Print Club News / 7th April 2025
I’ve been enjoying the warmer days here, and working on a new series of drawings that derive from a modular pencil drawing. To be honest, I’ve probably spent far too long editing it all, and it’s certainly been an education in seeing how much time can be used up when delving into a granular edit of a specific drawing. In this case several weeks, maybe a month.
That said, I now have a live drawing that I can fine tune, edit and re colour without degrading the original pencil work, as everything has been scanned and digitised, so each mark is separately adjustable and movable; I think there may be as many as 900 individual elements in play; it's been interesting to work up a new technique for making work.
If you’d like to see how the drawing has been constructed, I’ve made an animated version of it and put that on YouTube here >
https://chuckelliott.com/news/balla-a-sketch-study-for-a-new-animated-drawing
Beyond the interest of seeing how the drawing has been put together over time, the real interest here lies in the idea of creating a work that has the aesthetic of a pencil drawing, graphite on paper, but with the added creative flexibility of the digital world, which it does.
I’m going to stop at six variations I think, so I’m expecting to make maybe two more versions over the coming week or two. But for now, I’m broadly happy with these first three / four editions, which I hope speak about the spring to varying degrees. As you can see, the influence of the tone and hue shifts can vary the base drawing immensely, and allow for significant shifts in mood and saturation.
As a new idea for the Print Club, I thought rather than choosing which piece to edition for you, I’d ask you to choose your own print from these first three / four pieces.
I’ll be interested to find out which one appeals the most. If you’d prefer not to choose, I’m happy to select for you, and if I don’t hear from you within a week or so, I’ll choose myself and post one out to you. I hope that seems good. Effectively you’re very welcome to leave it to me to choose if you prefer!
The studies are titled Balla, after the noted Italian Futurist. I was given a beautiful book about Liberty fabric designs and the Futurist movement at Christmas, and included amongst the plates are a number of sketches by Balla that show some workings around this kind of geometry. In fact I think the tessellation comes largely from the Islamic tradition, fascinating drawings and designs that have infused the C20th modernist movement and speak about nature and maths amongst many other things.
For my next study the geometry will be more complex, and more 3d, but for this piece I wanted to explore the idea of actually completing an edition with just pencil and inks. Effectively a 2d study for a more complex work to come.
I often think artists’ preparatory sketches can be more interesting than their finished works, so its been really interesting to work this piece up in this way.
These are the three / four variations. For simplicity let's call them blue and green / pink and green / pink and grey / gold and blue. I’ll look forward to hearing back from you with your choice in due course, and to making the print for you too...
Best as ever,
Chuck Elliott
PS If your membership is currently paused, but you’d like this piece for your home, please do resubscribe and I’ll send it out to you.
