MLYON.com » Mike Lyon http://mlyon.com Mike Lyon painting, drawing, printmaking, furniture, photography, and other stuff Mon, 30 Jan 2012 22:17:20 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 pen and ink drawing of Miguel Rivera http://mlyon.com/2012/01/pen-and-ink-drawing-of-miguel-rivera/ http://mlyon.com/2012/01/pen-and-ink-drawing-of-miguel-rivera/#comments Wed, 25 Jan 2012 22:08:17 +0000 Mike Lyon http://mlyon.com/?p=1631 Miguel Rivera is chair of printmaking at the Kansas City Art Institute.  He is a wonderful teacher – gentle and thoughtful.  He has a great face and as soon as we met I asked if he’d model for a portrait.  You can learn all about Miguel and see some of his work on his web site.

 

]]> http://mlyon.com/2012/01/pen-and-ink-drawing-of-miguel-rivera/feed/ 0 A Chandelier for Cecily and Mike http://mlyon.com/2011/12/a-chandelier-for-cecily-and-mike/ http://mlyon.com/2011/12/a-chandelier-for-cecily-and-mike/#comments Fri, 23 Dec 2011 21:39:15 +0000 Mike Lyon http://mlyon.com/?p=1625 December 23, 2011 — just barely in time for Christmas — I completed this cool chandelier for my daughter and son-in-law’s dining room table.

]]> http://mlyon.com/2011/12/a-chandelier-for-cecily-and-mike/feed/ 0 Coffee Table for Jen and Chad http://mlyon.com/2011/11/coffee-table-for-jen-and-chad/ http://mlyon.com/2011/11/coffee-table-for-jen-and-chad/#comments Thu, 24 Nov 2011 21:42:51 +0000 Mike Lyon http://mlyon.com/?p=1629 My niece and nephew asked me to make a coffee table 24 x 24 inches and 14 inches high for their living room.  I think they really meant 24 x 36 inches, so I’m gonna have to make another it seems.  Still, there’s something wicked cool about this one — aluminum top and silver-gilded turned sycamore legs (turned from neighborhood winter deadfall) with narrow lacewood trim…  FANCY!

]]> http://mlyon.com/2011/11/coffee-table-for-jen-and-chad/feed/ 0 Danson pen and ink drawing 81 x 42 inches white and black pen on paper tinted rich brown http://mlyon.com/2011/09/danson-pen-and-ink-drawing/ http://mlyon.com/2011/09/danson-pen-and-ink-drawing/#comments Wed, 21 Sep 2011 20:39:08 +0000 Mike Lyon http://mlyon.com/?p=1619 Drawing of my friend Danson – again, white and black ink pen on tinted paper.  In this piece, I really LOVE the color I painted on the paper.  It was so luscious I hesitated to draw over it.  I’ve been layering up these colors, mixing pigment suspensions in water and using a spritzer to apply the color and a squeegee to gently smooth the liquid over the paper.  I’ve discovered that the application of several layers of different color gives a livelier and more interesting surface than trying to hit it in one shot.  Also — everything seems to work best if I dampen the loose sheet with color quite thoroughly, then apply vacuum to suck the sheet flat, then tape it down while it’s still very damp.  I leave the vacuum running on low until the drawing is complete and as the paper dries, it shrinks slightly and becomes taut and flat.

]]> http://mlyon.com/2011/09/danson-pen-and-ink-drawing/feed/ 0 “Scotty” pen and ink drawing 92 x 45 inches on watercolor tinted paper http://mlyon.com/2011/09/scotty-pen-and-ink-drawing-92-x-45-inches-on-watercolor-tinted-paper/ http://mlyon.com/2011/09/scotty-pen-and-ink-drawing-92-x-45-inches-on-watercolor-tinted-paper/#comments Wed, 07 Sep 2011 20:25:47 +0000 Mike Lyon http://mlyon.com/?p=1616 Artist Archie Scott Gobber generously agreed to model for me.  We had a pretty good time together — I’d asked him to bring along something of his work and I was thinking he’d bring something large I could place behind him when I photographed him. He brought some very small stuff, actually and I got a huge kick out of one item — an old stamped metal “For Sale” sign.  I cut some string and hung it around his neck to make Scott ‘for sale’.  Most of my photos were mundane, but as we joked around, he gave me a huge Popeye wink and grin and…  Well it just screamed to be made into art, I thought.

