This week I’ve been building resources in my sketchbook. An A5 pencil sketch of TV remote controls sitting on my cutting mat was followed by a closer view of a specific area in Sharpie pen.
I picked these as my subjects as I’m drawn to lines and shapes, containers and boxes. The pencil drawing was done quite carefully and produced a tight, but fairly accurate, depiction of the items. The pen drawing took only a few minutes and is a little less controlled but still recognisable.
My next pen drawing was produced with a continuous line and without looking at the paper at all. My eyes followed the outlines of the shapes while my hand attempted to follow along blindly.
Using strips of paper I masked off areas of the drawing and honed in on much smaller sections, redrawing them in either pen or ink. Here are a few, cropped, in either pen or ink.
I decided there was scope to use the top left-hand line work further. I printed a few backgrounds, cut a temporary stencil and overlaid the design.
These have become interesting samples. The TV remote has disappeared and morphed into a very free and organic design which I’ll continue to work with for a while.
TactualTextiles 
This is very impressive line work, you have quite a steady hand! Whenever I try to draw objects, I struggle to keep straight edges from becoming wobbling lines. The no-looking remote control is quite a challenge – I just tried to do a quick one and it doesn’t look like a remote at all. Nicely done!
Hi Jon, This idea is very new to me and is proving quite freeing as I’m usually very exacting and precise in what I try to do. Not looking at my hand or paper and concentrating on the photo or objects I’m starting with brings a spontaneous response and lines I wouldn’t have otherwise achieved. I’m working on a series and should be posting more soon. Some are being translated into prints which I hope to exhibit in July. Fingers crossed.
Sounds very cool, definitely looking forward to the series!
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