Pencil on Paper

The long drawing is worrying me as my elbows hurt so much. I am doing the piece in stages but I don’t have much time - ordinarily I would have just cancelled life until it was done but I just can’t draw for long periods any more.

A substantial drawing to my mind needs layers - literally or descriptively - at the moment it’s just large and that’s sort of all it has going for it. The mark making must be much more layered and nuanced, which will require a lot of work. I want to punch into it, which will also be enormous amounts of work and the edges need to be de-edged… I am considering phosphorescent dots as in the previous drawings, which I think work really well to reference bioindicator species. The issue with display will be the black light, but I can bring a black light on the day and otherwise not worry about it. The work is more important than whether it is fully presentable on the day. I really like the eraser rubbings, which I had attached for the first year show but I think I have moved on in this drawing. They provide some visual punctuation however, which I could find elsewhere. The graphite is water soluble and I am considering some wet/dry tension as the blackness of wet graphite is beautiful. The drawing is overall making me a bit nervous but I also believe I can make a big change in the coming weeks. Having the village hall also means I can see how I feel about it and pull the plug if necessary. I could divide the drawing as there is nothing to say it has to remain 10 metres, in fact moving away from commercially convenient dimensions is much more in keeping.