SKETCH: figure studies without a figure

Traditional drawing records an encounter between a body, an eye and a hand. SKETCH simulates the evidence of that encounter without any of those things being physically present. Across a sequence of figure studies, an invented man stands, crouches, turns, looks away and returns our gaze, as though repeatedly observed during a series of life-drawing sessions. Yet no model entered a studio, no body held these poses and no pencil moved across paper. The sitter, the act of observation and the marks that appear to describe him are all synthetic. What seems to be a record of sustained attention is instead an image generated from visual conventions associated with drawing from life.

The project adopts the familiar language of the figure study: graphite contours, cross-hatched shadows, unfinished passages and areas of untouched paper. These signs suggest a process unfolding over time. A darkened line appears to register a decision; an altered contour seems to preserve an earlier attempt to understand the body. Artificial intelligence recreates the appearance of this process without physically performing it. The generated mark therefore occupies an uncertain position. It can feel expressive, searching and materially persuasive, while remaining detached from the hand, pressure and duration it seems to record. The appearance of labour survives, even when the labour itself has disappeared.

Across the sequence, the same invented sitter is seen from changing angles and distances. His distinctive face and physique give him the continuity of an individual, while his exaggerated proportions place him close to an ideal or prototype of masculine form. Hot pink washes complicate the severity of the graphite body, introducing colour that feels artificial, playful and emotionally charged. Rather than documenting someone who existed, SKETCH gradually constructs a person through the appearance of documentation. Each image seems to reveal another view of an already complete man, yet invents that view for the first time. The project asks what remains of observational drawing when there was nothing physically present to observe — and why a pencil mark generated without touch can still make us feel the presence of a hand.