There she goes, my beautiful world
This weekend I saw the new Watchmen movie. Twice. I treated myself to a viewing at the Orinda Theater Friday night (opening night with a dozen other people in the theater) and then was invited to go along with a group of friends Saturday night — I went mostly for the fellowship and sociability, but also I was curious whether I’d pick up on any details I’d missed the first time.
It’s a movie that I wish, if the technology had … Read the rest
There are more anniversaries today than I originally realized. Thanks to @spacehobo for reminding me. Although we officially celebrate «President’s Day» on this coming Monday, once upon a time calendars celebrated Washington’s and Lincoln’s birthdays separately and on the correct days. Today, quite auspiciously, is the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth.
This means it’s also the 100th anniversary of the Lincoln Cent, which was designed and placed into circulation to honor Lincoln’s 100th birthday. I have a … Read the rest
Today is the 125th anniversary of the patent granted to Lewis Edson Waterman for his capillary feed for fountain pens, which turned fountain pens from a gimmicky novelty used by only a few into the true replacement for the steel pen and the quill.
http://www.invent.org/hall_of_fame/308.html… Read the rest
Some of you have seen this finished piece, but as I’m opening up my in-progress scans for public consumption, this is one that grabs me for a couple of different reasons. First, I’m very proud that the first layer of hatching was all arcs to suggest the shape of the pen. Having that down first helped me move forward with a sense of dimension that I don’t always have when I’m putting layer over layer of crossing lines down on paper.… Read the rest
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. I have the basics in mind, but I’m weighing out some decisions and solutions that are … Read the rest
Jumping ahead several layers, now there’s more tone and the appearance of contour. The nib of the pen still needs more contrast to make it look shiny. By now, I’ve stopped using the 0.13mm pen exclusively and have begun making some layers with the 0.18mm pen.
There are two issues with continuing to use the finer pen. First is the fact that the more ink goes down on the page, the less blank space … Read the rest
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/06/opinion/06hastings.html?_r=1&em
A surprising and cogent argument. I’m not sure I agree that raising taxes is the right idea (closing loopholes would be a better start), but he has struck an underlying truth about the attitudes about wealth that our society would be better off without. Thought-provoking in any case.… Read the rest
These are now pasted into my sketchbook, but are not actually sketchbook work, but drafts. I’ve mentioned this before, but often what I do when I’m not certain how to proceed with a drawing is to place vellum over the pencil drawing and take different approaches at rendering the section in ink. Sometimes these come out as almost fully-realized drawings and other times I’ll work only on one the area of the drawing. Sometimes I’ll rough out some ideas crudely … Read the rest
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.… Read the rest