…I shall carry on with my present artwork-in-progress. It’s a pencil drawing on A3 cartridge paper, using just three colours (vermillion, Spectrum Blue and indigo). I’ve been working on it on and off for a couple of months, just picking it up now and then and doing 10 minutes or so. This is the way I like to work – I can’t imagine shutting myself in some studio and doing nothing else for five or six hours at a time.
It started off as a drawing of B on the sofa; almost straightaway, it started taking on a life of it’s own. I like it when a drawing does that – it takes off in unexpected directions and leads you to surprising conclusions. It’s a bit messy and I’m not at all sure it’s going to be worth the effort. But I’ll carry on with it. Heck, it’s my drawing and I can do it how I like!
In case you think I can’t, I can draw “properly”. I can spend hours on a careful representation drawing of a piece of crockery or glassware, say, getting all the reflections and bumps and curves and shadows and tones and proportions and details. And I’m pleased with the result. But when a work comes to life and decides what it wants to be – that’s the exciting bit!