Technique
How the drawings were built, from the one record this collection has that no gallery of paintings does: the order, width, color and transparency of every stroke.
Nifty Ink kept every stroke of every drawing in the order it was made. The replay on each artwork page follows that order, and so can a measurement. This page reads the stroke record of all 548 Nifty Ink drawings by nnxyz in the collection, then shows twelve of them at five points in their build. The archive stores no timing, so nothing here is a duration or a speed; "first" and "last" mean order. The board's own background pass, which 527 of the drawings carry, is counted apart from the hand's strokes.
What the record shows
The hand starts with line. The board lays the ground, and the first drawn stroke after it covers almost nothing: the median first stroke covers 0% of the canvas, and only 1% of the drawings open with a stroke that covers more than a quarter of it. nnxyz does not block in a big shape and refine it. The drawing begins as line, and the mass accumulates.
Broad to fine, every time. Across the sequence the median stroke narrows from 22 thousandths of the canvas side in the first tenth to 3 in the last, and the median stroke shortens from 1.5 canvas sides to 0.08. The last tenth is dots and short marks: the highlights, the teeth, the signature. Every series follows the same curve.
Burying is the method. The share of each new stroke that lands on paint already laid rises from 46% in the first tenth to 98% in the last. By the midpoint nearly every mark goes over an earlier one. The Faces are the most buried and fill the square to 98%; the later series leave more of the ground showing.
Paint arrives with the portraits. Translucent strokes are 6% of a typical Face and 19% of a typical Rawblocks. The two peaks by month are January 2022, the pale winter portraits, and November 2022, the Rawblocks heads. The summer masks of 2022 are almost entirely opaque.
Dark grounds have seasons. 40% of all grounds are dark. December 2021 is the darkest month, then May 2022; from July 2023 on the ground is almost never dark.
Sessions. 197 drawing days over three years, a median of 2 works on a working day, and a longest run of 10 consecutive days. The busiest days were May 25, 2022 (10), December 1, 2021 (9), February 9, 2022 (9), April 25, 2022 (8) and November 9, 2022 (8). By hour the record peaks in the late evening and is quietest in the small hours of UTC, which is an evening practice in Central European time.
The build, in tenths
Medians across all 548 drawings for each tenth of the stroke order: how much of the canvas has paint, how wide the typical stroke is, how many colors have appeared, and how much of each stroke lands on earlier paint.
| Tenth | Canvas covered | Stroke width ‰ | Colors so far | On earlier paint |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 47% | 22 | 5 | 46% |
| 2 | 57% | 18 | 8 | 81% |
| 3 | 66% | 13 | 10.5 | 90% |
| 4 | 73% | 10 | 12 | 93% |
| 5 | 77% | 8 | 14 | 96% |
| 6 | 81% | 8 | 15 | 96% |
| 7 | 85% | 7 | 17 | 97% |
| 8 | 88% | 5 | 18 | 98% |
| 9 | 91% | 5 | 19.5 | 98% |
| 10 | 93% | 3 | 20 | 98% |
| Series | Works | Strokes (median) | Dark grounds | Canvas covered | On earlier paint | Translucent | Colors |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Faces | 134 | 131 | 44% | 98% | 92% | 6% | 20 |
| New Nifty on the Block | 303 | 147 | 43% | 92% | 82% | 8% | 19 |
| Rawblocks | 66 | 176 | 35% | 84% | 81% | 19% | 23 |
| Other nnxyz | 45 | 218 | 18% | 83% | 80% | 12% | 24 |
Twelve drawings, five frames each
Each work below is drawn from its native SVG at five points in its stroke order: after a tenth, a quarter, a half and three quarters of the hand's strokes, and complete. The background pass is in every frame. The reading under each says what the hand did between the frames; the numbers are the record's.
Nifty Faces #5
The sparsest face: 28 strokes on the bare white canvas, with no background pass. Hangs in Faces in the Tangle.
The exception that shows the rule. With no background pass, the hand lays its own ground: three wide strokes of crimson and black scribble fill the square before anything else, the one work here that opens with mass. The face then arrives as line, white and cyan at a quarter, a yellow-green contour at a half, and the eyes and mouth in blue in the last quarter. Twenty-eight strokes in all.
