I don't know that I so much completed this drawing today as simply called it 'done'. Either way, I'm moving on! "Annette" is my mother-in-law and she does NOT appreciate this portrait at all -- she thinks it makes her look too old and wrinkly (she's only eighty-one years old, after all) and just hates it! But _I_ love this image of her even though I had trouble with the drawing from beginning to end! I composed the image during two and a half weeks in December and began actually drawing and painting it January 2, 2008. I stopped work on it this morning after 592 hours of continuous drawing and 34 Sakura Jelly Roll .3mm ink pens. The Sakura pens are advertised to write to the last drop, but that last drop usually happens LONG before the ink runs out -- VERY annoying! Still searching for that 'ideal' writing instrument which leaves a permanent mark, very fine line, and writes reliably until the ink runs out. Not easy to find!
"Annette" next to "Crosby" on 2nd floor of my studio this morning
"Annette", Jan 27, 2008, 70 x 45 inches, watercolor with pen and ink drawing
on Arches 300lb. hot press watercolor paper
detail of "Annette" showing lines and colors
-- Mike
¶ 1:42 PM 2 comments links to this post
Here's a 'revisit' to an approach I was very interested in a decade or more ago -- black line over color -- inspired by Hiroshige and other ukiyo-e artists (and the comic books I loved during my childhood)...
1996 monotypes with black ink over flat color areas
my wife, Linda and a self-portrait, each image about 16 x 11 inches
When my "Sarah" drawing was first exhibited at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, the founder's wife appreciated it and invited me to create a similar life-size portrait of her husband, Crosby, a giant of a man and huge patron of the arts. I designed the image to include three flat colors, pink, blue, and tan to be painted in watercolor and then overlaid with the squiggly cross-hatched line drawing I've been developing over the past several years. I mounted a pencil in the gizmo I invented to carry my ink-pens and drew the color area outlines, then painted them very loosely with watercolor washes, using frisket to mask the outlines. Then mounted pen(s) and drew the image as usual.
"Crosby" pen and ink with watercolor, 90 x 45 inches
(permanent collection, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art)
I think the color turned out to be very effective, in spite of nasty technical problems caused mainly by uneven dampening of the paper during painting. That caused some expansion in the large sheet of Arches 300 lb. hot press watercolor paper which didn't completely shrink upon drying and left a half dozen large wrinkles which have persisted into the finished piece. Later this morning I'll lay the paper down flat, dampen it carefully (my inks are all water borne and very resoluble, so I'll have to be careful not to ruin the drawing after several hundred hours of work, and then see whether I can press the paper back to flat with a hot iron.
original 'plan' for color areas with mock-up
preparing to paint using pencil outline guides
pink watercolor applied -- belt still needs to be painted
frisket mask painted around area to become blue
Another nasty technical problem was caused by the frisking FRISKET!! Wouldn't you imagine that a product designed to be used on watercolor paper for masking would be non-staining?!? I used a frisket recommended by my local Dick Blick -- their house brand, same stuff as Windsor Newton (which I've found also stains the paper) -- but it left a dull reddish-brown 'halo' wherever I applied it! UGH! Blick carries a WHITE frisket which I hope (next time) will be non-staining! Very disappointing!