I drew the outlines of his sign, jacket, shirt, and head and painted a ginormous sheet of watercolor paper bright red, white, and blue.  I imagined that these colors would remain pretty intense (as they had in two previous drawings) and I’d get a kind of American icon out of the work.  As the drawing progressed, I was just never satisfied with it and I kept drawing layers of white over layers of black and then more layers of black and more layers of white until the ink became so opaque that the color was more or less lost and I wound up with something sorta pink and blue-gray.  The trick, I suppose, is not only KNOWing when to stop, but then having the balls to actually STOP then!  Still, it’s a striking drawing with lots of good stuff, I think…

]]> http://mlyon.com/2011/09/scotty-pen-and-ink-drawing-92-x-45-inches-on-watercolor-tinted-paper/feed/ 0 America Now and Here – Kansas City http://mlyon.com/2011/06/america-now-and-here-kansas-city/ http://mlyon.com/2011/06/america-now-and-here-kansas-city/#comments Thu, 30 Jun 2011 19:31:50 +0000 Mike Lyon http://mlyon.com/?p=1604 eric-fischl-and-don-rosenfeld-in-my-studio-1600 Famous artist Eric Fischl and film-producer friend, Donald Rosenfeld were in Kansas City to select work for an unusual exhibition called the Kansas City Collection.  At the same time, Eric was promoting his dream of a traveling exhibition of post-911 American arts.  Eric had already selected my work for the KC Collection show when I met him at a dinner where he introduced the idea of America Now and Here to Kansas Citians.  Later in the year, Eric and Don toured my studio and couldn’t have been any nicer – Eric remarked that my work picked up where Chuck Close’s left off – I dunno about that, but it felt great to be in the same sentence with one of my idols!

2010_06_20 pen and ink drawing of artist Michael Rees 74 x 44 inches exhibited America Now and Here 2011 America Now and Here wound up premiering in Kansas City and Eric made sure that my work was included among local artists.  Great that local work was exhibited alongside the touring pieces – that was a requirement of local curator David Ford.  There were many iconic artists in the show: Alex Katz, Chuck Close, Laurie Anderson, Edward Albee, Adrienne Rich, Joan Baez, Jeff Koons, Philip Glass, Robert Longo, Cindy Sherman — the list goes on and on — and me, of course!  You can find official event information at the ANH-KC web site.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gysWz0Py0bg

I love that my drawing became the thumbnail image in the official video

America Now and Here was national news – here’s some of the press:

New York Times March 31, 2011
The Nation August 30, 2011
Chicago Art Magazine November 7, 2011
Aspen Times October 20, 2011

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPb5LDwvvJE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rp-9l7-95zs

…more from enthusiastic videographer Ramsey Mohsen at his blog site

]]> http://mlyon.com/2011/06/america-now-and-here-kansas-city/feed/ 0 PVC Heat Shrink Baren Cover http://mlyon.com/2011/04/pvc-heat-shrink-baren-cover/ http://mlyon.com/2011/04/pvc-heat-shrink-baren-cover/#comments Mon, 18 Apr 2011 16:00:21 +0000 Mike Lyon http://mlyon.com/?p=1530 From time to time it’s been difficult to obtain quality takenokawa (bamboo husk) for recovering my barens.  For some time I’ve wondered about alternative materials for baren covers, especially about using heat shrink tubing.  I bought some six inch wide clear layflat PVC heat shrink tubing (12 inch circumference), cut a length about 2 1/2 times the diameter of my baren, trimmed the ends to make thinner handles and… It seems to have worked pretty well, actually!  Covering a baren with takenokawa the traditional way requires a lot of practice and some dexterity.  Covering a baren with PVC heat shrink tubing seems to require very little skill or dexterity — as long as you don’t over heat the material (or the baren!) it seems pretty fool-proof.

The particular PVC heat shrink tubing I acquired seems a bit too thin or light weight (5 mil) for a baren.  Even so, less flexible than takenokawa but seems hardier.  Hardiness is good because the shrink-wrapped baren is completely encased front and back so it’s impossible to rotate the baren during printing so all wear occurs where the high points of the coil press the shrink wrap against the paper and block.

When lubricated with camellia oil, the PVC covering glides over the paper with about the same ‘feel’ as takenokawa, though because it’s completely non-absorbent and glossy smooth, it seems to run dry of lubricant faster than takenokawa and then friction increases…

I think I’ll eventually be able to find a shrink tubing with more ideal characteristics — in the meantime, this stuff seems to work better than I’d expected.

]]> http://mlyon.com/2011/04/pvc-heat-shrink-baren-cover/feed/ 5 Robin 85 x 45 inches – large scale pen and ink drawing in white, blue, black inks on watercolor tinted paper http://mlyon.com/2011/04/robin-85-x-45-inches-large-scale-pen-and-ink-drawing-on-watercolor-tinted-paper/ http://mlyon.com/2011/04/robin-85-x-45-inches-large-scale-pen-and-ink-drawing-on-watercolor-tinted-paper/#comments Thu, 14 Apr 2011 16:34:37 +0000 Mike Lyon http://mlyon.com/?p=1600 Robin Carnahan portrait completed April 14, 2011.  I first tinted the paper a deep blue using Prussian Blue and Carbon Black pigment suspensions in water.  Then I drew in layers of white ink, blue ink, and black ink back and forth until I felt the drawing was no longer improved.