28 drawn strokes, 12 colors, 5 translucent strokes; 99% of the canvas covered when complete, 88% of each stroke on earlier paint. Recorded November 4, 2021.
Nifty Faces #41
The most worked of the dark faces: 1,019 strokes on a dark ground, December 2021. Hangs in Faces in the Tangle.
A face found, not drawn. The first tenth is patches of purple, orange and blue laid on the dark ground with no head in them; by a quarter they are loops; the eyes and the white of the teeth only appear at the half, and the face is legible at three quarters. The last quarter is green and white highlights over paint already two deep, which is why 96% of every stroke here lands on earlier paint.
1019 drawn strokes after 1 background pass, 27 colors, 20 translucent strokes; 92% of the canvas covered when complete, 96% of each stroke on earlier paint. Recorded December 5, 2021.
Nifty Faces #62
The winter portraits: 342 of its 417 strokes are translucent, the highest share of any face. Hangs in Modelled in Light.
Painted the way a portrait is painted. The first tenth blocks the head in grey planes on black; the next quarter glazes ochre and green over them; by the half the face is modelled with no eyes in it. The eyes are drawn green at three quarters, and the last quarter darkens them under a translucent glaze and deepens the shadow on the right, so the finished face is dimmer and more inward than the one at three quarters.
417 drawn strokes after 1 background pass, 60 colors, 342 translucent strokes; 100% of the canvas covered when complete, 99% of each stroke on earlier paint. Recorded January 26, 2022.
NNOTB #85
A beam head from May 11, 2022, the week the market fell: 698 strokes, 305 of them translucent. Hangs in Beams and Glowing Eyes.
The beam comes last. The headdress and the ochre body are blocked first, the colors of the brick crown by a quarter, the dark eyes at the half, the outlines at three quarters. Then the yellow beams, translucent, are laid over the whole finished figure in the final quarter, which is why the complete drawing is paler and warmer than any frame before it. The light is the last decision, drawn the week the market fell.
698 drawn strokes after 1 background pass, 69 colors, 305 translucent strokes; 90% of the canvas covered when complete, 95% of each stroke on earlier paint. Recorded May 11, 2022.
NNOTB #150
A mask of the summer, June 21, 2022, at the series median: 153 strokes, almost all opaque. Hangs in Square Masks.
A mask built from the ground out. The first tenth is a green blob and red and grey stripes with no mask in them; the mask's outline is drawn over them by a quarter; black contours and the teeth come at the half; blue and more pattern at three quarters; and the blue lattice at the lower right and the black frame close it. Almost nothing is translucent: each new stroke covers rather than tints.
153 drawn strokes after 1 background pass, 19 colors, 21 translucent strokes; 99% of the canvas covered when complete, 91% of each stroke on earlier paint. Recorded June 21, 2022.
NNOTB #219
The densest drawing in the collection: 1,757 strokes, August 12, 2022, the day after the burn was announced. Hangs in Figures and Places.
Dabs, then light, then a glaze. The first tenth is the tree in black contour with pink and yellow dabs on grey; by a quarter the dabs have multiplied and the red ground has arrived at the bottom. The yellow beams of light are laid at the half, over the tree and down through the fence; then three quarters adds white and pink dabs over the light. The last quarter is a dark yellow glaze over everything, which dims the tree the hand had just brightened. 1,757 strokes, 551 of them translucent, drawn the day after the burn was announced.
1757 drawn strokes after 1 background pass, 51 colors, 551 translucent strokes; 100% of the canvas covered when complete, 97% of each stroke on earlier paint. Recorded August 12, 2022.
NNOTB #249 and NNOTB #249
The one repeated title: two drawings called #249 on August 25, 2022, 304 and 313 strokes, the same 132 translucent strokes in each. Hangs in Cats and Creatures.
Two drawings with one build. The frames match at every point: the pink stripes of the ground, the black cat drawn as a silhouette by a quarter, its ringed eyes and the red mark at the half, the yellow and blue pattern after. The record holds two drawings under this title, created the same day, the second with nine more strokes than the first; the frames of both are shown so the match can be seen. The repeated title in the rooms is this pair.
