s . DISPLAYS ON DISPLAY Fo

_Editors: Frank Crow and Cha

The first-place prize in the professional category went to "A Western," by Philip B. Binns, a project coor-

Pen-plotter artists have works exhibited An exhibition of art done on com-

dinator with Design Logic in San Francisco. Using pressurized ballpoint pens, liquid ink, and cotton swabs inserted into ballpoint holders, Binns juxtaposed parts

puter pen plotters is now hanging at the

California Museum of Science and Industry in Los Angeles. The artists represented there are winners of a contest titled "The Electric Paintbrush." The contest was run by Calcomp, which celebrated its 25th anniversary this way. A spokesperson for the company says the international response was so overwhelming that there might be future contests in the offing. Calcomp paid over $15,000 in prize money, with $5000, $2000, and $1000 going to the first three winners in the professional branch, and $3000, $1500, and $750 going to the first three winners in the student division. The winners of honorable mention in each category were given $250, and the student winners' schools were each given a Calcomp Model 84

desktop plotter. The

pictures

_

shown here are 1 the first three prize winners in each category. On the succeeding pages you will see pictures by some of the artists who received honorable mention and some of those who were finalists j from among the more than 300 entries that came in from all over the world. The judges of the contest were Eudice Feder, chairperson, internationally known computer artist whose designs have been shown at the Museum of Modern Art, Paris; Randy Akers, director/designer, Gehring Associates, Los Angeles; Lukman Glasgow, director of the Downey Art Museum; Mary Ann Glantz, professor of fine arts, California State University; and Aaron Marcus, designer and graphic communications consultant, Aaron Marcus and Associates, San Franscisco.

66

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typical to plotter artwork against parts that do not

appear to have been created

on a plotter. To accomplish this, he used the seemingly

random nature of plotting to color the striped cow brands. Then, he used cotton swabs dipped in liquid ink to create the effect of

soft, inconsistent, "painted" lines.

Axel Miessner of Grafelfing, Germany, won second place in the professional division with his "Der Munchner" or "The

Munich." Miessner is leader of interactive systems with the government of Munich. This one-color plot originated as a chance drawing generated by Mr. Miessner's own software. The final version is a refinement of the original outline. The work was plotted with a black liquid-ink pen on a 1051 Drum Plotter.

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Third place for professionals went to Hadzi-Tosev Nikola for "Faces." Nikola is professional assistant at the Institute for Earthquake Engineering and Seismology in Yugoslavia. The work was created with a Fortran program for plotting threedimensional and perspective views as a function of two independent variables. Two separate images were created, then merged. The artist used pressurized ballpoint pens in black.

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v, The first place award in the student division went to "Effie," the Eiffel Tower. Keith Waters, a recent graduate of Middlesex Polytechnic, in England, created perspective views of one image using Picasso software and blue and black pressurized ballpoint pens. The 0 i0-:: image, the Eiffel Tower, was duplicated and scaled. The resulting images were then connected to form the pattern of sequential, 3-D views, using the Calcomp

960.

Second

place

in the student division

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draw this of

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plotted with Calcomp 1057, and

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Gary Kind won the third-place prize for students with his "Sails." Kind is a student at CSUN. The Simplot-written arcs in "Sails" are portions of circles with very large radii that have been paired off with other arcs. Using different scale factors, Kind created three images with slightly different center points and radii to produce the moire patterns. He used ballpoint pens in red, orange, turquoise, and blue to provide the color.

January 1985

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DISPLAYS ON DISPLAY The "Binary Tree" made its creator, Albert H. J. Christensen, a finalist in the professional category. Christensen is a senior software engineer for Chicago Aerial Survey. Two basic computer programs were used to create this arrangement of elements, which corresponds exactly to the binary tree, a fundamental configuration of graph theory. The first program works on the principle of recursion, which means to split and merge. It takes a very basic shape, in this case a cube, and divides it into two equal pieces at right angles to the original shape. The new shape is half the size of the first and is linked to the original shape. Each piece is created on a different level, and the process continues until the subdivision reaches a predetermined minimum. The process begins again at the largest undivided segment / and

ends

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when

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creates perspec-

tives by adding parallel lines of constant density to every rectan-

gle. By using

this type of soft-

ware, any

point

Daniel P. Escudero, a systems analyst with Bechtel, was a finalist in the professional division with his "Cathedral of St. John the Divine." Escudero digitized this plot, then scaled it from a 14-by-17-inch photograph of St. John the Divine Cathedral in New York. It was created at twice the scale of the photo blueprint elevation. To alleviate the problems caused by very fine and detailed artwork, Mr. Escudero created many figures, then used scaling and multiple insert techniques. He created the stained glass windows as separate images, then inserted the colored images into the existing structure.

of view and any line of sight can be selected.

