Sketch work...playing with new ideas.

Here are some snaps of my recent studio work, which is mainly taking place in the sketchbook at the moment. I haven't worked in a sketchbook for a long time , its nice to have a place to collect ideas and thoughts , though I do find i still have bits of paper with notes and drawings all over the place,  I'm enjoying reconnecting with the sketchbook as a testing ground.

I have been working with a continuing idea of using instructions and systems to generate drawings. The instructions are becoming more coded,  and the results of new experiments  are more generative in form than previous works.

The instruction sets, or codes, provide a platform for other form growing concepts to be realised, one idea always has an important connection to the next and I see this as an integral part of my practice.

I find that I learn a lot about drawing from using codes, the more I exploit a particular code, repeating it over and over again, new discoveries are made throughout the whole process. My work is completely transformative,  from what you start out with to how its end up as a 'finished' piece. I tend to draw in series, using the same code throughout, and each drawing will be different in form. Using algorithms creates new ideas and informs my technical ability to make a drawing - in composition and spacial forms, and in manipulating the media.

I quite often explore the graphical qualities of the hand drawn line, both in free hand and by using a measuring device. I like to combine this with patterns and repetitive marks, and how i interfere and react to the process is sometimes exploited to the point of chaos. There is a strong element of play and of trial and error in my work and I enjoy discovering imperfections and become inspired by unexpected occurrences that happen as a result of following and exploiting such a rigid format.

Playing with traditional ideas of balance and symmetry is something i'm currently interested in, pushing and subverting classical forms into new directions. I often create a simple field for the drawings to take place - a masked off area on a paper surface, or an X, Y axis to plot randomly generated or found numbers.

Hand drawn pen lines, generated by a plotting area to place the marks, and using found numbers to rotate the page using a protractor.

Hand drawn pencil lines, erased and re drawn, using an x,y axis. Numbers are generated by an online number generator for the purpose of trying the idea out.

And now some of the ideas are being tried and tested on a larger scale, on a separate paper surface.