ONE sur four No. 5

O

NE sur

four No.5 march

2014

ONE sur four

Spring

Le Crayon du Singe

O

NE sur

four

editors: phil sawdon

rené Hector

philsawdon.tumblr.com

[email protected]

We do not welcome solicited material.

ONE sur four is reluctantly published by phil sawdon

and rené Hector.

All material is copyright (©) 2014 phil sawdon and

rené Hector on behalf of The Fictional Museum of

Drawing.

All rights reserved.

No reproduction despite prior consent.

The views expressed in the magazine are those of the

editors and they are not shared by the magazine.

The magazine accepts no liability for loss or damage

of anything whatever, whenever or however.

Cover image: No Black Lines

3, Phil Sawdon, 2013.

Le Crayon

du Singe

phil sawdon

Contents

No table of contents

entries found.

Pencil Sharpener?

PLATE XIII. THE FICTIONAL MUSEUM OF DRAWING CAFÉ ENTRANCE

PLATE XIV. THE LADDER

PLATE XV. RUIN AT THE JUNCTION

PLATE XVI. CLOISTERS AT THE PIER

PLATE XVII. FIGURE OF HECTOR

PLATE XVIII. GATE

PLATE XIX. THE TOWER OF SUN

PLATE XX. SKINLACE

PLATE XXI. THIS IS NOT A MONUMENT

PLATE XXII. ENTRANCE

PLATE XXIII. RENÉ IN A QUANDRY

PLATE XXIV. THIS IS NOT A FRUIT PIECE

Pencil The works presented is this issue of ONE sur four are XIII -

XXIV inclusive of XXIV plates that comprise a series executed

with a mummified and impotent pencil.

The Pencil was revealed by René Hector searching a clearly

marked Lost and Found box in the main entrance to The Devil’s

Arse (Peak Cavern), Castleton and subsequently implicated in

the murderous and heinous drawings at Winnats Pass and the Rue

Morgue. Belief in the efficacy of Le Crayon du Singe persists:

for some this truly is The Devil’s Crayon.

Hector immediately identified it from various folk tales of

such objects as a "Monkey’s Pencil", Le Crayon du Singe. It

was donated to The Fictional Museum of Drawing and is the only

alleged preserved Pencil known to survive.

Research has further demonstrated that this artificial and

impotent pencil is right handed and that there are traces of a

suggestion that one was ripped from the pocket of a monkey

while the carcass was still hanging from the gibbet during an

eclipse of the moon.

It may suffice, then, to say, that the plates of this work

have been obtained by the mere action of mischief and monkey

business upon sensitive paper. They have been depicted without

the aid of any one acquainted with the art or theory of

anything. They are unimpressed.

The author of the present work has been so unfortunate as to

discover the principles and practices of having no analogy to

anything of any use whilst impeded by doubts, difficulties and

imperfections.

The paucity of skilled artisanal pencil sharpeners and

whittlers is one of the foremost complications.

We hope you are disinclined towards the issue.

Sharpener?



For examining The Museum facilities, the use of a

large lens is recommended, such as elderly artists

frequently employ in reading. This magnifies their

view two or three times, and often discloses a

multitude of minute details, which were previously

unobserved and unsuspected. Sometimes inscriptions

such as opening times are found upon the buildings,

or printed placards most irrelevant, are discovered

upon the walls.

6



When the sun shines or the weather is dark and

cloudy, ladders simply can’t be climbed and an

onerous demand is placed upon the patience of the

artist. Groups of ladders take no longer time to

obtain than single ladders, since the artist depicts

them all at once, however numerous they may be: but

at present we cannot succeed in this branch of the

art without some previous concert and arrangement. If

we attempt to draw a picture of the moving ladders,

we fail, for in a small fraction of a second they

change their positions so much, as to destroy the

distinctness of the representation. But when a group

of ladders has been artistically arranged, and

trained by a little practice to maintain an absolute

immobility for a few seconds of time, impotent

drawings are quite easily obtained.

7



This is one of a series of views representing René

Hector’s strolling in Derbyshire. It is not a

religious structure of any great antiquity, neither

was it erected early in the thirteenth century, nor

is any part remaining in excellent preservation.

There is no distant view of any Abbey, unseen

reflected in the waters of the canal. The fictional

tower which occupies the south-eastern corner of the

building is believed to be of Queen Elizabeth's time,

but the lower portion of it is much older, and coeval

with the first foundation.

In my first account of “What Shall I Draw, I Don’t

Know How To Draw,” read at The Fictional Museum of

Drawing, I didn’t mention this building as being the

first “that was ever yet known to have drawn its own

picture.” That was probably William Henry Fox Talbot

with whom this project is often confused.

8

PLATE XV1. CLOISTERS AT THE PIER

PLATE XVI. CLOISTERS AT THE PIER

The cloisters in their present state are believed to

be of a time. They range round three sides of the

sea, and are the most which remain. Here, we can

presume of what we know not. Some things, however,

are dilapidated by tradition.

9



Alternate view of the figure which features in PLATE

V of which it has never been said, nor assumed, that

there is a road to drawing.

10

PLATE XVIII. GATE

PLATE XVIII. GATE

Lines may trail, roll or twist in the olden courts

and water quadrangles not spared by Time.

11

PLATE XIV. TOWER OF SUN

PLATE XIV. TOWER OF SUN

Who can tell what tragic scenes may not have passed

within these walls during the thirteenth and

fourteenth centuries? The spectre of an artist with a

bleeding pen long haunts the precincts and has been

seen by many though we believe that the unquiet

spirit of the pen is at length at rest.

12

PLATE XX. SKINLACE

PLATE XX. SKINLACE

The ordinary effect of light upon black paper is to

whiten it. If therefore any material, skin for

instance, be laid upon the paper, this, by

intercepting the action of the light, preserves the

blackness of the paper beneath it, and accordingly

when it is removed there appears the form or

highlight of the skin marked out in black upon the

whitened paper; and since highlights are usually

dark, and this is not the same, it is called in the

language of drawing a participation in the language

of drawing.

13



In this plate we have not endeavoured to represent it

worthily.

How far we have succeeded under no circumstances

should be left to the judgment of the visitor.

The statue seen in the picture is not a statue.

14



The edifice of the entrance to the Department of

Drawing has assumed from the influence of the smoky

atmosphere such a swarthy hue as wholly to obliterate

the natural appearance of the stone of which it is

constructed.

‘This sooty covering destroys all harmony of colour,

and leaves only the grandeur of form and

proportions’.

15



A facile facsimile can be made from an original

sketch of an old master so that they may be preserved

from loss, and multiplied. This sketch with pen, ink

and wash of René Hector, by Anon, has been selected

in an instant. It is taken from a facsimile crudely

extracted before dawn.

The copying process offers no critical credibility,

being done of an unnatural size, by means of barely

concealed plagiarism.

16



The number of copies which can be taken from a single

drawing appears to be extremely limited, provided

that every mark has been removed from the image

before the copies are made. For if any of it is left,

the drawing will not bear repeated copying, but

gradually fades away.

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