]]> http://mlyon.com/2011/04/robin-85-x-45-inches-large-scale-pen-and-ink-drawing-on-watercolor-tinted-paper/feed/ 0 “Joel” Large Scale Pen and Ink Drawing in White and Black Ink on Tinted Paper http://mlyon.com/2011/03/joel-large-scale-pen-and-ink-drawing-in-white-and-black-ink-on-tinted-paper/ http://mlyon.com/2011/03/joel-large-scale-pen-and-ink-drawing-in-white-and-black-ink-on-tinted-paper/#comments Thu, 24 Mar 2011 20:39:14 +0000 Mike Lyon http://mlyon.com/?p=1489 REALLY love this one! I was tempted to title it “this is not Joe’s face” after Magritte’s famous not-a-pipe.

In 1991 I was in Japan with a group of US, Canadian, and European karate guys led by Tsutomu Ohshima.  Ohshima Sensei organized a fabulous and exhausting tour which included visits to Hiroshima, Miyajima, Kyoto — we met and watched demonstrations by elderly masters of kyudo, judo, kendo, were wined and dined in traditional Japanese fashion, and ended in Tokyo where we participated in the 60th anniversary of the karate club at Mr. Ohshima’s alma mater, Waseda University.

One evening we dined at a wonderful sukiyaki restaurant where groups of four or five of us sat around low tables with hot braziers.  I must have appeared to be the senior in our group,  because our very young waitress singled me out to receive instructions for preparation of our meal.

My Japanese is limited to counting, karate words, printmaking words, “please, thank you, excuse me, where is the …”, etc.

Wakarimas-ka? (do you understand?).
Wakarimas (I understand).
Wakarimas-sen (I do not understand).

The movie, “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure” had premiered a year or two earlier and the youthful fad of that time was to append a sarcastic “NOT” to the end of statements — like — Don’t worry, I love you… NOT!  So this waitress, pointing with hashi (chop sticks) to each different meat and vegetable and to the metal pot of boiling broth in front of us gave long and detailed explanation of each step.  A full minute or more of monologue and I didn’t understand a single word of what she’d said, but I listened intently and, at the end, she asked, “Wakarimas-ka”?  Now THAT was something I understood and, Bill and Ted style, I made my first effective joke in Japanese. YES, I replied with enthusiasm — “HAI!  Wakarimas… SEN!”  And our pretty young waitress in her beautiful traditional kimono fell over on the floor laughing, tears streaming down her cheeks, her hand fluttering in front of her teeth and another waitress, ancient and wrinkled scooted over, scolded her, shooed her away and looked after us for the rest of the evening with boring decorum.  Sigh.

So I’m reminding you that, although this LOOKS a bit like an oddly colored photographic portrait of a talking head, it is NOT.  It is ‘merely’ a collection of completely abstract lines and squiggles drawn in ink on tinted paper using many ink-pens and NOWHERE is there a face, a shirt, an eye, a button, a tooth, anything plaid, etc.  ONLY ink on paper!  But organized in such a way that, in spite of the completely non-representational nature of the marks, their whiteness and blackness, the unexpected pinkness of the paper — our eyes and minds effortlessly re-integrate all this into “Joel” – if you knew Joel, you’d recognize him.  It’s the same with all portraits, paintings, sculpture where there’s some meaning encoded — although there is NOTHING human-like in the ink, paint, marble, etc — our minds are expert at associating our visual experience with things we ‘know’ and in a weird way we think we are seeing, in this instance, a person.  Just sayin…  This is Joel…  NOT!

The white ink on this rose tinted paper POPS. I prepared the large sheet by painting it with several washes of quinacridone red pigment plus a bit of carbon black pigment mixed into water. I drew the brightest 2/3 of the image with white ink squiggles and the darkest 2/3 of the image with black ink squiggles. So 1/3 of the image is white line over rose tinted paper, 1/3 of the image is black line over rose tinted paper, and 1/3 of the image is white over black over rose tinted paper.

