What I have been working on, drawing machines

Well, it has been a while since my last post and update, too long.... but I have been working on a load of stuf, I have been drawn to (pardon the pun) and experimenting with drawing machines. One direction I wanted to take was to to strip the process back to as basic a function as possibleand see what could be achieved with minimal external influence.

I have designed and created a piece I call "Octo-Sketch" (patent pending btw)

and have made up and tested a model of it, it is a load of fun and something I am working on developing further. The idea here is to have multiple participants interacting with the machine all at once. The quality of output is not important, what matters here is how the different participants interact and what sort of interplay comes of it.

I plan to produce it from clear perspex on the laser cutter and present it packaged as a game in a board game box. I wanted to have some fun with this project and this is a good way, I think.

This is another idea for a drawing machine I am making, again all parts will be laser cut and made of wood for the gears and perspex for the arms. I came up with an idea then found it had been done already, quite nicely so... I thought, well, as I am experimenting with eliptical gears I should do it with those.

I have made these cardboard maquettes and tested the gears and they are working fine

I was having a bit of trouble getting the set up of three cogs to work right and there are a few reasons, mostly as they are handcut from cardboard and imprecise, plus I need to get the alignment perfect, I will be able to do this once they are cut right and I can measure the base.

So the gears will be rotated with a little handle and the arms can be placed on the mechanism in a variety of configurations, I am really looking forward to getting this put together and tested out.

the idea is similar to this