(Not) Going Digital...

Continuing the nascent project of drawing with the new digital pen, the method thus far being the tracing of existing drawings, being guided by the mark-making process of a selection of the enduring favourite artists, & on this occasion using Van Gogh & his distinctive style as the template for such endeavour.

As one follows in the mark-makings of the artist, one is struck by the intensity of the realisation of his vision before & amidst the motif, the obsessive recording of sensations as enshrined in the drawing, with its dynamic all-over surface, so vividly communicated, &, in turn, just how mechanical & removed a process is the tracing, for all the degree of concentrated looking & physical activity required.

Furthermore, the biro inevitably lacks the variety & subtlety of mark-making potential of the range of tools & media used by Van Gogh, his ink pens & pencils, for all that one attempts to be sympathetic to & empathetic with the source image: involved in the drawing process, viewing the reproduction from which one is working, one is unaware, through the accumulating haze of marks made upon the surface of the not-wholly-transparent tracing paper, through which one struggles to see, just how far distanced one is & increasingly becomes until a comparison is made.


Vincent Van Gogh 'Cottage' 1888
pencil, reed pen & pen, with brown & black ink on paper/61x49cm


copy after Van Gogh 'Cottage Garden'
biro on tracing paper/30x20cm

At this point in proceedings, it’s customary to present the digital version of the drawing (process) as recorded by the clip-on receiver & uploaded to the computer: alas, on this occasion, someone forgot to remember to switch the receiver on, thus no record was made/saved of the drawing as it happened, & thus there’s no digital drawing to subsequently convert into text, so we’re left with just the handmade biro tracing of the process.