blue painting completed, frisket removed
tan painting completed and ink drawing underway -- detail shoes
similar detail of shoes -- drawing completed
drawing about 80% complete -- son Scott, home for Thanksgiving, comes down to watch
-- Mike
¶ 10:19 AM 1 comments links to this post
I've been working for a couple of weeks now on a couple of long-term fascinations of mine -- painting with a limited palette in a grid, and my wife's beautiful face Two older examples, my 1995 4x4 foot self portrait in eight colors painted in half-inch squares 'by the numbers', and 1993 "Nana Rita" 4x4 feet painted 'from life' while looking at a 40x40 pixel grid on the screen of my computer for weeks on end: The acrylic paints I used (from ETAC are, except for the white, trasparent pigments. The overspray from the darks really ate up the lights, and the overspray from the white ate up the darks, so there's a huge variation in dot size and in color which I didn't intend. In order to get this to look ANYthing like the (wonderful) intensity of the 'plan' (don't you just LOVE tiny bitmaps?), I'm going to have to knuckle down and paint the 216,000 dots by hand. Any idea how long THAT might take? Couple of weeks, I suppose... But how COOL will it be with so many little Hershey's kisses paint dollops? Cool, I think. And I want to see that badly enough to just DO it! So... Enough Golden fluid acrylics (so I can apply by syringe, I hope) should arrive any day now and I can get started with some more needlepoint work (now that my stocking is done) in paint instead of yarn... I'm kinda dreading this, but I WANT this painting to be 'right'! Hopefully a GORGEOUS canvas full of bright intense colored dots will eventually become 'real' -- Mike Labels: painting
the needlepoint I've been working on (from Linda's happy design) 
plan for "Linda" 75x45 inch painting in 8 colors
plan colors for "Linda"
"Linda" painting underway -- click image for 20 second movie of painting (0.5mb)
blue complete, crimson just beginning
detail showing blue and crimson dots
airbrushed dots completed on large canvas (75 x 45 inch image area)
Today I completed something a little bit 'different'... Looking back to the velvet paintings displayed at the 5 and dime when I was a kid -- maybe they're still up there today -- hula girls, Elvis in all his glory, typical 60's kitch in stiff opaque color practically glowing out of that black-black velvet... Well, I didn't so far as to actually paint this on black velvet (which would have been pretty nice in a retro-leisure-suit sort of way -- but I'm just not that 'cool' I suppose).
So this is painted on stretched linen in transparent titanium white acrylic on a carbon black ground.
self portrait, Oct 11, 2007, 60 x 40 inches, acrylic on stretched and primed linen
click image for nice enlargement
Just getting started
click image to view Windows Media Player movie of painting, 700kb download, 35 seconds)
I first painted the entire canvas black, then applied many layers of white paint in order to build whiter and whiter lines out of previously painted white lines -- so each successive overpainting made that area whiter and more opaque.
The only dark values in the painting come from the black underpaining -- nothing but successively more opaque white was used to produce the image.
Up close, it's pretty intense and interesting because of all the stringy white squiggles and circlets from which the image is constructed...
-- Mike
Labels: painting
¶ 12:28 PM 0 comments links to this post
I've been working on this painting continuously since I first posted an image of it July 1 (by continuously, I really do mean 24/7, of course). The paper just couldn't take any more physical contact -- it had become extremely abraded and fuzzy -- so I switched over to using an airbrush and painted it in many layers alternating between a deep blue-black acrylic in the mid to dark areas and white in the light to mid areas. That beefed up the color in the abraided (dark)areas. The development of color, texture (quite genuine sculptural texture, albeit fuzzy), an unusual impasto, and a kind of battle between white and black through all the layers of light and dark is VERY INTERESTING to me and has stimulated me to move in some new (actually ancient -- I'm thinking mid-value ground with light and dark scribbles defining the image out of the mids, like renaissance chalk drawing, maybe) directions which I'll continue to experiment with later this summer.
In the meanwhile, gentle reader (always wanted to write that somewhere -- now seems as good a time as any, right?), here's the current (and final) state of the painting I first showed in my July 1 post...
Self Portrait, 43 x 27 inches, July 10, 2007, painting in acrylics on Rives BFK
Self Portrait, 43 x 27 inches, July 10, 2007, painting in acrylics on Rives BFK
-- Mike
¶ 6:56 PM 4 comments links to this post
Another 'gesture' painting -- this one uses the same gesture character set as my earlier (and smaller) airbrushed "Jim", but the gestures are slightly larger (1/4 inch squares) and are painted using the Paasche Flow Pencil, so the tip touches the paper. It's painted on Rives BFK, so the paper surface has been abraded quite deeply -- more and more with each additional stroke of the tip across the paper. I like the effect, but it interferes with the clarity of the line and with the paint flow, so I imagine that I'll use a stronger paper for my next effort.
self portrait in gestures, July 3, 2007, ca 59 x 32 inches, acrylic on Rives BFK
movie (~4mb be patient)
In the movie above and photos below, three colors have been painted in order: black, yellow, red. A final color, blue, is starting to go down along the left side of the portrait.
painting underway -- starting to lay down the blues
detail of area around eye -- three colors down
detail of area around eye -- completed
-- Mike
Labels: painting
¶ 10:48 AM 0 comments links to this post
Self Portrait, 40 x 22 inch image area, July 1, 2007, acrylic paint on Rives BFK paper
BFK is a very soft paper -- because the tip of the flow-pen actually touches the surface, the paper becomes abraded (deeply abraded) as the tip repeatedly passes over the same areas. The very rough and sculptural surface is quite attractice in this painting -- everyone who's seen it wants it. My wife, I think, got 'first dibs'...
