‘Shadow’
THE background STORY
I’ve had an artwork idea bubbling away in the back of my mind all summer…
The idea for this piece came about back in August 2024 when my pencil stub artwork ‘Practise' was still on display at the RA Summer Exhibition.
When I went along to the exhibition I would hear people talking about the artwork and everyone was getting up close and curious reading the different shades of pencils… HB, 2B, 3H, 7B etc
From afar all the pencils look alike. However the closer you get you can see there were 3 different brands of pencil, and 16 different shades.
I made this tally of the pencil stubs. But I wanted a visual way of showing the variety.
In the last year since I created the pencil stub artwork ‘Practise’ I’ve thought a lot about the medium of graphite drawing. The artwork was a celebration of the humble pencil. Something we have all used at some point in our lives. And a tool often over looked.
In our time of AI I think it’s great to celebrate the hand made, the texture of graphite, the shine of the graphite against the soft paper. The human touch. There is something special about that in an era of digital computer generated art. I want to continue to pay homage to the pencil.
At the same time that these ideas were growing I was in the studio experimenting with oil painting, watercolours, and coloured pencils.
I thought it would be fun to test out new and different mediums. However I really missed my pencils and paper!
I thought I had to change medium in order to try a different style. But actually realised I could experiment using graphite pencils but in a totally different way.
That was when I made the artwork ‘Palimpsest’. I found an old artwork when moving house, so I took it out the frame and reworked it in a very radical way using graphite.
This process of creating ‘Palimpsest’ got me excited about experimenting more with abstract graphite drawings.
Which leads onto the inception of ‘Shadow’…
How do ideas come about?
I’ve gone back through old sketchbooks, photos and videos to work out the origins of my new artwork idea.
Sometimes you’re lucky and ideas just spring out of nowhere. But other times ideas spark when you’re experimenting.
The simple act of putting pencil to paper allows the mind to explore. Tapping into your inner creativity.
Back in August I was randomly doodling these squares in different shades of pencil.
Out these doodles developed an idea. To do a life size drawing of my pencil stub artwork ‘Practise’.
Using the corresponding shade of pencil to draw each one.
The idea was born! And even the name…’Shadow’.
The creation of ‘shadow’
I had three ideas for how to represent each pencil.
A rough block sketch of each pencil
An exact silhouette outline of each pencil
A rough block sketch hinting at a pencil shape
I just couldn’t decide between the 3 options. So I sat with the idea for months mulling it over…
But by October I knew I had to just make a decision and go for it.
So obviously picked the most time consuming and difficult of the three!
But it made sense. The other two rough outlined shadings are all about the pencil gradient. But not enough about the original piece Practise.
I wanted this piece to be called Shadow. It’s about what’s left behind by my last artwork.
The finished artwork
272 pencils later and here is the finished drawing. I’m really happy with how it turned out in the end. I love the contrast between the shades of pencils, the intrigue of the writing and the continuation of the pencil’s story.
The idea is for this piece to follow in the footsteps of ‘Practise’. I had a vision of it hanging on the wall next year at the RA Summer Exhibition in the exact same place as last year.
Only this time rather than the pencils, it’s the marks they leave behind….