Recent posts
Take Me With You
The toy dinosaurs remind me of the human connection we have to our past and our desire to preserve what’s already gone. These images are a sort of tragic love story, imagining that the past misses us as much and as actively as we miss the past. This suggests a lesson about our relationship to our future and to the present. Metallic paper makes these colors come out.
Art Should Be (Almost) Free
One of the things I feel best about from this past weekend's Open Studios was giving out promotional freebies. In my last order to Photoworks, I included a run of 100 4"×6" prints of a photo of the Mount Davidson Cross and all weekend I gave them out. I signed them, numbered them, and dated them and gave them away at no charge.
Second Stage of Falcon Inks
Here you can see that after additional layers the hatching begins to take on a smoother appearance. I'm deepening up some areas to give shape, but it's a process that will have to develop over time. The blown-out highlight areas still look like painted-on stripes and there's little reflective detail, but you can see where it's going. The main surface of the nib still has only two layers of hatching.
A Couple of Pens From My Sketchbook
This is how I got started with the series of pen and ink drawings of pens and ink bottles. I'm not even sure what it was at first that intrigued me, but it's not that difficult to figure out. I love my pens and these were good exercises in texture and reflection with a variety of surfaces. There were challenges with these drawings, but they are sketchbook pieces, so I didn't want to take them too seriously.
More Sketchbook Pens: Four Edsons
Darkness (Peregrination Series)
The Peregrination series of photographs was taken at night on top of Mount Davidson in San Francisco on one of the nights in which the 103-foot tall cross is illuminated by powerful lights so as to be seen from miles away. The Peregrination series is not shown any more since the Luxographic prints based on three of these photographs were first shown. Darkness is printed on Fujicolor Professional paper at 8" by 12". It, like the others, is limited to seven prints, signed and numbered.
Pilot Custom 742 w/Falcon (FA) Nib
The Pilot Custom 742 optionally has a "Falcon" or FA nib, with cutouts on the sides that add to the flexibility of the nib and the variability and personality of the line it draws. This is one of the most flexible "factory" nibs available new, making the Custom 742 and Custom 743 a treasured and highly sought-after writing instrument. This pen and ink drawing is the third in the Pens and Inks series. It is limited to 51 prints, signed and numbered on double-weight Somerset Velvet acid-free printmaking paper.
Open Studios October 16-19
Actually, Open Studios goes on all month in San Francisco and this year they've even deputized the first weekend of November. But my studio will be open during the third weekend of October, the 18th and the 19th. In addition, at Art Explosion this year as with previous years, there will be an opening reception in the evening of Friday the 17th. New this year is the «preview show» on Thursday the 17th. So come on down and see some art. (And buy some art.)
I Think of You in Black & White
7"×10" archival giclée print on acid-free double-weight Somerset Velvet printmaking paper from pen & ink on bristol. 2006. Series limited to five prints.
Black & white is more than ink and paper; it represents all extremes. Yet wherever we look for absolute values like right and wrong, we find those extremes woven tightly together. Black is still black and white still white, but can we pull them apart?
Emotica/Galileo Manuscript
Second in the Pens and Inks series, this pen and ink drawing features the Exacompta Belle Epoque journal, a bottle of Fountain Pen Network's exclusive Noodler's Ink creation Galileo Manuscript, and the titanium-nib Emotica fountain pen from Omas.
The Pens and Inks series is limited to 51 prints, signed and numbered, on double-weight Somerset Velvet paper.
Spring Open Studios Is Upon Us
I Try to Redeem Myself: Name That Celeb Sketch Round Three
If I Don't Stop I'll Go Blind
In a previous post I explained the basics of Luxography, my digital printmaking process.
I'm Really Starting to Hate Computers
Freedom is the right to say that two plus two makes four. If that is granted, all else follows.
—George Orwell, 1984
Falcon Stage Four or It Was A Dark and Stormy Nib
At this stage, I'm not necessarily done with the nib, but I've progressed far enough to be really cautious about doing any more that I already have. It's time for me to turn my attentions to other areas. The end of the section is going to take a lot of ink, and I'm starting to have to get real serious about finalizing my composition.
Chapter Three, Custom 742 Falcon Drawing
Immortality
Working On My Feet
This weekend I did something I've been thinking about for some time. I threw away everything I've ever been told about «workstation ergonomics» and adjusted the height and angle of my drawing table up. I moved the drawing I'm working on up higher on the board and pushed my chair aside. I did the next couple of hours of drawing standing up, sitting only when I did something with the computer.