-- Mike
Labels: painting
¶ 10:32 AM 1 comments links to this post
Painting blue/black acrylic paint on self-portrait #2
I'm working on a short series of painted self-portraits at the moment. I've mounted a Paasche Flow Pencil (very much like an airbrush, only without the air -- the 'nozzle' is conical and a needle valve seats in the nozzle in order to control the flow of paint. The Paasche is not a very high-precision device, so fluids which aren't very viscous (like water) flow out quite fast, even when the valve is 'closed'.
I suppose I could'a figured this out in advance, but it seemed to me that coffee or tea stained paper would make a good first trial image and clean-up would be very easy... WRONG! WHAT A MESS!
So viscosity about like cream works quite well.
First attempt -- connection to solenoid broke and pen never lifted so paper got messed up!
Because the pen doesn't have many parallel surfaces -- it's all cones and curves and joints, it wasn't easy to conceive a way to hold and actuate it. In the end I decided to make it easier for me to construct the gizmo and so I made it to kinda work backwards (power-off allows paint to flow -- so when it stops, paint keeps running). A single solenoid both lifts the pen off the paper and releases the trigger, stopping the ink flow while the pen is moved to a new painting location. When the solenoid is 'off', a spring pushes the pen down onto the paper or canvas and actuates the trigger at the same time.
The paper surface on my 2nd attempt is now badly abraded with 'fuzz-balls' all over the surface in the darkest areas -- next attempt I'll use a heavily sized paper and adjust the height of the flow-pencil so it JUST BARELY TOUCHES THE PAPER!
I'm VERY excited about the possibilities for color work, both directly (painting flat areas of transparent color), and especially indirectly (using weighted gestures again) since the flow-pencil produces a VERY sharp-edged line -- much cleaner edge than my airbrush!
-- Mike
Labels: painting
¶ 8:42 AM 1 comments links to this post
Today I completed a second painting of "Jim" using the 16-value geometric gestures from the previous attempt, but scaled down so that each is 0.2 inches square, producing an image about 40 inches high by 22 inches wide. The 200 x 120 gesture grid (24,000 squares) was painted more than six times using four colors until the color depth was pleasing (to me)... The previous airbrush clogging problems of airbrush have been virtually eliminated by switching to paint manufactured by E'TAC -- GREAT stuff!!!
The 17 gestural values (16 from darkest to lightest in equal 'steps' plus blank/white) overpainted in four transparent colors are capable of producing 83,521 (17^4) unique color patterns. From some distance, the painting is a fair likeness of Jim and I like this image very much. But close up, the patterns dominate and I think they're remarkable and intensely interesting -- much more so than the image alone -- quite compelling to me, really!
I'd like a better balance between these near and far views, but I suspect that viewing this sort of work up close is always going to be more exciting and thought provoking than the overall image... I'll have to give this some more thought!
"Jim", painting completed March 3, 2007, 43 x 24 inches, acrylic on Rives BFK
detail of forehead and hair
detail of eye and ear -- click image for enlargement
detail of neck and shirt -- click image for enlargement
early state -- yellow has been completed, red uderway
early state with red uderway
early state -- closeup of red going down on yellow
movie of airbrush painting
-- Mike Lyon
Labels: painting
¶ 10:21 AM 2 comments links to this post
click image to pop up a VERY LARGE version or click HERE for a medium size enlargement
movie of painting underway
I programmed a set of the ‘gestures’ (diamonds, and squares in various sizes and an ‘X’ and a ‘+’) to be painted in order to produce the 17 tones in the painting :
It's taken the better part of a month to complete and I've likely now made most of the possible mistakes which show up quite painfully all over the surface. Gigantic blobs of watercolor leaking from my pigment bottle dripped onto the paper and were then blown all over the place by the air brush as it passed over the painting. Watercolor slowly clogging up the airbrush and leaving vertical 'light' areas in stripes. Watercolor spraying out too densely and leaving vertical 'dark' areas in stripes. Lines too thick. Lines too thin. Color too rich. Color too lean. The yellow layer offset a column to the left (the other colors were painted after a programming change which calculated the placement differently). Airbrush too close to the paper and too much paint volume resulted in LOTS of color blown out in tiny little splats. Dirty airbrush left broad haloes of color adjacent to lines. Lines unclear and fuzzy-looking.