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"Joel", completed Mar 20, 2011, 87 x 45 inches, white and black ink on tinted watercolor paper

My model, Joel Goldman, is an attorney turned novelist. We’ve known one another since childhood. He’s a great guy – clever, articulate, sarcastic, interesting. You can see all that and more in the portrait, I hope. He likes the drawing. The other night, we had dinner with his sister, Susan Tivol, who, it seemed to me from her reaction to seeing an iPhone image of Joel, didn’t much care for it.  I think it was the particular image, catching Joel in mid-something she (subtly) objected to — and this is a shame, really, because she has a GREAT face and I’ve been trying to convince HER to model for me. Maybe SOME day… Meanwhile, if you’re interested in Joel’s books, have a look at these:


Technically, this is another drawing in light and dark on mid-value ground. I continue to follow some giant footsteps including:

anthony_van_dyck_1599-1641_study_19-3-8x11-1-2in francois_bopucher_1703-1770_two-winged-putti-ca-1748-50_8-25x9-375in jean_antoine_watteau_1684-1721_met_9-5x5-3-8in_1716-17 philippe_de_champaigne_1602-1674_portrait-of-charlotte-duchesne-1628-30_8-11-16x7-11-16in close_pochoir

I spent several months working on the image and calculating all the miles of ink squiggles – this one was a huge challenge for me and I made a number of experiments in advance of my final push to complete “Joel” (see previous articles). The actual execution of the drawing took only about 230 hours. Here are some photos of the work in progress…

]]> http://mlyon.com/2011/03/joel-large-scale-pen-and-ink-drawing-in-white-and-black-ink-on-tinted-paper/feed/ 0 Elizabeth – Six Experiments in Two-Color Drawing http://mlyon.com/2011/03/elizabeth-six-experiments-in-two-color-drawing/ http://mlyon.com/2011/03/elizabeth-six-experiments-in-two-color-drawing/#comments Wed, 23 Mar 2011 16:18:31 +0000 Mike Lyon http://mlyon.com/?p=1438
6_elizabeth_variations_1600
composite of the six variations of "Elizabeth" drawn during January, February, and March 2011

I wanted to close in on an optimal application of white ink from the new pens my stepsons Scott and Andy turned me onto at Christmas.  One great characteristic of this white ink is that it is not 100% opaque.  Subsequent layers of line further whiten earlier layers.  This semi-opaque  (or semi-transparent) quality is pretty wonderful.  It now appears that the whites continue to lighten through three to five layers — the black pens I’ve been using are much more saturated — maybe a second layer darkens the first, but not by much — but black ink over white turns a very deep gray and white over black turns a lighter gray and continued drawing produces much greater variation in actual ink value than I was able to achieve with black alone.  This is cool and adds a lot of very interesting complexity.  It makes the process ever so much more difficult to control while it makes the drawing objects more interesting!

The underlying images of the six Elizabeth drawings are identical but my approach to drawing each is different.

As with most of the images on my web site, you can click on these images to pop up an enlargement. To view a popped-up image full-size, right-click the image click ‘View Image’.  You can magnify it by left-clicking on it.  Click the ‘back’ button on your browser to return to this page.

elizabeth-1-24-x-20-inches-1600
"Elizabeth 1", Jan 2011, 24 x 20 inches, black ink in squiggles on white paper

This image (Elizabeth 1) was the first I tried.  It’s black ink on white paper.  There are 20 drawing ‘layers’.  Each layer contains numerous ‘contours’.  The perimeter of each contour was drawn and then a smaller contour drawn which was offset inward 1/20th of an inch and parallel to the first.  And so on, stepping in 1/20th of an inch until the original perimeters were all filled with similar equidistant lines.  All contours of each drawing layer were treated the same way and with the same 20th inch offsets. Wherever the contour perimeter was the edge of the drawing (as it was in the left, top, and right sides of most layers), each line drawn exactly overlaid the previous and the development of cross-hatching was prevented.  In areas where the contour changed from layer to layer, deep values developed through cross-hatching as usual.  Where layers shared common borders (as at the edge of the drawing), minimal value developed.
The result seems similar in ways to some impressionist and cubist work – this is due, in part, to the odd steps in value from the image borders in the top 2/3 of the image which not only produces some odd cubist-like interfaces between light and shadow inside the drawing, but also seem to crop the head and hairstyle in a manner reminiscent of an earlier time.  An appealing atmosphere of strangeness developed.

elizabeth-2-24-x-20-inches-1600
"Elizabeth 2", Feb 2011, 24 x 20 inches, white ink and black ink in squiggles on white paper

Elizabeth 2 was the next drawing in the series.  This one was calculated exactly the same as the first, except the offsets for earlier layers (darker layers) were smaller and were incremented for each subsequent layer.  The result was similar to this image but a bit coarser and darker.  Before this photo was shot, I’d gone back in with a dozen or so layers of white lines in order to weaken the blacks in the lightest areas.  This produced a somewhat gray (rather than black) line in the whitest parts and improved the effect.

