The "t" Crosser

In my digital illustration I was given the assignment to research the discipline of technical illustration, including several artists and the tools they used. I then attempted to digitally recreate the aesthetic quality of the work that they created with traditional means. The practitioners that I was automatically drawn to were some of the early artists and architects of the modern art movements. A few that especially caught my attention were Francis Picabia (particularly his Dada period) as well as Walter Gropius and Laszlo Maholy-Nagy, both famous for their teaching and leadership at the Bauhaus. The primary tool that was used for technical drawing at this time was the ruling pen, used alongside rulers and compasses. A ruling pen held it ink in a slot between two metal jaws. A screw was then turned in order to adjust the width of the line created my the pen. With a ruling pen an artist was able to maintain a consistent line width while still having the ability to adjust the width for different applications. In my illustration, I applied the use of clean lines with consistent widths. I also used flat planes of color that mimic the "machine aesthetic" valued by these modernists.