Here are some details (click for enlargements) of interesting areas of the painting:
Let me hear what you think, please... LOTS of work to do to get this thing working well enough to make decent stuff, I fear!
-- Mike
PS... My friend, Jerry, just had a look at this page and phoned to say, "I should just keep my mouth shut... But... You're totally back-sliding". After advising me to immediately forward the image to the CIA for their use as 'proof' of WMD in Iran (referencing somewhat similar aerial views of Iraq offered up by the White House some years ago), he directed me to Vasarely images familiar from my childhood before (and I'm condensing here) and suggested that I get on to 'making Art'... Yup... That pretty well sums it up, I think... OK -- I'm getting on with it now...
Labels: painting
¶ 10:21 AM 8 comments links to this post
My new 17-value airbrush characters seem to be working – now if I can only get my airbrush to not clog up after an hour or 30 minutes or 90 minutes – otherwise it’s gonna require constant supervision which ain’t worth it (and BORING)!
Apple QuickTime movie of painting underway
Here’s an image of my spreadsheet calculations of area – I’ve made a set of ‘gestures’ – diamonds, and squares in various sizes and an ‘X’ and a ‘+’:
The ‘X-area’ column is the list of gestures D for Diamond, S for Square, X for diagonals, and P for Plus and the 3-digit number is the area in thousandths that an eighth inch line produces in a 1 inch box.
These are designed to be overpainted in each of red, yellow, blue, and black according to the color and value content of the corresponding area of an image. I’ve got a sample image partially painted in yellow, blue, and red now and it’s pretty much electrically brilliant! There are 17 to the 4th theoretical color possibilities (83,000 plus variations), so PLENTY of variation!
THEN I had to write the program to analyze the image and write the ShopBot code – my code reads an initialization file I wrote in ShopBot code which defines the characters and the subroutines to call them, then the program goes on to analyze each pixel in the image and generate the ShopBot code to position the machine to the pixel and do the painting. The SO,3,1 turns on the airbrush and SO,3,0 turns it off. M2 means Move in 2 dimensions (x,y) – J2 means FAST Jog in 2 dimensions (x,y)
Sub output_sbpcode_for_cmyk() ' 1/26/2007 gesture generator... Mike Lyon
' THE NEXT TWO LINES ARE FOR CONVENIENCE IN INITIALIZING CURRENT DRAWING LOCATION
' IT'D BE A GOOD IDEA TO ENTER THIS LOCATION IN THE FORM ALONG WITH &scale
PrintLine(3, "SO,3,0")
PrintLine(3, "J2,8,45")
PrintLine(3, "' MRL-generated GESTURE CODE from image")
PrintLine(3, "' position bot at top left of drawing first!")