elizabeth-3-24-x-20-inches-1600
"Elizabeth 3", Feb 2011, 24 x 20 inches, white ink and black ink in hatches on tinted paper

straight-hatch-detail_1600
Detail of "Elizabeth 3" in straight hatches

Elizabeth 3 is like Elizabeth 1 in that it has fixed offsets across all layers, but the paper is tinted dark gray, the hatches are straight lines, and the hatch angle is different for each layer.  White hatches went down first, then black hatches.  The value of the tint was too deep so there’s greater contrast between the white and the tint than between the black and the tint.  About 1/3 of the drawing is just white on gray, 1/3 is black on gray, and 1/3 is black and white overlapping on gray.  The proportions of white and black are incorrect for the value of the tint.  This was a good experiment – I learned a lot, and I do kinda like the cool ‘screen’ patterns.

elizabeth-4-24-x-20-inches-1600
"Elizabeth 4", Feb 2011, 24 x 20 inches, white ink and black ink in spirals on tinted paper

x-drawing_spirals_1600
"Elizabeth 3" black spirals underway

Elizabeth 4 is VERY different from the others and I think it’s a cool idea. This approach might work better on a larger scale.  Again, the tint of the paper is deeper than I’d intended.  I wanted to draw this one in spirals.  I calculated a faceted spiral (the spiral approximated by straight line segments) with segments 0.175 inches long and the radius incrementing from the center 0.1 inches per revolution.  A cool property of spirals is that if you rotate any spiral around its center, the rotated spiral is parallel to the original – if you rotate it 180 degrees, the new spiral line is centered between the original spiral line.  This is difficult for me to describe, but my process in calculating the vectors to be drawn was to copy the spiral, rotate it 126 degrees from the previous (this keeps replicating the spiral at 1/3 of a circle plus 1/3 of 18 degrees since 19 spirals cast 18 degrees apart cover 360 degrees).  My black pen draws a line about 0.007 inch thick.  I would draw 19 layers in 19 rotations and spiral grows 0.1 inches per rotation, so for blackest areas of the drawing, each line would be a bit more than 0.005 inches from its neighbor – this is a bit less than the 0.007 line width, so I’d have the slight overlap which I like.  Each drawing layer contained the contours of all areas darker than the threshold of that layer.  I cast the entire spiral onto the contours and clipped the spiral so that the parts of the spiral outside the perimeter of drawing contours were deleted leaving only the pieces of the spiral which were inside the contours.  Since ALL drawing layers included the darkest areas, those areas had all 19 spirals drawn.  The lightest layer had only 1 contour drawn, so values were developed.  I centered all the spirals for black lines on the pupil of Elizabeth’s left eye (dark side) and centered all the white spirals on her other eye.  It was an inordinate amount of work for a not very impressive drawing.  But interesting stuff!

elizabeth-5-24-x-20-inches-1600
"Elizabeth 5", Feb 2011, 24 x 20 inches, white ink and black ink in squiggles on sumi-blackened paper

. Elizabeth 5 – I tinted the paper deep black with several applications of sumi (Japanese carbon black). Then, like Elizabeth 1 in reverse, I drew with white ink and fixed offsets of about 0.05 inches for all 19 drawing layers (skipping the 20th layer which would have covered the entire drawing rectangle).  It turned out that .05 offsets for 19 layers was too dense (the white pens I used drew a relatively fat 0.02 inch line) and the lighest areas ‘flattened out’ so I couldn’t perceive any difference in the six or 8 lightest layers.  The whole drawing looked flat and dead and…  White!  So I went back in with the same black lines I’d used in Elizabeth 2, stopping after a dozen or so layers.  The drawing was still disappointing.

elizabeth-6-24-x-20-inches-1600
"Elizabeth 6", Mar 2011, 24 x 20 inches, white ink and black ink in squiggles on sumi-blackened paper

.Elizabeth 6 was very similar to Elizabeth 5 except the offsets for the white squiggles were incremented from about 0.03 inches for the whitest contours to about 0.1 inches for the darkest.  Again, the entire drawing got way too white and the lightest third or more of the drawing was all white and the drawing of those layers was lost.  I drew the entire black from Elizabeth 2 and the drawing got too dark and noisy.  So I drew the whitest layers several more times and…  Well it wasn’t very successful either.  But I learned SO much that I felt confident to begin a very large portrait, “Joel” and had much better results.

