Jeff Davis - Mechanical Drawings

Mechanical Drawings is a series of large-format generative drawings executed with a plotter using colored pencils. Each work explores the translation of digital color into physical mark-making, where algorithmic color blends are expressed through cross-hatched lines drawn by a machine. Every physical drawing has an associated digital artwork on Art Blocks.
The algorithm at the heart of Mechanical Drawings generates grids of color mixtures between a defined set of colored pencils. The positions and orientations of these grids vary across each composition. The mixtures are then translated into cross-hatched lines, where the line density for each pencil determines the amount of color it contributes to the final blend. Where multiple colors meet, their cross-hatched lines intermingle, creating optical mixtures on the paper.
The digital artworks display each composition as smooth, mathematically precise blends between the selected colors. Clicking the artwork toggles between this blended view and a cross-hatched linear view representative of the physical drawing. The digital artwork also generates all the component SVG files necessary for running the plotter. In this sense, the digital artwork contains the complete logic, composition, and instruction set for the execution of the physical drawing.
Each drawing takes approximately ten hours of continuous plotter run time to complete. The pencils sharpen themselves automatically throughout the process, a routine we tested during the initial R&D sessions in Zurich. Drawing order is also carefully optimized so that marks are applied in sequences that promote uniformity and minimize the visual effects of the pencil becoming increasingly dull as it’s used. Each drawing measures 56 × 76 cm and is executed with Caran d'Ache Pablo colored pencils on extra white, 300 gsm Fabriano Artistico paper.
Mechanical Drawings is an attempt to balance my desire for artistic precision with the inherent imperfections that come from using traditional fine art materials. The algorithm generates compositions with mathematical rigor, and the plotter executes them with mechanical consistency. But at some point, you have to let go and allow the materials and the process to introduce their own variability. A colored pencil does not behave like a pixel. It traces pigment unevenly, it dulls as it draws, it responds to the texture of the paper. The end goal is to exercise as much control as I can over the drawing process and let these imperfect moments contribute to the final expression.