William Blake’s The Tyger, Part II
December 12, 2009 at 2:25 am (Uncategorized)
Tags: linocut, drawing, tree, blake, tyger, tiger, moon
William Blake’s The Tyger, Part I
November 29, 2009 at 5:26 am (Uncategorized)
Tags: blake, drawing, linocut, moon, tiger, tree, tyger
Were the good folks at Convivio Bookworks not in the habit of acting as red-letter day advisors, the birthday of William Blake would have passed me by. To honor the 28th of November*, a broadside of The Tyger will be printed in 28 copies.
The draft drawing, with proof and crop marks:
Drawing detail of moon in branches:
And that detail as seen after transfer to the lino:
The entire uncut lino:
Tomorrow, cut and print.
* Blake was born November 28, 1757 in London; the Songs of Experience were written in 1794-95. The text and art here represented are inspired by plate 42 in Copy A held by the British Museum.
Holiday Fun!
November 28, 2009 at 9:20 pm (Uncategorized)
Tags: christmas, reindeer, santa, snowman, tree, yule
Holiday Card, Part I
November 21, 2009 at 12:18 pm (Uncategorized)
Tags: card, layout, newyear, shortstory, sketch, tolstoi
This year’s holiday card is an illustrated version of the short story “Three Questions.”
The single-sheet constant fold form is new to me, so there have been a few prototypes and design layouts.
This is also a test run of the form for the big project, which I have not neglected. Much. Next to come are sketches and cuts for the first labor.
Some Sketches and Found Stuff
November 15, 2009 at 12:14 am (Uncategorized)
Tags: book, journal, papyrus, pencil, portrait, sketch
Sketching on the train as a regular commuter is one of the great urban pleasures. What I enjoy most are the constant variety of faces and personalities, with familiar ones emerging over time; the near-constant movement of both people and the train itself making consistent balance impossible and you always drawing fast; and how it seems to open the door to conversation. I’ve talked to more people in the past month on the train than I have in a year. Also, I’ve given away two sketches to their subjects, which tickles me no end.
This gentleman moved around a fair amount and always resettled into a predictable position.
This lady was absorbed by her book and read quietly for the whole ride. Her ear is much more shapely than I managed.
Notebooks!
While rearranging the studio to make space for working with clay, I’ve had to clean out the disarray. This has led to finding all kinds of things, including a set of blank notebooks, done to test bindings and materials.
This one’s had a hard traveling life. Interestingly, the binding seemed to wear and crack all at once. After two weeks of use, the binding had deteriorated noticeably but after about eight months of use, there has been little more.
Another papyrus notebook. By this time I made this one, I’d noticed both light and dark types worked better with thin pamphlet-style bindings. This example has been used nearly as much as the one above, but has sustained much less damage due to its lesser bulk.
But what about Herakles?
Yes, the big project. Working with clay as the basis for the page is proving troublesome in several key areas: scribing, sealing, storage, simultaneous display, to name a few. I have a few more ideas I’m working through before moving on, and hope to have those done in the next few days.
Dammit!
November 5, 2009 at 8:18 am (Uncategorized)
Tags: art, clay, greek, herakles, labor, scribe, terra cotta
While mounting the plate for shelf display, I held both the wax and plate at exactly the best angle to create this photogenic crack. Dammit!
The break goes through the plate completely, but the thick layer of seal on the front of the plate is still intact. And thus the value of testing is demonstrated.
The First Labor, Part VI
November 4, 2009 at 11:18 pm (Uncategorized)
Tags: art, diorama, greek, herakles, labor, scribe
The First Labor, Part V
November 4, 2009 at 1:23 am (Uncategorized)
Tags: art, clay, greek, herakles, labor, scribe, terra cotta
The first staining test went well; I had not anticipated the amount of dust that got kicked up, but it was easy enough to blow it off the work surface. I used a sanguine conte crayon to lay down the color, then brushed on a PVA-based sealer.
The dry, clean plate:
Just the crayon pigment:
After the seal dried (NB: this is labeled as a matte seal):
The main problem I have with this technique is the poor contrast between the inscribed letters and the flat surface. I have a few other ideas for laying down the pigment, as well as inlaying some sort of color into the letters, to try out. We shall see.
The First Labor, Part IV
November 2, 2009 at 3:11 am (Uncategorized)
Tags: art, clay, greek, herakles, labor, scribe, terra cotta
I inscribed the first test using a white terra cotta clay and an large (for an awl) blunt awl. Laying one side of a ziploc bag down over the clay to manage the stuff dredged up made me feel clever. Here is the plate in its current state:
Here we see the plate and accoutrements:
Detail; note the texture in the inscribed areas:
The plate will have a day to dry; then the glaze!
The Living Book, Finished!
October 31, 2009 at 10:12 pm (Uncategorized)
Tags: anatomy, art, gruesome, halloween, paperdoll, skeleton
The gruesome paper doll hung outside for a few hours, and creeped out a kid or two. Success!
Further detail of the guts section of the doll
Detail of the shoulder and elbow joints; overall, the arm is bent, and the hand holds another skull, so the joints were tacketed and jointed appropriately.
Okay guys, it’s time for ram chips and dip. Now the rules of this are you have to say a good thing and a bad thing about the movie and then you get a ram chip!
It was a good thing to have chosen an idea for the holiday that I had been mulling over for some months. It used up a floating idea, which feels like progress, and since I was low on free time this past month, it was a good thing to have had the thinking part done. No need to work through ideas that weren’t going to pan out: all that was done a long time ago.
It was a bad thing that I didn’t have enough time fully explore my intended work, a book with limbs extruding from it, and viscera dripping out. That will be a sculpture, and I just didn’t have time for that much work this month.
All right then; back to the Labors. Tomorrow I’ll purchase terra cotta and start scribing.


































