📙 #082 - A SHOW, A DIRECTORY & MORE DRAWING MACHINE 101

1, 2, 3, 4 - 1, 2, 3, 4 - 1, 2, 3, 4

There’s a show, “sequencefest”, it’s run by Bantam Tools, it’s in their gallery in Peekskill, NY (135 N. Water Street, Peekskills, NY 10566 - to be precise), it features; James Merrill (who created the animation above), Nat Sarkissian, Nima Nabavi and Bre Pettis; you can probably buy shit, it opens on Friday the 13th (lucky!!) at 5:30pm, “Artists will be present the following day in the gallery on March 14” - and it runs until fuck knows when, because apparently we don’t put useful information like that on websites anymore; maybe I’m just old and people don’t care about end dates now, is that fashion? Is it open-ended? Is it a two day affair? Who knows, it remains a fricking mystery.

Sequencefest is an exhibition of animated works, bringing together four distinct voices in generative and motion-based art, exploring plotted movement, digital animation, and screen-based storytelling within a physical gallery environment.

Animations will be shown on screens throughout the space and will also be available for purchase. Select works will be offered as framed 18 x 24 pieces, with additional editions available in accessible card and mat formats.

Pretending to be page divider in the UI is this text “are you an artist who also makes plot-able sequences? email us at hello@bantamtools.com and show us your work for consideration for the next sequencefest show.”

Are you?

ARE YOU?!?

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# BOX BREATHING

Box breathing is a simple, 16-second, four-step stress-relief technique—inhale (4s), hold (4s), exhale (4s), hold empty (4s)—used to calm the nervous system, reduce anxiety, and improve focus. By regulating breath into equal, rhythmic counts, it lowers blood pressure and activates the parasympathetic nervous system.

How to Practice Box Breathing:

• Prepare: Sit upright in a comfortable chair, feet flat on the floor, and relax your shoulders.

• Step 1 (Inhale): Inhale slowly through your nose to a count of four.

• Step 2 (Hold): Hold your breath for a count of four.

• Step 3 (Exhale): Exhale slowly through your mouth (or nose) for a count of four.

• Step 4 (Hold): Hold the lungs empty for a count of four.

• Repeat: Repeat the cycle for 3–5 minutes or until calm.

https://www.webmd.com/balance/what-is-box-breathing

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# DRAWING MACHINES 101

Since the last newsletter I’ve published three more videos in the introduction module of the whole thing.

• 1.3.1 - Anatomy of a piece of paper

• 1.4.0 - Types of Pen Plotter Artists

• 1.5.0 - Anatomy of an SVG File

I also posted the end of Feb Patreon Q&A video, which has a nice bit about riso printing at the 5:51 mark.

As I’ve mentioned a few times before, that, in theory Module 1 of Drawing Machines 101 would be consumed all in one go - once the last couple of module 1 videos are done it’ll clock in at around 1h 30m - which, if you were sitting down for a class at college or Uni, would be a reasonable Something 101 introduction session.

So I imagine it’s still a little weird for people following along in real time, having a new short video popping up once every few days; but this’ll stop being an issue soon enough I guess once I publish the next two.

And figure out the best way to do the course page over on penplotter.com

Which needs cleaning up a bit to turn it more of an obvious syllabus type thing, but that’s a time sink I don’t want to fall into yet.

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# DIRECTORY

Now and then I’ll see someone posting the question “Where can I buy some pen plotter art?” - often over on reddit r/plotterart - and I assume half the time it’s someone doing research into how much to charge for art (not a bad idea tbh).

There’s normally a couple of replies.

Meanwhile over on Instagram there’s a few “Links in bio” - which is great when you land on an artist you like and they have some links and one of them is a shop - but not so great when you just want to go shopping.

IYKYK

‘Cause I also wanted to keep track of who has a YouTube channel, or a newsletter too, I figured I’d just very fucking slowly build a hand crafted directory.

https://penplotter.com/directory

Definitely not a “best of”, the order is randomised (something I’m going to have to deal with when I hit enough entries for there to be pagination), and I’m focusing first on artists with shops, but it’s a start.

It’s also a very low priority, but it’s nice to have something I can tinker with when I have 30mins spare here or there. Going off to track down another artist with a shop and adding them is a fun way to spend an evening.

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# THE END

I’m going to be honest with you; there are times I just want to grab my laptop & a reasonable sized drawing machine, head off into a workshop in the woods and just make art.

No videos, no “content” for social media, no websites, no directories, no work - just endless days, weeks, months of going through my sketchbooks and notes and making art to my heart’s content.

But, I think the world is a better place for these things in it; the video course, tutorials, books, blog posts, and so on. Every time I see someone creating a book, preparing something for a show, teaching a workshop, helping other people, I think about how they’re making a decision to set aside time they could be making art to do that instead.

What I didn’t realise is what a blessing decided to post out monthly art on Patreon was (this isn’t a shill btw, although it may sound like that). My current aim is to keep bashing through the tutorial videos until they’re all done, I’m looking down the barrel of months and months of work.

I thought that the Patreon was another thing for other people, but it turns out making the Riso prints last month, the asemic writing the month before, and the POSCA dots before that have been a lifeline each month, a short two-three week project that I have to do.

I expect it’s the same for people doing daily (and dailyish) work. It can’t be perfect, and you have to move on, but oh boy do you have fun crunching through ideas.

Having the Patreon has forced me to set aside time from making the videos to make art, and without it I’d probably lose the plot 😁

This month, fwiw, is going to be something like this, but different, but the same…

…but with brushes.

Here’s a bit more about “Tally?” https://www.patreon.com/posts/march-themes-ish-151971834 - linking mainly ‘cause it generally talks more about another artist you may be interested.

Marks left by rusty needles - © Hanny Newton 2026

And that’s it for this newsletter.

I’m building up a small backlog of links about what other people are doing and making, so I may make things easy on myself in two weeks time, and do a link-dump newsletter - just as a change of pace.

Next newsletter will be; Thursday 19th March, I’ll see you there.

Love you all
Dan
🧡