PrintLine(3, "&xstart = %(1) ' remember beginning x value")
PrintLine(3, "&ystart = %(2) ' remember beginning y value")
PrintLine(3, "&scale = .4 ' this is 1=100% of 1 inch, .4 = .4")
PrintLine(3, "&rrr = 0 ' initialize rows (Y) variable")
PrintLine(3, "&ccc = 0 ' initialize X variable")
skipit = 0
lines_written = 10 ' TO ACCOMODATE TWO LINES ABOVE -- NORMALLY SET TO 0
PrintLine(3, "GOTO ROW_1")
While Not EOF(1) ' include the gesture subroutines file
sbp = LineInput(1)
PrintLine(3, sbp
lines_written += 1
End While
For rrr = 0 To rawimage.Height - 1
PrintLine(3, "ROW_" & rrr + 1 & ":")
PrintLine(3, "&rrr = " & rrr)
lines_written += 2
For ccc = 0 To rawimage.Width - 1
' getbrightness returns value from 0 to 1 where 0 is black and 1 is white
zz = Math.Round((1 - rawimage.GetPixel(ccc, rrr).GetBrightness) * 16, 0)
' 0 is digits to rt of decimal
If zz > 0 Then
If skipit > 0 Then
skipit = 0
End If
PrintLine(3, "&ccc = " & ccc)
PrintLine(3, "GOSUB " & zz.ToString("00"))
lines_written += 2
Else ' zz = 0
skipit += 1
End If
If Button5.Text = "END" Then Exit Sub
Next ccc
Label20.Text = "Writing " & rrr & " --- " & lines_written
ProgressBar1.Value = 100 * rrr / rawimage.Height
Call updateform()
If Button5.Text = "END" Then Exit Sub
Next rrr
PrintLine(3, "J2,&xstart,&ystart ' back to initial location and ready for next color")
PrintLine(3, "END")
lines_written += 2
End Sub
lines_written += 2
End Sub
This is actually only the working part of a MUCH longer program – the long program gets input from a screen, checks to make sure it all makes sense, and then calls the appropriate operation, in this case the subroutine above… Here’s what the screen looks like when the program is running (just finished generating the ShopBot code for the color ‘cyan’ for a Jim Winter drawing:
COOL, eh? I added the new code onto my existing program so I wouldn’t have to rewrite all the file and form handling – can’t believe it actually works!!!
I’ve defined some subroutines named after each of the 17 possible values (00 through 16 is white through black) which call the gestures I’ve designed to produce the values -- – the first routine listed below is for ‘black’ or value 16 – it calls .313” square, .438 square, .234” plus, and .338” diagonals in turn to produce the ‘shading’ in that area.:
Then I defined the movement for each ‘gesture’ – these are shown below as ShopBot subroutines – you can ‘call’ the subroutine (GOSUB D375 calls the .375 square inch diamond, for example) – the starting corner position is assumed to be in the variable “&xstart” and “&ystart” and the scale factor in &scale. Then the row and column indexes are in &rrr and &ccc variables – in a 100 row x 50 column image, for each rrr (1 through 100) I position to each column ccc (1 through 50) and draw the gestures for that position.
Finally, here’s just the very beginning of the completed code to produce 0.4” squares (&scale = .4) for a very STUPIDLY large drawing 200 squares high by 110 squares wide… Next time I’ll start a bit smaller :-)
SO,3,0 ‘ turn off the airbrush
J2,8,45 ‘ jump to the beginning of the drawing – remove this for normal operation – this is for debugging only
' position bot at top left of drawing first!
&xstart = %(1) ' remember beginning x value
&ystart = %(2) ' remember beginning y value
&scale = .4 ' this is 1=100% of 1 inch, .4 = .4
&rrr = 0 ' initialize rows (Y) variable
&ccc = 0 ' initialize X variable
