Tag Archives: drawing

Erasure drawings

Erased black square 1 - drawing by David Smith

Erased black square 1
Pencil and eraser on Canaletto paper

It may seem odd that my work on black squares and my Tidelines theme are intimately linked but it is all a continuum. This latest phase – erasing and redrawing and erasing again for as many times as necessary to get the effect I want – mirrors the tide’s twice-daily erasing of the sand patterns and debris on the beach; rubbed out but leaving a trace of the history of previous times and tides. I am experimenting with various surfaces. These featured are on 300gsm Canaletto paper. It is thick enough not to buckle and stretch too much and robust enough to take repeated erasure yet still soft enough to hold the indentation of an HB pencil.

Deatial of paper surface

Detail of surface after repeated erasing and redrawing

I have chosen to use traditional pencils rather than a clutch pencil because it allows a greater degree of chaos to enter the mix. The sharpness wearing to bluntness and my reaction to it in the marks I make, plus the length of the pencil affecting my grip on it as it gets shorter, are important elements in the content of the works.

Drawing by David Smith

Erased black square 2

The piece I began today (detail below) is on a full sheet of Canaletto paper 500mm x 700mm on which I have created a semi-accurate ruled grid. I am using what I believe to be HB pencils that were liberated from conference rooms at various hotels 20 years ago – knew they would come in handy! I may have to buy some more as they are disappearing at an alarming rate. In future drawings I may use harder pencils depending on what the surface of chosen paper suggests. For the first layer I am trying to be pretty loose and not get into my usual rythmns and shapes. I am listening to Soft Machine and at times using my left hand. Once this “ground” has been established, with the general shape and form of the piece tentatively mapped in, I will be more controlled about the marks I make after each successive erasure.

Start of a graphite erasure drawing by David Smith

First layer of marks (detail) on an as yet untitled erasure drawing

Another Moment Waiting To Happen selected for Evolver Prize Exhibition

Another Moment Waiting To Happen - Ink drawing by David Smith

Another Moment Waiting To Happen
Ink on Paper 303mm x 216mm

I am delighted to announce that “Another Moment Waiting To Happen” has been selected for the Evolver Prize Exhibition at the Thelma Hulbert Gallery in Honiton from 4th July to 29 August 2015. It is only a small regional prize but I believe it attracts some of the best artists in the area so I am delighted to be ranked among such high quality. (Sorry for the appalling photo!)

I Forgot Who Said That

I Forgot Who Said That - ink & watercolur drwaing by David Smith

I Forgot Who Said That
Ink and watercolour on Saunders Waterford paper 559mm × 762mm

I finally managed to finish this drawing a few days ago. It is the first of many that I hoped to do while working within my #Letter365 installation at Bridport Arts Centre. I am only managing to get there for a couple of hours a day and mostly I get involved with talking with visitors for some part of the time. I have started another piece but will finish that at the studio because the table I am working on is not wide enough to accommodate imperial size paper longways and there is a lip round the table edge that means the paper doesn’t lie flat. But I have another two weeks so may gat more done and I have gathered lots of ideas.

This piece, I Forgot Who Said That, is one of my field drawings but using a more colourful palette than my usual black and white. Although firmly based in the repetitive, compartmentalised grid structure of pieces such as Aleph’s Flux or The Dream’s Malfunction – and I have done some small-scale test pieces in this style – the more rounded marks are influenced by the stains of fresh-sawn logs on the Allsop Gallery floorboards left from the show What Remains – an installation by And Now back in September-October 2014

Composite image of some stains on the Allsop Gallery floor caused by fresh cut logs in a previous installation

Composite image of some stains on the Allsop Gallery floor caused by fresh cut logs in a previous installation

I am aiming to do some more work related to these stains and the lines between the boards, but I’ll have to get a move on. Below is a detail of I Forgot Who Said That to compare and see how it may have been influenced more than I may have thought:

Detail of "I Forgot Who Said That" watercolour and ink drawing by David Smith

I Forgot Who Said That (detail)

Envoy

Envoy - watercolour and ink drawing by David Smith

Envoy
Watercolour and ink on Indian hand-made, recycled-cotton paper 559mm × 762mm

I have had this knocking around the studio for months and have finally resolved it. The paper is quite interesting to work with. It is Jackson’s own-brand “eco-friendly” 100% cotton, handmade paper from India. It is made from recycled cotton, each sheet being individually set into the moulds and then dried in the Indian sun. I like that these papers made in small moulds which means each sheet has 4 deckle edges in  1/4, 1/2 and Imperial sizes, so each sheet is unique and individual. Most sheets have got thumb or finger prints on. It doesn’t cut or tear cleanly because it has threads of cotton in and the surface is really fragile so no scrubbing and rubbing! Show it low-tack masking tape and it falls apart and sticking it on the wall with white tack is likely to tear a hole out of it. The surface absorbancy is completely random, the texture is variable and the colour is different from batch to batch. In many ways it is rubbish paper: so for me it is brilliant! I have to be either 100% certain what I want and hope it works or give myself over totally to its whims

Align One

Align One Ink drawing by David Smith on Moleskine concertina book

Align One
Ink drawing on Moleskine concertina book

Today’s #arteachday post on Twitter was this drawing in Rohrer Antique ink on a Moleskine concertina book. It was something that I have been wanting to do for quite some time and I had put it off for at least three days because making that first mark on a piece of paper, especially quite an expensive one, can be a bit daunting. I don’t know why it should be: I rarely ever make a mistake when I am full up with something. when the piece exists in all but the physical. In any case, my work is about the interplay between control and chaos so it shouldn’t really matter if I do make a mistake – it wouldn’t really be a mistake, just me expressing the chaos element!

Anyway it all worked out really fine and once it was dry and I could “play” with it I found it had been even more successful than I could have hoped. Someone else thought so too as it was snapped up by a collector in the United States within an hour or so of posting it.

It’s nice when you are appreciated

screen grab of Twitter feed

Twitter endorsement from a client

I got this tweet in my Twitter timeline today. Feels great to have given some real pleasure to someone’s life and enhanced their home. This is one of the pieces Gabriel and Alan bought:

The Blessed and the Meek - Ink drawing by David Smith

The Blessed and the Meek
Ink drawing on handmade watercolour paper 559mm x 381mm

Slightly More Than You Thought

Slightly More Than You Thought - abstract ink drawing by David Smith

Slightly More Than You Thought
Ink on paper 279mm x 381mm

Another minimalist dotty drawing which was today’s #arteachday post, except I forgot the image!

The Therapy Is Working

The Therapy Is Working - Ink drawing by David Smith

The Therapy Is Working
Ink on Somerset paper 381mm x 559mm

Wednesday’s #arteachday post was this half-imperial ink drawing

I Really Don’t Know Anymore

I Really Don't Know Anymore Drawing - Ink on Somerset paper by David Smith

I Really Don’t Know Anymore
Drawing – Ink on Somerset paper 559mm × 762mm

Today’s (well yesterday’s because I am late) #arteachday thing was this large minimalist ink drawing.

A little sketch of West Bay

A line and wash sketchbook entry of the coast west of West Bay

A line and wash sketchbook entry of the coast west of West Bay

Yesterday on my #Letter365 blog I said

If you want pictures of fluffy things, portraits, realism, impressionism, boats on water and that kind of thing I’m generally not your man.

So the devil in me thought I should make my #arteachday post on Twitter should be a line and wash sketchbook entry of the coast across Lyme Bay west of West Bay.