Dominique Dubuc, a CAD-system manager for Bobrow and Fieldman Architecture of Montreal, Canada, won an honorable mention in the professional division for "Teletransportation 2." Dubuc capitalizes on a popular coloring technique used by young children. A paper is first covered with various colors of crayons, then colored over in black crayon. At this stage Dubuc inserted empty TV pens into the plotter and used them to scratch a pattern into the paper. When the black crayon was scratched away, seemingly random hues were revealed.

Chrystal Klabunde won honorable mention as a student for her "Sunset." Klabunde attends California State University at Northridge, or CSUN. The inclusive window, which represents the sun, is the most unusual aspect of this drawing. The "sun" was not plotted. It was merely defined by the lines plotted around it. The artist used Simplot software and ballpoint and felt-tip pens in red, turquoise, and black. IEEE CG&A

Melony N. Myers, another CSUN student, won honorable mention for "Sounds of Autumn." Myers used a single symbol, scaled on one axis only and duplicated, to produce the variations in design. She used Moire patterns to create an illusion of texture. The intensity of color was created by allowing only small intervals between lines, giving the appearance of diffused color. The artist used pressurized and liquid ballpoint pens, along with Simplot software, to produce this four-color piece on a Calcomp 1051. Jurgen Lit Fischer of Dusseldorf, Germany, is a free-lance artist. His "Orpheus" was a finalist in the professional category. He created this plot using liquid-ink pens on the Calcomp 1051. Thomas J. Brodeur, autographics operator with BDM Corp., won honorable mention as a professional, with his "Nautical Chronology." The art-deco style was chosen to capitalize on the plotter's best features: pinpoint accuracy, smooth curves, and straight lines. Brodeur created pieces of the drawing separately on different levels of the program. First, the masted ship, then the background liner and border. As pieces were developed (such as a gunport or a mast), they were stored in the computer's library. Each piece then was inserted into the keel to complete the hull. After erasing the hull below the waterline, the entire ship was saved in a library. The border and background liner were drawn in a similar manner. The liner was created around a template of the masted ship, then these images were also saved in a library. After all the separate pieces were created, all the drawings were merged together into one image. Using liquid ballpoint pens, the border and background were plotted first, then the masted ship was drawn on top of the other images.

January 1985

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Al Rausa was a finalist in the profes024 I%~ sional division with "Terminal Man." Rausa is a computer graphics operator at 1 ~ H,IT Bums and Roe. He created "Terminal "TERMINflL MIN Man" out of ideas taken from Marvel and DC comic-book covers. Nylon-tip color pens drew patterns of modified cross-hatching to produce the color and shading on the body. A black ballpoint pen also produced modified crosshatching to provide the appearance of gray in the monitor screen and the keyboard shading. This piece nearly duplicates the traditional comic book cover format, including the Comic

Authority Logo.

DISPLAYS ON DISPLAY Ann Laughlin is a CAD supervisor with Architectural Enterprises. Her "Unicorn Parade" was a finalist. Laughlin used the original design from an ancient Babylonian carving. To re-create the drawing, she developed one segment of data in the form of a triangle. The image was then rotated, using Summagraphics' software, and connected to complete the perfect 360-degree circle.

John Heile, now a UCLA graduate, was a student finalist with "An Entryway." He used three different pen weights to achieve a feeling of depth in this piece. The plot was generated using an interactive program, written in Pascal, to vary the key horizontal and vertical dimensions. To avoid smearing of lines, random plotting was not per- I mitted. The programs were written to draw strictly from left to right or l 7 i/ right to left on a

Thomas B. King received honorable mention in the professional division for "Basketball." The piece was created by overlaying various patterns of cross-hatching to achieve different textures. It was plotted with a liquid-ink pen, using AutoTrol GS1000 software. 10

IEEE CG&A

Thomas B. King created "Hawk," which was a finalist in the professional division. King is a draftsman with Amoco Production Co. To create this plot, King produced a pattern of lines on 15 different overlays and selectively edited the lines to achieve the desired density. He used Auto-Trol GS 1000 software and liquid-ink pens for the final artwork, done on a Calcomp 960.

Steven Schenck's "Esch 1" was a finalist. Schenck is a CAD specialist with IGC Technology. To create this work, Schenck digitized the hands from existing artwork. He then plotted this piece with a black liquid-ink pen, using Auto-Trol GS 1000 software.

Diogenes A. Ruiz, a finalist with "First Contact," is a systems operator with CRSS/EPR. Because his spacecraft is hovering in deep space, any way you choose to view this plot is correct. The portion representing deep space was drawn with black liquid ink and pressurized ballpoint pens with the lines closely spaced on both the x and y axes. The final image was plotted on a single matted Stratmore sheet, using a solids-modeling software package.

January 1985

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