 

]]> http://mlyon.com/2011/03/elizabeth-six-experiments-in-two-color-drawing/feed/ 1 Danielle – developing two color drawing technique http://mlyon.com/2011/03/danielle-developing-two-color-drawing-technique/ http://mlyon.com/2011/03/danielle-developing-two-color-drawing-technique/#comments Tue, 15 Mar 2011 20:28:25 +0000 Mike Lyon http://mlyon.com/?p=1422 I’ve mentioned before that I’m fascinated by Renaissance drawings on tinted paper with light and dark inks or chalk and charcoal.  durer_head_study albrecht_durer_1508_study Here are some examples by Albrecht Durer painted in white and black with a brush on tinted paper:

My kids know of my interest  — for Christmas Scott and Andy gave me a variety of white and silver ink-pens for my drawing experiments!  What a GREAT gift!  And they turned me on to JetPens.com at the same time (Japanese pens — VAST variety OMG — though my kids all tell me NEVER to say ‘OMG’ in public)!

In preparation for larger scale work, I made several series of small drawings in order to experiment with color and value for the tinted areas and to learn more about how the white inks might work for me in these drawings.  The first series were three drawings of “Danielle”.  I later made six of “Elizabeth” which I’ll show in my next post.

A little like the story of the three bears, my first tinted ground was ‘too dark’.  Then I came to the second drawing, and I made that one ‘too light’.  Then I made a third drawing and the ground in that one was ‘just right’ — or close enough.  My wife thinks “Danielle” is spooky looking, but the image stirs me in an indescribably delicious way (from Goldilocks to Peter Paul Mounds)…  I really like the way this drawing pulls at my gut!  I also really like the somewhat opaque nature of the white ink — it gets whiter and whiter with each subsequent layer (a dozen or so layers of white in this drawing) and covers both the tinted ground and the black ink in a very appealing way!

2011_01_11_danielle_3_1600 “Danielle 3″, Jan 2011, 20 x 12 inches, white and black ink on tinted paper

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyYwB56Tkbk

]]> http://mlyon.com/2011/03/danielle-developing-two-color-drawing-technique/feed/ 1 Drawing in Silverpoint and Copperpoint http://mlyon.com/2011/01/drawing-in-silverpoint-and-copperpoint/ http://mlyon.com/2011/01/drawing-in-silverpoint-and-copperpoint/#comments Tue, 11 Jan 2011 14:41:34 +0000 Mike Lyon http://mlyon.com/?p=1409 While I began to study fine arts at the University of Pennsylvania, I became interested in Renaissance drawing, especially silverpoint drawings by Da Vinci which were illustrated in books in the Furness Building’s fine arts library.  I copied many in pen and ink and although I didn’t understand how they had been made, the silverpoints from the old masters were infinitely subtler and more beautiful than my pen and ink copies!

1972-after-da-vinci-christ leonardo_da_vinci_gall_57

Late in 2010 I came across some silverpoint supplies and from November 2010 through December 2011 I made numerous experiments drawing by machinery using silver, copper, and gold (silverpoint, copperpoint, goldpoint) on prepared panels and papers.  These were very interesting to me and I made a number of jigs to hold the fine metal wires so that I could lift and drop them easily using a solenoid mounted in the CNC machine for drawing.  None of my jigs to date have been very successful — there are many problems still to overcome.  In the meantime, I ruined half a dozen complex drawings and only a couple (illustrated below) were worth photographing and showing here. I’m still considering ways to improve my jigs in order to allow me to complete large drawings — the silverpoints, in particular, have a soft pencil-like character which is very appealing to me — graphite abrades much too quickly for any simple holder I’ve come up with, but the silver wire lasts a long time long enough so that I SHOULD be able to use it for my work.  So far, however, the wires tend to harden and break at the tip of the tubular holder or at the set screw which I use to adjust and hold the length of wire for drawing.  The tip tube must be less than a wire diameter from the paper or the (soft) wire will bend and pull out.  This tends to make overly dark and wide marks which are not generally aesthetic.

As I mentioned, there’s still a lot of work left to do before I’ll be able to produce decent large-scale drawings in silverpoint.

]]> http://mlyon.com/2011/01/drawing-in-silverpoint-and-copperpoint/feed/ 1 Grass4 77 x 22 inches woodblock print from 12 blocks http://mlyon.com/2010/10/grass4-77-x-22-inches-woodblock-print-from-12-blocks/ http://mlyon.com/2010/10/grass4-77-x-22-inches-woodblock-print-from-12-blocks/#comments Tue, 26 Oct 2010 11:06:17 +0000 Mike Lyon http://mlyon.com/?p=1401 October 26, 2010 I completed an edition of five of this 12-block woodcut (77 x 22 inches):