GOTO ROW_1 ‘ jumps around the gesture subroutines which follow below and get right to the painting!
' this is the start of a gesture subroutines file
' scaling of &scale = 1 (100%) makes marks in a 1" square
' at &scale = 1 (100%) marks are to be 1/8" wide
' gesture call names are LETTER followed by number nnn
' D = diamond shape of .nnn area
' S = square shape of .nnn area
' X = crossed diagonals of .nnn area
' P = 'plus' (vertical & horizontal) of .nnn area
' main calls are 00 through 16 and represent values (tone or shade) from white to black
16:
' this is entry point to produce darkest gesture (value 16)
GOSUB S313
GOSUB S438
GOSUB P234
GOSUB X338
RETURN
15:
' entry point to produce next to darkest gesture (15)
GOSUB S188
GOSUB S438
GOSUB P234
GOSUB X338
RETURN
14:
GOSUB S438
GOSUB P234
GOSUB X338
RETURN
13:
GOSUB D375
GOSUB S063
GOSUB S438
RETURN
12:
GOSUB D375
GOSUB S438
RETURN
11:
GOSUB D250
GOSUB S438
RETURN
10:
GOSUB D375
GOSUB X338
RETURN
09:
GOSUB D250
GOSUB S063
GOSUB X338
RETURN
08:
GOSUB D250
GOSUB X338
RETURN
07:
GOSUB S188
GOSUB X338
RETURN
06:
GOSUB D375
RETURN
05:
GOSUB S313
RETURN
04:
GOSUB D250
RETURN
03:
GOSUB S188
RETURN
02:
GOSUB D125
RETURN
01: ' entry point to produce next to lightest gesture
GOSUB S063
RETURN
00: ' entry point to produce blank (do nothing)
RETURN
D375: ' entry point for 37.5% diamond
J2, &xstart + &scale * ( &ccc + 0 ), &ystart - &scale * ( &rrr + 0.5 )
SO,3,1
M2, &xstart + &scale * ( &ccc + 0.5 ), &ystart - &scale * ( &rrr + 1 )
M2, &xstart + &scale * ( &ccc + 1 ), &ystart - &scale * ( &rrr + 0.5 )
M2, &xstart + &scale * ( &ccc + 0.5 ), &ystart - &scale * ( &rrr + 0 )
M2, &xstart + &scale * ( &ccc + 0 ), &ystart - &scale * ( &rrr + 0.5 )
SO,3,0
RETURN
D250: ' entry point for 25% diamond
J2, &xstart + &scale * ( &ccc + 0.125 ), &ystart - &scale * ( &rrr + 0.5 )
SO,3,1
M2, &xstart + &scale * ( &ccc + 0.5 ), &ystart - &scale * ( &rrr + 0.875 )
M2, &xstart + &scale * ( &ccc + 0.875 ), &ystart - &scale * ( &rrr + 0.5 )
M2, &xstart + &scale * ( &ccc + 0.5 ), &ystart - &scale * ( &rrr + 0.125 )
M2, &xstart + &scale * ( &ccc + 0.125 ), &ystart - &scale * ( &rrr + 0.5 )
SO,3,0
RETURN
D125: ' entry point for 12.5% diamond
J2, &xstart + &scale * ( &ccc + 0.375 ), &ystart - &scale * ( &rrr + 0.5 )
SO,3,1
M2, &xstart + &scale * ( &ccc + 0.5 ), &ystart - &scale * ( &rrr + 0.625 )
M2, &xstart + &scale * ( &ccc + 0.625 ), &ystart - &scale * ( &rrr + 0.5 )
M2, &xstart + &scale * ( &ccc + 0.5 ), &ystart - &scale * ( &rrr + 0.375 )
M2, &xstart + &scale * ( &ccc + 0.375 ), &ystart - &scale * ( &rrr + 0.5 )
SO,3,0
RETURN
S438: ' entry point for 43.8% square
J2, &xstart + &scale * ( &ccc + 0.0625 ), &ystart - &scale * ( &rrr + 0.0625 )
SO,3,1
M2, &xstart + &scale * ( &ccc + 0.0625 ), &ystart - &scale * ( &rrr + 0.9375 )
M2, &xstart + &scale * ( &ccc + 0.9375 ), &ystart - &scale * ( &rrr + 0.9375 )
M2, &xstart + &scale * ( &ccc + 0.9375 ), &ystart - &scale * ( &rrr + 0.0625 )
M2, &xstart + &scale * ( &ccc + 0.0625 ), &ystart - &scale * ( &rrr + 0.0625 )
SO,3,0
RETURN
S313: 'entry point for 31.3% square
J2, &xstart + &scale * ( &ccc + 0.1875 ), &ystart - &scale * ( &rrr + 0.1875 )
SO,3,1
M2, &xstart + &scale * ( &ccc + 0.1875 ), &ystart - &scale * ( &rrr + 0.8125 )
M2, &xstart + &scale * ( &ccc + 0.8125 ), &ystart - &scale * ( &rrr + 0.8125 )
M2, &xstart + &scale * ( &ccc + 0.8125 ), &ystart - &scale * ( &rrr + 0.1875 )
M2, &xstart + &scale * ( &ccc + 0.1875 ), &ystart - &scale * ( &rrr + 0.1875 )
