The First Drawing Dialogues is happening on October 9th at QUAD...

The first Drawing Dialogues event is set to take place on October 9th at 7.30 p.m. at QUAD. It is intended to be an opportunity for all who draw to engage with others in an informal setting

Four local artists – Alyn Mulholland, Liam Sharp, Kate Smith and Jane Stanton will each give a short presentation identifying some of the questions which have arisen out of their own studio practice – providing a starting point for further consideration.

·        Alyn Mulholland, a sculptor and curator will discuss how drawing relates to the 3-dimensional and question whether it requires a different approach to the 2-dimensional.

·        Liam Sharp, a comic book artist, writer and publisher will be talking about the death of ‘fantastic art’ and at what point the imaginary became undervalued

·        Kate Smith, an artist whose work is exclusively drawing based, will talk about traditional vs digital drawing and issues of terminology, value and audience encounter.

·        Jane Stanton, an artist and academic, will present  her documentary drawing and discuss representation, voyeurism and the effectiveness of drawing versus photograph

Chaired by Katrinka Wilson, artist and academic, the discussion is intended to be an opportunity for all to participate and express their opinions and the audience will be encouraged to contribute to the direction the discussion takes.

Artslant 5th Showcase Winner

A few week ago I heard from Artslant that I'd been chosen as a 5th Showcase winner. I'd only just 'claimed' my profile (available as a result of the  Drawing Center show in New York) and had only submitted a work as it was part of the signing up info and it was free. Forgot about it until I received the email - so a really nice suprise. The next stage is juried winners (selected from each of this years 6 Showcase winners) Juried winners then become eligible for the Golden Frame Awards when 3 overall winners are selected. Prizes for the Golden Frame include an exhibitions in a major city - so fingers crossed

Drawing Paper #2

(from http://drawing-paper.tumblr.com/)

We are delighted to announce Drawing Paper 2 has recently been published to coincide with the opening of the 10th Liverpool Biennial ‘Touched’ (www.biennial.com). It features work by 19 artists (Sachiko Abe, Richard Creed, Jagjit Chuhan, Mathilda Roussel Girauldy, Lizzie Hall, Kentaro Kobuke, Karin Lindholm, Katherine Lloyd, Jim Loftus, Lucy Macdonald, Julia McKenzie, Tabitha Moses, Al Murphy, Matt Niebuhr, Anita Plank, Kate Smith, Andrew Wilson, Kirsty White and Alexandra Wolkowicz) some of whom have come to our attention via this blog.

If you’d like a copy posting to you please send an A4 self addressed envelope with £1.20 second class postage (UK addresses only) to Mike Carney, 26 Moss Street, Garston, Liverpool L19 2NA. If you’re overseas and would like a couple of copies please email me your address and send £5 via Paypal to mike@mikesstudio.co.uk

When is a drawing not a drawing?

Back in 2002 when I started my MA in Printmaking I became interested in the whole idea of multiples, repetition etc. and I suppose started to question when is a print not a print? One of the things I did was hand cut very large stencils of fragments of  fabric showing the spaces left by removing stitching. I then draw through them by hand with various grades of pencil, ballpoint pens etc. Each drawing was different and often I would only do one drawing/ print from a stencil.(although there was always the potential for an unlimited number).

 I also did  series of drawings from the same  stencil using different media and surfaces including 'Blueprints' below where I did 5 drawings each with a different make of blue ballpoint pen - each turned out a different colour and was hand-drawn so had individual marks/ variations in tone. (Actually this was intended to be a series of drawings where each was finished when the ballpoint pen ran out but none of them did.....)

 Work undertaken at this time was the beginning of my whole body of work produced since then which has been exclusively drawing based.
Drawing digitally has led me to revisit many of these thoughts but from the opposite perspective. Instead of a print possibly becoming a drawing - a drawing is now possibly becoming a print?

I am fairly confident that I can describe the above as an original drawing (in progress) - it is produced in exactly the same way as my pencil/paper drawings - just with a digital pen and 'paper'. The problem really arises with the method of exhibition/ presentation. If the drawing is projected same size (1016 x 1372) or shown on a computer screen at same size it is still the original drawing - in fact probably more so as it allows it to be viewed at 1:1 scale. (I think it can be called a print if screened/ projected / printed at a different size/ resolution to the original as there has been an intervention and the original has been altered) But what if it is projected 1:1 a number of times simultaneously? Or shown on a number of screens? If the file is copied is it still the original? How can there be two or more identical originals? What about if printed on paper - but only once and never again?.... Lots of questions and no answers at the moment but I am wondering if the language which has developed to describe/ categorise traditional art work is actually inadequate for describing digital artwork?  Maybe trying to fit a round peg in  a square hole?

Digital drawing...in progress

Digital drawing in progress - no quicker than drawing with pencil on paper as the digital paper is the same size and the method of drawing is identical - so I'm expecting it to take 400+ hours to finish. I decided that doing a 2 x layered drawing for my first digital drawing wasn't a good idea as it would take twice as long before I could print it out. Therefore I've started a new single drawing (I will do double layer if this works out). I am quite patient but 800+ hours of drawing before seeing it printed was too long even for me! Size of above: 1016 x 1372 mm, software: Corel Painter 11 (I think I have tested every natural media software out there and this was by far the best for my needs - Photoshop didn't even come close to recreating the 'feel' of drawing and Alias Sketchbook Pro wouldn't allow a digital canvas the size I wanted...) , single layer, 4H, 2H, 2B and 4B default Corel pencils and eraser. Aiming to have it finished by December 2010 and hoping to show a digital drawing at Derby Museum Show in 2011.....