ccPlotter (Centauri Carbon Plotter) is a drawing system I built around my 3D printer and a pen attachment. It turns photographs into physical drawings using different approaches to tracing, shading, and filling. Much of the development has focused on making those paths work on paper, where stroke width, overlapping lines, and the way ink fills an area change the result.
Selected works
The Plotting Process
The Centauri Carbon still works as a normal 3D printer. A pen attaches beside the hotend at a calibrated offset, so the printer’s motion system can move it across the page. In the ccPlotter app, I load a photograph, choose a rendering method, and adjust its settings. The software generates a preview and then G-code for the printer. I transfer the file by USB and run the plot.
On paper, shading depends on outlines, stroke spacing, direction, overlap, and ink density. I’ve tried ballpoint, gel, and fountain pens, and use physical plots and calibration tests to see how each behaves. I often use old coursework pages as drawing paper.
Development
I’ve kept returning to this Hong Kong tram photograph throughout development. It has a useful mix of strong outlines, small details, textures, dark areas, reflections, and low-contrast regions. Using the same source makes it easier to see what each method reproduces and where it struggles. The four versions below are physical plots.
- Prepared line art: A separately prepared outline image established the basic image-to-paper pipeline without filled regions.
- Trace V3: Strokes began to fill dark regions and solid shapes, rather than tracing outlines alone.
- Ink Sketch: This later approach works directly from the photograph, using repeatable processing instead of a prepared line-art image.
- Black and blue: Separate pen passes offer another way to place contrast and tone across the drawing.
Plot Gallery
An ongoing collection of drawings and experiments.