I seem to have accidentally stumbled into Inktober - the relatively new tradition in which artists set themselves the challenge of producing an ink drawing a day for the whole month of October. Though strictly speaking I'm not doing this. For one, I didn't start making my ink drawings till passed the mid-way point of October, and secondly, I'm not making one drawing a day. So far I've only spent two and a half evenings working on them but in that time I have managed to produce over 30 drawings.
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| Selection of A5-size ink drawings on paper, 2020, by Wayne Chisnall, for Unlockdown project |
It's been so long since I properly worked in ink (if I ever did at all) and I must confess that working on these drawings has been loads of fun and, for me, a mini voyage of discovery. I've
final got to try out a couple of drawing implements that I've had sat
in a drawer for years - never used. One of them is a calligraphy brush
that a friend bright me back from China and the other is a bamboo ink
pen (even the nib is make if bamboo) which turned out to be a joy to
draw with.
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| A5-size ink drawing on paper, 2020, by Wayne Chisnall, for Unlockdown project |
To backtrack slightly, a few days ago I started on a series of A5-sized ink wash drawings. The series is tied into the Unlockdown project - an art collaboration between myself and the artist, Sharon Griffin. As I may have previously mentioned, Sharon and I were planning a Kickstarter campaign for January 2021. The aim of the campaign was to fund the production of, and the touring of the sculptural work that we will be creating for Unlockdown.
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| Porcelain busts, 2020, by Sharon Griffin & Wayne Chisnall, for Unlockdown project |
As such, we thought that we're going to need to offer some juicy rewards
for the campaign. Our thoughts on this, so far, include a raffle to win a
roughly 17 inch tall ceramic sculpture, ceramic badges, tote bags, possibly a
book, a some lovely 4 inch tall porcelain busts/figures. And this is where the
ink drawings come in - all of these original ink drawings are based upon the
small series of porcelain figures that we've produced so far.
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| A5-size ink drawing on paper, 2020, by Wayne Chisnall, for Unlockdown project |
We initially intended for the crowd funding campaign to start in January
and for the money raised from it to be put towards the first major leg of
Unlockdown's tour - a somewhat costly but prestigious London event, for which
Sharon and I have been selected to exhibit. However, we have just this minute
discovered that the event has now been postponed, due to the current pandemic
situation, and put back till 2022.
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| A5-size ink drawing on paper, 2020, by Wayne Chisnall, for Unlockdown project |
Regardless of this, Sharon and I had already been considering having a test run, ahead of the crowd funding campaign, and releasing a limited number of ink drawings and porcelain figures at regular intervals throughout November 2020. So I don't see why this cannot still go ahead. If you'd like to be kept in the loop over the release dates, and with Unlockdown news in general, please feel free to go to our website (Unlockdown.co.uk), where you can also sign up for our newsletter.