304 drawn strokes after 1 background pass, 41 colors, 132 translucent strokes; 97% of the canvas covered when complete, 92% of each stroke on earlier paint; the second drawing 313 strokes, 42 colors, 132 translucent. Recorded August 25, 2022.
NNOTB #0000
The collection piece of New Nifty on the Block, October 15, 2022: 447 strokes, the lowest overpainting of any dense work here. Hangs in Crowns and Last Masks.
The face first, the surround last. In the first tenth the skull is already drawn in white and blue line with the yellow X over its eye; red loops and yellow drips come by a quarter; the dotted purple halo at the half; cyan dots and lines at three quarters; and the orange rays, the sun at the upper right and the yellow stripes in the final quarter. The drawing grows outward from the head, which is why so little of it lands on earlier paint: 74%, the lowest of any dense work here.
447 drawn strokes after 1 background pass, 36 colors, 36 translucent strokes; 98% of the canvas covered when complete, 74% of each stroke on earlier paint. Recorded October 15, 2022.
Rawblocks #18
A Rawblocks portrait from November 7, 2022: 707 strokes, 482 of them translucent, paint with line on top. Hangs in Portraits.
Paint first, line in the middle, glaze last. The head is blocked in translucent pink and olive patches for the first quarter, with the dark hair arriving late in it; the hat, the glasses and the mouth are drawn in line at the half; the red hair, the lattice on the hat and the red ground come at three quarters. The last quarter is pink and cyan glazes over the face and the ground, so the finished portrait is softer than the one at three quarters.
707 drawn strokes after 1 background pass, 64 colors, 482 translucent strokes; 100% of the canvas covered when complete, 94% of each stroke on earlier paint. Recorded November 7, 2022.
Rawblocks #65
The last Rawblocks, the landscape that closes the series on March 15, 2023: 1,060 strokes, 909 translucent. Hangs in Coda: Two Landscapes.
A landscape in washes. Purple, pink and blue cover the square in the first tenth, sky above and water below; the skyline is drawn dark by a quarter, with the path lines; the buildings take color and the water pink at the half; the green foliage at three quarters. The final quarter lays a pale glaze over the whole scene and puts the trees and the red trunk in front of it, the last Rawblocks closing with a veil over the city.
1060 drawn strokes after 1 background pass, 77 colors, 909 translucent strokes; 100% of the canvas covered when complete, 92% of each stroke on earlier paint. Recorded March 15, 2023.
nnxyz #64
A late mask, December 4, 2024, after a year away: 431 strokes, dense rather than broad. Hangs in Occasions and Figures.
The head is there in the first tenth. Forty-four strokes draw the outline, the teeth and the eyes, and the remaining 387 fill, color and surround it: the yellow contour and the red beam by a quarter, the grey hair at the half, the purple lettering at three quarters, the black ground, the blue scribble and the signature last. After a year away the hand draws the structure at once and spends the rest of the drawing on its surface: dense, as the measures say, not broad.
431 drawn strokes after 1 background pass, 21 colors, 13 translucent strokes; 98% of the canvas covered when complete, 94% of each stroke on earlier paint. Recorded December 4, 2024.
Method
strokes-v1 (measures.json, summary.json). Twelve works chosen from the measures to show the range of the build: the sparsest early face, the darkest, the most translucent, the beams, a summer mask, the densest drawing, the one repeated title, a collection piece, a Rawblocks portrait, the last landscape and a late mask. Each is shown at five points in its recorded stroke order (after 10, 25, 50, 75 and 100 percent of the drawn strokes, the board's background pass kept in every frame), drawn in the browser from the native SVG by the same path order the replay uses. The readings were written after looking at the five frames of each work at full size; every number is from measures.json.
Coverage and overpainting are measured on a 160 by 160 raster of the stroke paths with round caps, with transparency ignored for coverage. Widths and lengths are divided by the shorter canvas side so works of different sizes compare. A stroke counts as buried when more than 90% of its pixels were already painted. The measures and the summaries are kept with the curation record, with the hash of every file read.