Scribblines

SCRIBBLINES (an artblocks.io generative artwork) are a tribute to countless drawings that are being created every day during monotonous meetings and are forever lost in trash.

Almost everybody has experienced doodling (or scribbling) at some point in our lives to keep our brains active. The mental state of doodling is between awareness and daydreaming and is known to often inspire creative ideas. Studies have shown that this idle scribbling actually plays a significant part in helping a person concentrate and focus. Psychologist Jackie Andrade proofed that doodlers actually remember more than non-doodlers when asked to retain delivered information.

A Scribbline

There are many types of idle scribbles - real world objects (e.g. houses, hearts), people, faces, squiggles, boxes and cubes, ladders and stairs, spider webs, triangles, swirls, among others.

"Scribblines" has always been my favorite idle drawing. At the core of each piece is a pivot line, created by a random algorithm. This pivot line defines the shape of the entire art piece. Every additional line traces around the pivot line. Computer generated lines allow for perfecting what is never possible in the “pen and paper world” and thus make this, somewhat obsessive, exercise compelling to the perfectionist’s eye. All these become the basics for the Scribblines features.

A Scribbline A Scribbline
A Scribbline A Scribbline

Sample pieces with different complexity, color and pen

Features

Precision

Even with great effort it is hard to follow the outlines precisely. In scribblines, the lines precision varies from inaccurate (to simulate hand shaking micro movements) to robotically perfect precision, there lines cause interesting moire effect.

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A same piece with different Hand shaking movements. "Steady hand", "Slight Shaking" simulating real hand movements and "Intense shaking" simulating less concentrated hand movements.

Determination

In a real world environment it is unlikely to find enough time or perseverance to fill in the whole paper surface and finish these drawings. Due to this I chose most of the generated Scribblines to fill the whole screen. However some pieces are set to be finished as a 'bulk' shapes and not fill in the whole piece.

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Pivot line, bulk shape, and a full screen Scribbline with robotically perfect precision.

Paper

The backgrounds imitate typical paper types that are used in real life. White paper is the most probable option followed by light paper types "Cream" and "Light grey". Darker colours (Black, Dark Grey and Dark Blue) are more rare and complement the variety of the series. Sticky notes are often the place, where most of the people draw their scribbles. Therefore I added few special "Sticky Note" papers options in the piece as well.

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Light background options: White, Cream and light grey paper samples

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Dark background options: Samples with Dark blue, Dark Grey, Black paper

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Dark background options: Samples with Dark blue, Dark Grey, Black paper

Pen

With every paper type, I choose an appropriate pen color to obtain enough contrast. This adds the most variability to the whole series. I choose different pen colours and different stroke widths. Pen thickness can vary from thinner pen - Rollerball (Ultra Fine, Fine, Medium and Bold) to thick Marker pen widths (Medium, Bold and Extra Bold). Some of the pieces have varying color options, where every line is drawn with a slightly shifted color profile.

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A Scribbline A Scribbline A Scribbline

Different stroke widths from "Rollerball Thin" to "Marker Extra Bold"

In a minority of the pieces, I am varying the stroke width within a single piece creating different visual styles. "Random" line width feature chooses from several line width possibilities for each single line. "Thickening" or "Thinning" line features creates beautiful shapes with a fade-in or fade-out effect. Some are even a combination of varying pen colour and pen width as well.

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Samples with "Random" line width

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Samples with the rare possibility of "Thickening" line width

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"Thinning" line width samples

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A combination of the various line width and colour

Most rare pieces

I call the most rare pieces "Neons". They are a combination of black papier color, and a carying pen color from a neon green or blue noen color fading out brightness and saturation into the black paper background.

A Scribbline A Scribbline

The whole minted series can is available on the ArtBlocks.io site in Factory projects.