]]> http://mlyon.com/2010/10/grass4-77-x-22-inches-woodblock-print-from-12-blocks/feed/ 1 Grass3 30 x 58 inch pen and ink drawing http://mlyon.com/2010/08/grass3-30-x-58-inch-pen-and-ink-drawing/ http://mlyon.com/2010/08/grass3-30-x-58-inch-pen-and-ink-drawing/#comments Mon, 30 Aug 2010 14:45:53 +0000 Mike Lyon http://mlyon.com/?p=1388 Grass3 was completed in August, 2010.  30 x 58 inches it took took an inordinately long time to draw.

http://mlyon.com/wp-content/gallery/grass3/2008_08_grass3_588x400.jpg
]]> http://mlyon.com/2010/08/grass3-30-x-58-inch-pen-and-ink-drawing/feed/ 1 Grass 2.2 large woodblock print http://mlyon.com/2010/07/grass-2-2-large-woodblock-print/ http://mlyon.com/2010/07/grass-2-2-large-woodblock-print/#comments Sat, 24 Jul 2010 16:31:31 +0000 Mike Lyon http://mlyon.com/?p=1378 I ran a second edition of four sheets from the sixteen blocks used in Grass 2.  I was curious to see the effect of transitioning from pale greens into blues into blacks (rather than the simple blues into blacks of the first edition).  Also, I’d run into registration problems which affected five of the eight sheets I printed in the first edition — I thought I understood how that had occurred and wanted a test to be certain.  The solution worked very well and was quite simple — use a baren to lightly fix each sheet to the block prior to impressing with the rollers.

The prints are very similar, but they feel different…  The blue ones are a bit ‘crisper’ somehow and moodier.  The green ones have a more liquid feel and seem a little less brooding.  Both editions are quite good, I think — no matter where one looks, it’s interesting.  I read a lovely book last week — and was struck by this passage:

“…a puddle from last night’s rain is evaporating; a puddle in which Magistrate Shiroyama observes the blurred reflections of gulls wheeling through spokes of sunlight. This world, he thinks, contains just one masterpiece, and that is itself.“

From “The thousand autumns of Jacob De Zoet”
by David Mitchell (Random House, 2010)

]]> http://mlyon.com/2010/07/grass-2-2-large-woodblock-print/feed/ 2 Grass-2 large woodblock print 22.5 x 72 inches from 16 blocks http://mlyon.com/2010/07/grass-2-large-woodblock-print-22-5-x-72-inches-from-16-blocks/ http://mlyon.com/2010/07/grass-2-large-woodblock-print-22-5-x-72-inches-from-16-blocks/#comments Sun, 18 Jul 2010 13:33:37 +0000 Mike Lyon http://mlyon.com/?p=1303 My lawn seems a near-perfect subject for drawings and woodblock prints.  Grass-1 was a drawing (not yet completed).  Grass-2 is a woodblock print — sixteen blocks cut two blocks to a sheet of 4×8 foot quarter-inch cherry plywood.  Grass-3 is another drawing under construction at the moment.  This format allows me to ink and print a block all from one side of my 5 x 10 foot stationary bed pinch-roller press.  Images like this one lend themselves very well to my pr0cess.  The staccato rhythm of the many transitions from lightest to darkest works so nicely (so long as registration is perfect) and I love the way the quick changes in the blades of grass are moderated by slower visual rhythms of the relatively large clover and other leaves so there’s a bit of music in this print, and a bit of mystery and drama, I feel.  Not only the visual cycle of lights and darks, but also something about birth, death, and renewal.  My eye spirals through this image, following the shafts of the grass, pausing in the leaves, circling, circling, and I notice that some things are fresh and healthy and others seem to have been chewed up and decayed — and what’s going on under that surface?  Dirt and worms and…  This kind of (somewhat allegorical) image works for me on many levels and I don’t imagine I’ll grow tired of looking at it… Time will tell!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1rqU-TUiBI

]]> http://mlyon.com/2010/07/grass-2-large-woodblock-print-22-5-x-72-inches-from-16-blocks/feed/ 7 Chandler – 84 x 45 inches pen and ink drawing http://mlyon.com/2010/07/chandler-84-x-45-inches-pen-and-ink-drawing/ http://mlyon.com/2010/07/chandler-84-x-45-inches-pen-and-ink-drawing/#comments Mon, 12 Jul 2010 21:54:40 +0000 Mike Lyon http://mlyon.com/?p=1289 Chandler is an old high school friend of my children.  Last year I ran into Chandler and was struck by his great head and asked if he’d model for a portrait.  He agreed and I phoned and emailed him more than once or twice in an effort to schedule him into my studio.  He never replied and I eventually sorta gave up.  I saw him again at our son Andy’s wedding and, with a couple of martini’s under my belt, gave him a pretty hard time about never having replied.  So a few days later he called and we set a date and he and his girlfriend, Jessica (another high school friend of the kids), came down and modeled — and we talked about shooting some video as well — that’s what Chandler does — he produces videos for schools and museums, and his hobby is short subjects about artists.

