Chicken Scratches

Graham Fletcher, 'Ultraman' drawing

If I compiled a list of the top three things I'd like to be able to do it would look like this:

1. I'd like to know how to draw
2. I'd like to be fluent in written and spoken French
3. I'd like to be able to play the guitar or the cello

When we were putting together our Pania Press book Orange Roughy earlier this year, Graham Fletcher sent me through a selection of his marvellous drawings to go in the book along with the note, "Here are some chicken scratches for you".

Well, if I had to describe Graham's drawings, I'd never refer to them as chicken scratches! I'm so envious of the way that the artists I know and admire can just squiggle away with apparent ease and produce the most astonishing things. Like this strange little chap:

Graham Fletcher, 'King of the Wood' Drawing

or this melancholy flower face:

Graham Fletcher, 'Need Fire' Drawing

Here are a couple of my favourite pages from Mark Braunias's 1994 catalogue Praha containing reproductions of the sardonic suite of drawings he produced during a trip to Prague in 1991:

And now for a trio of drawings that I'm fortunate enough to own by the uber-talented Emma Smith:

Emma Smith, Untitled 'Chicken'

I love to travel around inside Emma's drawings. Every time you look at them you see something else. A chicken head becomes a whole series of mountain ranges. Just look at all these beautiful inky marks:

And eyes within eyes - I love the way Emma draws haunted, fathomless eyes:

Emma Smith, 'Merope', (detail)

Emma Smith, 'Have I been pardoned yet?' (detail)

Luckily I manage to make a virtue out of the naive quality of my draughtsmanship in the crafting sphere but I really would give the tip of my kitten's tail (sorry Zero but you did just savagely maul my hand for no apparent reason) to know instinctively how to get depth, volume, proportion, contour, shading and perspective onto a flat white piece of paper.