SO,3,0
RETURN
S188: ' entry point for 18.8% square
J2, &xstart + &scale * ( &ccc + 0.3125 ), &ystart - &scale * ( &rrr + 0.3125 )
SO,3,1
M2, &xstart + &scale * ( &ccc + 0.3125 ), &ystart - &scale * ( &rrr + 0.6875 )
M2, &xstart + &scale * ( &ccc + 0.6875 ), &ystart - &scale * ( &rrr + 0.6875 )
M2, &xstart + &scale * ( &ccc + 0.6875 ), &ystart - &scale * ( &rrr + 0.3125 )
M2, &xstart + &scale * ( &ccc + 0.3125 ), &ystart - &scale * ( &rrr + 0.3125 )
SO,3,0
RETURN
S063: ' entry point for 6.3% square
J2, &xstart + &scale * ( &ccc + 0.4375 ), &ystart - &scale * ( &rrr + 0.4375 )
SO,3,1
M2, &xstart + &scale * ( &ccc + 0.4375 ), &ystart - &scale * ( &rrr + 0.5625 )
M2, &xstart + &scale * ( &ccc + 0.5625 ), &ystart - &scale * ( &rrr + 0.5625 )
M2, &xstart + &scale * ( &ccc + 0.5625 ), &ystart - &scale * ( &rrr + 0.4375 )
M2, &xstart + &scale * ( &ccc + 0.4375 ), &ystart - &scale * ( &rrr + 0.4375 )
SO,3,0
RETURN
X338: ' entry point for 33.8% 'X'
J2, &xstart + &scale * ( &ccc + 0 ), &ystart - &scale * ( &rrr + 0 )
SO,3,1
M2, &xstart + &scale * ( &ccc + 1 ), &ystart - &scale * ( &rrr + 1 )
SO,3,0
J2, &xstart + &scale * ( &ccc + 0 ), &ystart - &scale * ( &rrr + 1 )
SO,3,1
M2, &xstart + &scale * ( &ccc + 1 ), &ystart - &scale * ( &rrr + 0 )
SO,3,0
RETURN
P234: ' entry point for 23.4% 'plus'
J2, &xstart + &scale * ( &ccc + .5 ), &ystart - &scale * ( &rrr + 0 )
SO,3,1
M2, &xstart + &scale * ( &ccc + .5 ), &ystart - &scale * ( &rrr + 1 )
SO,3,0
J2, &xstart + &scale * ( &ccc + 0 ), &ystart - &scale * ( &rrr + 0.5 )
SO,3,1
M2, &xstart + &scale * ( &ccc + 1 ), &ystart - &scale * ( &rrr + 0.5 )
SO,3,0
RETURN
‘ THIS IS THE START OF THE ACTUAL DRAWING routine to produce Jim painting -- black layer:
ROW_1: 'nothing in this row
&rrr = 0
ROW_2: ' nothing in this row
&rrr = 1
ROW_3: ' nothing in this row
&rrr = 2
ROW_4: ' nothing in this row
&rrr = 3
ROW_5: ' column 24 is first area to paint
&rrr = 4
&ccc = 24
GOSUB 01 ' draw gestures for gray value = 1 of 0-16
ROW_6:
&rrr = 5
&ccc = 25
GOSUB 07
ROW_7:
&rrr = 6
&ccc = 26
GOSUB 02
&ccc = 144
GOSUB 02
&ccc = 145
GOSUB 04
&ccc = 146
GOSUB 04
&ccc = 147
GOSUB 01
ROW_8:
&rrr = 7
&ccc = 26
GOSUB 10
&ccc = 138
GOSUB 05
&ccc = 139
GOSUB 08
&ccc = 140
GOSUB 11
&ccc = 141
GOSUB 11
&ccc = 142
GOSUB 13
&ccc = 143
GOSUB 15
&ccc = 144
GOSUB 15
&ccc = 145
GOSUB 15
&ccc = 146
GOSUB 15
&ccc = 147
GOSUB 15
&ccc = 148
GOSUB 15
&ccc = 149
GOSUB 14
&ccc = 150
GOSUB 13
&ccc = 151
GOSUB 13
&ccc = 152
GOSUB 13
&ccc = 153
GOSUB 12
&ccc = 154
GOSUB 11
&ccc = 155
GOSUB 06
ROW_9:
&rrr = 8
&ccc = 26
GOSUB 09
&ccc = 27
GOSUB 07
&ccc = 133
GOSUB 02
&ccc = 134
GOSUB 07
&ccc = 135
GOSUB 10
&ccc = 136
GOSUB 13
&ccc = 137
GOSUB 14
&ccc = 138
GOSUB 15
&ccc = 139
GOSUB 14
&ccc = 140
GOSUB 12
&ccc = 141
GOSUB 12
&ccc = 142
GOSUB 10
&ccc = 143
GOSUB 08
&ccc = 144
GOSUB 09
&ccc = 145
GOSUB 09
&ccc = 146
GOSUB 09
&ccc = 147
GOSUB 10
&ccc = 148
GOSUB 11
&ccc = 149
GOSUB 11
&ccc = 150
GOSUB 09
&ccc = 151
GOSUB 12
&ccc = 152
GOSUB 12
&ccc = 153
GOSUB 13
&ccc = 154
GOSUB 13
&ccc = 155
GOSUB 14
&ccc = 156
GOSUB 16
&ccc = 157
GOSUB 12
ROW_10:
&rrr = 9
&ccc = 26
GOSUB 02
&ccc = 27
GOSUB 12
&ccc = 131
GOSUB 05
&ccc = 132
GOSUB 13
&ccc = 133
GOSUB 14
&ccc = 134
GOSUB…
It goes on and on like this – two or three of these commands for each of the 22,000 squares in the drawing – then the next color paints over them, then the next color, and on and on for WEEKS!!!
