“Scotty” pen and ink drawing 92 x 45 inches on watercolor tinted paper

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 [...]

America Now and Here – Kansas City

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 [...]

Robin 85 x 45 inches – large scale pen and ink drawing in white, blue, black inks on watercolor tinted paper

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.

“Joel” Large Scale Pen and Ink Drawing in White and Black Ink on Tinted Paper

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 — [...]

Elizabeth – Six Experiments in Two-Color Drawing

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 [...]

Danielle – developing two color drawing technique

I’ve mentioned before that I’m fascinated by Renaissance drawings on tinted paper with light and dark inks or chalk and charcoal.  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 [...]

Drawing in Silverpoint and Copperpoint

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 [...]

Grass4 77 x 22 inches woodblock print from 12 blocks

October 26, 2010 I completed an edition of five of this 12-block woodcut (77 x 22 inches):

Grass3 30 x 58 inch pen and ink drawing

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

Grass-2 large woodblock print 22.5 x 72 inches from 16 blocks

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 [...]

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