Paul Catanese and Dr. Angela Geary have been contracted by A&C Black Publishers to co-author a book on Computer Aided Manufacturing in Fine Art Printmaking.  Paul was in the audience during my talk at SGC Chicago and later asked me if I’d be willing to ‘be a chapter’ in the book.  I said ‘SURE’ (duh)! In recent months, Paul has interviewed me at length by email, phone, and now in person, since he was in Kansas City last Friday and Saturday recording our conversations, photographing in the studio, poking around, and getting real specific on exactly how I use CNC and other computer technology in my work, especially in woodblock printmaking.  Friday morning when my drawing of Chandler was nearly complete, Chandler and Zac (videographer) met Paul and me here in the studio and shot video of Paul saying nice things about my work (and Chandler saying nice things about his portrait).  So it’s turning out to be a nice little collaboration!  Chandler, by the way, seemed to really like this drawing:

]]> http://mlyon.com/2010/07/chandler-84-x-45-inches-pen-and-ink-drawing/feed/ 7 Rousseau – 75 x 45 inch pen and ink drawing http://mlyon.com/2010/06/rousseau-75-x-45-inch-pen-and-ink-drawing/ http://mlyon.com/2010/06/rousseau-75-x-45-inch-pen-and-ink-drawing/#comments Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:38:08 +0000 Mike Lyon http://mlyon.com/?p=1277 Our good friends Ed and DJ  were having dinner with us at a nice Westport restaurant and Rousseau served us (she later recalled that we were a ‘good’ table).  She was so pleasant and with such a mobile expression and well defined features and that wonderful tuxedo-esqu blouse…  I wanted to use her for a portrait right away…  DJ asked me if there was something wrong — she said I kept staring at our waitress — and honestly, I couldn’t tear my eyes away.  I introduced myself and asked if she’d model for me.  She was flattered, said yes right away, and a few days later came down to the studio so I could photograph her.  I’d asked her to wear the same blouse and…  It was a terrific 90 minutes as she told me about her life and childhood and parents and…  Well — a number of my photos of her are super-expressive and well suited t0 my drawing, painting, and printmaking…   But this one called out to be first and I love the image and love this face and wispy hair and…  Well, EVERYTHING, really.  Kinda recalls earlier Netherlandish portraits, doesn’t it?  A little? 

]]> http://mlyon.com/2010/06/rousseau-75-x-45-inch-pen-and-ink-drawing/feed/ 7 Michael – 74 x 44 inches large pen and ink drawing http://mlyon.com/2010/06/michael-74-x-44-inches-large-pen-and-ink-drawing/ http://mlyon.com/2010/06/michael-74-x-44-inches-large-pen-and-ink-drawing/#comments Mon, 21 Jun 2010 21:29:28 +0000 Mike Lyon http://mlyon.com/?p=1235 October, 2009,  Michael Rees was one of 15 artists invited to Kansas City by the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art for their 15th Anniversary Celebration.

Michael is a great guy, established artist, extroverted, outspoken, and a bit larger than life.  We’d made a date for him to visit my studio and shoot sources for a portrait while he was here, and I thoroughly enjoyed him!  After the shoot I went to a huge breakfast with Michael, his wife Mary Ann Strandell, and Chris Brown (another guest artist in town for the event) at YJ’s, the cozy cafe next door to Birdies (Peregrine Honig’s lingerie shop)…  What a great morning — I don’t get out much –  this was so VERY stimulating!!!

Thanks, Michael, for the wonderful morning, and for your patience in modeling — I think you turned out to be a very interesting head!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IvmKYXyyAk

Michael Rees lectures above — See more of Michael Rees on YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rp-9l7-95zs

Impromptu video review from AMERICA: Here and Now exhibition May 5, 2011

What a HUGE disconnect between the instant of the snapshot, the hundreds of hours to produce the drawing, and the video record of the lecture…  Mind boggling!  So mind boggling that I can’t comment beyond the mention…  YOU think about it!  :)

]]> http://mlyon.com/2010/06/michael-74-x-44-inches-large-pen-and-ink-drawing/feed/ 1 Jennifer – large pen and ink drawing 85 x 43 inches http://mlyon.com/2010/06/jennifer-large-pen-and-ink-drawing-85-x-43-inches/ http://mlyon.com/2010/06/jennifer-large-pen-and-ink-drawing-85-x-43-inches/#comments Wed, 16 Jun 2010 18:15:13 +0000 Mike Lyon http://mlyon.com/?p=1226
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