This last week I have been investigating a way of working that has it’s roots in my 5 lines method. I choose 5 shapes: a 4 sided shape, a 3 sided shape, a long nose shape, a mouth shape (a rounded shape with a line through it), and a pair of circles that represent eyes. Then I arrange them in various combinations. When I have generated several, I use tracing paper to copy one, then over lay another. Once I have a drawing that is a combination of at least 2, I use carbon transfer paper to copy the image onto an A5 piece of 220gsm cartridge paper. I then paint onto this and rework the drawing in response to the coloured shapes. The materials I use are acrylic paint mixed with fine marble dust, carbon transfer, pencil, and conté pencil. These are the results so far.

Remaining productive during this lockdown is proving curiously difficult. In normal circumstances, the opportunity to stay at home, without any interruptions, would be a fantastically rare, and welcome opportunity. I have no difficulty spending long periods of time alone, but this externally imposed isolation, has proved oddly inhibiting. I know I am not alone in having trouble focussing on my work. 

To counter this fog of dissipated energy, I set myself the task of making one pencil drawing a day, for 30 days. Some of them would take more than a day, some only a couple of hours. 

I have created a short film, where you see them in the order that they were made. 

I am usually quite dismissive of the idea that my state of mind shows in my work, but perhaps this film is quite revealing.