Urchin

Generative software, drawing robot, Bic ballpoint on Aquafine hot pressed watercolour paper. 30 x 30cm unframed. One off drawing (this is not a print).

This drawing is made of nine layers of standard Bic ballpoint pens (green, blue, and black) with different weights attached. There are over half a million lines in this drawing, which took several hours for the plotting robot to draw. The drawing is based on a photograph I took of an urchin shell on the shore of the Isle of Bute off the west coast of Scotland.

I am interested in the uncanny effect of using one of the most humble and familiar writing implements in the world - the Bic ballpoint - to create a drawing with so much density of ink. The juxtaposition of the familiar ink and the digital photograph leaves a sense of ambiguity. Is this a drawing or a photograph?

For each drawing sold, I will donate £5 to Trees for Life, to offset carbon and support the rewilding of the Scottish Highlands.

N.B. The ink in Bic ballpoints is robust, but not immune to UV light, so please mount this picture away from direct sunlight to avoid the colours fading. If possible, it would be good to use UV filtering glass in any framing.