Happy Birthday, Gemini 1980

This crazy composition by Jack Davis must have been made for a poster or advertisement, probably using ink and watercolour. Davis doesn’t hold back with the characterisations here. The whole scene is teetering on the verge of collapse, and that’s what I love most about it. There’s so much energy! Look how he’s built up the image from a series of wild marks. Thick outlines give way to dense hatching, then delicate washes of colour. It’s a process of layering and correction, a building up and breaking down. He’s not afraid to let the underdrawing show through. This gives the whole image a raw, immediate feel. It reminds me of the work of Ronald Searle, with the manic energy of his drawings. There’s an honesty to that kind of mark-making, an openness to the unexpected. And that’s what makes it so compelling.