ELECTRONIC CALLIGRAPHY

These works stem from an activity which I like to do now and again, which is painting ambidextrously with two Chinese brushes of the same size, to produce a near mirror image. It is a challenge to get a very symmetrical drawing, but this becomes easier with practice.

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To create an image, I often work on either newspaper or on black paper to make rough paintings, then redraw the shapes in a computer app using a variety of calligraphic brush strokes, in order to get more of an "idealized" shape, clean lines and better detail. The almost 3-dimensional-looking structures of some of the forms you see here are made up of many strokes in different colours. 

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Many of the drawings I've done in this fashion are of natural history subjects (I never tire of the symmetry in nature),  but I've also recently branched out into experimenting with human figures. These are based on the excellent UV life drawing class which used to be live, but since lockdown, has been and continues to be available online: "Neon Naked" run by Jylle Navarro, on Facebook, and via virtual links. You'll note that the colour palette I use is very similar to my work in UV painting. Whilst I never tire of black backgrounds and neon colours, I appreciate that at the same time I'll have to get more experimental, sooner or later! 

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