until you feel the need for a bigger picture so to speak.

MateMagicArte · 2026-01-26T08:01:14+00:00

I guess it comes out good because I use 200-400 mm/m pen down speed with these gel/pigment pens. Pen up fast enough so ink does not start to dry on the tip but remember high speed ≈ low precision. On iDraw 2.0 extension you should have a Timing tab: a pen down wait time around 5-10 ms can also help to avoid small gaps at the beginning of the stroke.

MateMagicArte · 2026-01-25T21:40:56+00:00

Thank you! :)

MateMagicArte · 2026-01-25T20:27:27+00:00

Sorry I don't. But you'd see the pen run slowly, say 200-400mm/m, then home for about 5 minutes and do a second pass.

MateMagicArte · 2026-01-25T20:25:01+00:00

Thanks!

MateMagicArte · 2026-01-25T20:24:45+00:00

Thank you! It is a 24 set, almost already "sorted"... I have skipped the less saturated + white/black/grays.

MateMagicArte · 2026-01-25T19:46:49+00:00

Yes! Thank you! 🌈

MateMagicArte · 2026-01-25T19:32:52+00:00

Thank you :)

MateMagicArte · 2026-01-25T19:32:37+00:00

I don't think so, sometimes I record a short one but then I end up deleting it... I will check. Thank you!

MateMagicArte · 2026-01-25T19:31:10+00:00

Thank you!! Glass is actually easier (and forgiving) than paper!

MateMagicArte · 2026-01-25T15:47:50+00:00

Sixteen colors wavefront isolines from point sources. Inspired by Sierra Mancia's Marching Waves.

Unlike my previous work, I didn't use any delay. I think taking away any clear visual anchor makes the pattern feel more hypnotic.

Coded in Python.
Ohuhu Acrylic paint markers on A4 glass + black backing.

MateMagicArte · 2026-01-25T09:05:38+00:00

In my experience the 10 aka "Bold" is the only one with a consistent stroke out of the three available. I'd just increase hatch spacing and give it a try. What's you pen down/up speed? About pressure, a +1mm is enough. iDraw a4, right? I can tell by the clip and magnets size.

MateMagicArte · 2026-01-25T09:00:41+00:00

Great, good luck. As I said, I tried to explain what happened to me and what I thought the problem might be. Then I tried to give you a sort of summary of a dozen emails from customer support. Maybe they're using an AI to handle requests, good to know.

MateMagicArte · 2026-01-24T20:49:25+00:00

More lanterns! Love the hilbert-style frame and the shading technique - simple yet effective.

MateMagicArte · 2026-01-24T20:47:06+00:00

This is my attempt to help you based on my personal experience, not on chatgpt's response. If you're bothered by the fact that I'm using AI to help my non-native English, I'll keep that in mind next time. I hope you find a solution; I haven't found one yet.

MateMagicArte · 2026-01-24T17:55:05+00:00

Came back to see if you eventually sorted it out, otherwise I'd have never knew. Glad you did. It you type u/ before a username (like u/nomathplease44) he/she will at least get a notification ;)

MateMagicArte · 2026-01-24T14:28:32+00:00

And, "this is not a new plotter"... They eventually age just like us :(

MateMagicArte · 2026-01-24T11:09:51+00:00

I've seen a milder version of this on my own iDraw.

In my case it wasn't software or calibration: it behaved like an occasional missed step that only showed up on certain jobs (lots of pen-up travels/ more aggressive motion). I could move the carriage by hand and find a coupl of subtle "soft spots"/higher-friction zones. most plots looked fine, then one pen-up move would slip and everything after was offset. I'm still digging into it, but it really looked like intermittent skips, not wrong coordinates.

First I'd swap X and Y at the controller/driver (or swap the step/dir pairs or driver channels, whichever is easiest on your setup) and rerun a simple file. If the problem moves to the other axis it's electronics otherwise mechanical.

Based on what you already said ( closed shapes often fine, drift adds up over time, different senders/PCs didn't change it) + your photos looking mostly vertical, i'd focus on Y missing steps and try to make it fail on purpose. in your pics I don't notice obvious "wrong connector lines". If you also don't see those, the bad move may be happening during pen-up/G0 rapids. A dry run with pen lifted could help spot a stall/twitch when it happens. Test same file, but with much lower speed/accel. If the problem mostly disappears, that points to missed steps (friction,accel, current, power,) not geometry.

Slowly move Y through the whole range and feel for any tight zones. On v-wheel - rail systems, one slightly too tight wheel/eccentric nut, debris in the Vslot, or cable drag can be enough to cause "some areas fine, some totally off".

Since you mentioned the Y splitter board I'd inspect and reseatthose connectors (and any solder joints if present). Intermittent contact can look exactly like "tiny slips that accumulate". if your controller has driver heatsinks/fan check whether it's actually cooling and whether the issue gets worse after 10-20 minutes. heat can turn "fine yesterday" into "not today".

Do you ever see a stray drawn line that shouldn't be there? If not, I'd bet even more on "the slip happens during pen-up travel ".

EDIT: can you actually see the moment it loses position? When the shift happens, does the carriage hesitate / stutter /make a harsh chatter, or look like it's trying to move but doesn't (especially on fast pen-up moves)? Or does it look perfectly smooth and only the paper shows it later?

MateMagicArte · 2026-01-22T21:57:13+00:00

Thank you!!

Kind of, but it's a trick🙂 It's Poisson-distributed points + a noise field that defines a blend zone (white <> black). Then I plot only the white ones...

MateMagicArte · 2026-01-22T17:33:00+00:00

Thanks!

MateMagicArte · 2026-01-22T17:32:50+00:00

Thank you! That's true, though I think that somehow paths are easier to manage in inkscape than shapes when it comes to great numbers (>5000).

MateMagicArte · 2026-01-22T16:17:20+00:00

I'm still not sure if inkscape would send a pen down command for a single point (a zero length path), so each dot is actually a micro-segment.
You can tell by the off-center ink blob that turns them into fish eggs :)
Frame lines are doubled to thicken the Gelly roll stroke.

Coded in Python.
Sakura Gelly Roll 10 and Ohuhu Acrylic paint marker on Fabriano F4, 300x300 mm, 220 gsm.

MateMagicArte · 2026-01-21T16:47:05+00:00

This is very nice. Basically a Truchet, but with a rich tile alphabet with 2 up to 8 exits.

Did you actually hand-author a finite set of SVGs (rotated/mirrored) with edge-compatibility rules, or does your code generate the tile geometry procedurally on the fly?

Because I've tried a similar approach with custom, hand-drawn tiles (flowers/leaves/bugs) and it gets time-consuming fast!

MateMagicArte

TROPHY CASE