My name is Alex, and I’m a 26-year-old graphic designer based in London. I discovered pen plotting on Instagram late last year, and I was immediately fascinated by how many possibilities the process offered. Different pens, papers, materials, and visual styles could all produce completely different results. I have always enjoyed physical printed work, even though much of my professional work happens on a screen.
I talked about pen plotting so much that, when my birthday came around this year, my partner decided to give me an iDraw Pen Plotter 2.0 A4. It was my first opportunity to experiment with a plotter myself and turn the ideas I had been seeing online into physical work.
Fun side note: she accidentally ordered a non-UK model, but the UUNA TEK team helpfully noticed the issue and flagged it before shipping.
Once I had the plotter, I quickly realised just how many directions I could explore. I could create original Pen Plotter Art designed to be framed, as well as customised birthday cards for friends and family. Being able to take digital artwork and plot it onto 300gsm cardstock inside my own flat was particularly exciting.
What I enjoy most about the pen plotter as a drawing tool is the combination of incredible drawing accuracy, a huge range of pen combinations, extensive opportunities for personalisation, and the flexibility to work on almost any material. My friends also started asking whether I could plot their own pictures as keepsakes. That interest eventually gave me the idea to start Pen Plot Shop.
Today, I run Pen Plot Shop across Etsy, Instagram, and TikTok, while hoping to expand to my own website in the near future. I’m still developing the store, creating original artwork and personalised plots that I believe can become meaningful gifts worth giving.
I also find the plotting process itself fascinating, so I have started filming the work as I create it. Every day brings another source of inspiration, whether it is a new type of pen to try, a visual style to explore, or another approach to plotting.
I’m also open to Custom Pen Plotter Art commissions. I enjoy taking on challenges, so I’m particularly interested in bespoke and meaningful custom plots, whether the customer is an individual or a business.
Before starting Pen Plot Shop, I had never made a single online sale. Getting even one sale gave me confidence that the work I was creating had value and that it could become a viable way to support my plotting habit.
It took around two months to get my first customer. I decided to go the extra mile by providing several previews showing what their portrait could look like before they purchased. That experience gave me the opportunity to interact directly with a buyer and learn more about the information and previews customers find useful.
So far, I have made five sales. It may be a small milestone, but it feels fantastic.
The areas where I have had the most success so far are personalised portraits and my architectural tower series. The tower series is based on my own photography from my travels. Both types of work are currently single-colour pieces, which makes them easier to produce. At the same time, I’m very interested in expanding my work into pieces using two, three, or four pens.
Building Pen Plot Shop has also pushed me to develop a range of new skills. I have learned how to configure and operate a plotter, developed my own vector drawing software for filtering images, worked on creating products that people value, and learned to film and edit the plotting process.
It has been an amazing contrast to my day job and has given me more opportunities to put my energy into creative work.
Of course, getting to know the machine is part of the process. I’ve experienced pens eating paper, the machine running away with a pen, and some of my best plots fading in sunlight. But each problem has also taught me something. Every time something goes wrong, I can adjust the process, make plotting smoother, and improve the finished product for the customer.
There is also something enjoyable about making mistakes. Even when a plot does not turn out exactly as planned, you can still end up with a completely unique piece of artwork.
If I could give one piece of advice to someone starting out with a pen plotter today, it would be simple: explore.
A pen plotter might initially look like a niche creative tool, but the range of possible results is incredibly diverse. You can plot almost anything. If you are passionate about plotting but an idea is not working, try changing the approach and experimenting with something different.
Don’t wait for everything to be perfect before trying.
I also believe there is real value and opportunity in selling locally within your own community. And perhaps most importantly, don’t stop talking about your interest in pen plotting — you never know when talking about it might even lead to someone giving you a pen plotter for your birthday.