But it works!!!
-- Mike
Labels: painting
¶ 1:39 PM 3 comments links to this post
Yesterday and today I've been experimenting with the new computer controlled painting device and the results are encouraging -- a few interesting problems (maybe these will turn out to be 'characteristics') which I hope to resolve, but -- well, see for yourself (click the play button on the movie -- about 1 minute long):
-- Mike Lyon
Labels: painting
¶ 2:18 PM 2 comments links to this post
Computer controlled paintbrush gizmo up and running as of 30 minutes ago!!!
Parts for airbrush assembly – the airbrush itself is just above the angle iron with the solenoid already installed. Solenoid plunger above it, little bent aluminum airbrush retaining clips above airbrush – the angle iron gets bolted into the aluminum pipe and holds the airbrush vertically in the center of the pipe – the plastic pipe shims the assembly out to proper dimension for my holder… Ink/paint bottle at left and “Z” clip to keep the plunger from falling out is next to plunger – it’s a damned simple solution given how long it’s taken me to figure out!
The new paintbrush assembly almost ready for installation!
The completed assembly (minus ink bottle) is mounted in machine – the interface board came from ShopBot – it’s very simple board with five relays driven from program controlled outputs in the ShopBot controller (the ribbon cable you see accordion-folded runs from top of the board over the cable umbilical of the machine and into the main ShopBot control box… I use only one of the relays (and 24v power from the controller) to energize and deenergize my little solenoid which pushes the button on the airbrush…
I mounted the relay board onto the Z-axis of the ShopBot in a little plexi box I built this afternoon – the box should keep the board clean when I’m routing instead of painting… The cover is open at the bottom and just slides down over the plexi back in some nicely fitted grooves in the sides of the cover. You can see the brush assembly mounted into the machine at the bottom of this photo.
Here’s a view of the business-end of the assembly neatly mounted in the machine – the air hose has a quick-release at each end so it’ll be a snap to change over from painting to drawing to routing – but I’m going to need to build a 2nd generation drawing control to fit the relay board the same way and using a 24v continuous duty solenoid which I now have on hand instead of the intermittent duty 110v solenoid I used for the previous two drawings (and melted one of the coils in the process, unfortunately – that won’t happen again once I’ve converted over to the 24v device – and I won’t have to worry about 110v finding its way into the delicate electronics (or my delicate body, either)…
You can see the 24v solenoid wires (white wires) about 1/3 up from bottom left, and solenoid plunger on button of airbrush and black air hose coming in from right… Since it works in reverse of pen-lifter, I have to program a new converter before I can use it (the pen solenoid got powered when it was to STOP drawing – the brush gets powered when it is to PAINT, so my old program is reversed and I need to make a simple change in order to generate the proper code for the new airbrush… Should be testing with actual paint tomorrow!!! YIPPEE!!! But… The thing does actually WORK right now, the computer turning the airbrush off and on with command, so I’m ready to go!!!
-- Mike Lyon
Labels: painting
¶ 6:18 PM 2 comments links to this post
