I worked for Robert E. Luke and Robert Lewis in the winter of 1986, the summer of 1987. It was my first professional experience and I enjoyed completing the work. They used actual ink pens for the drawings, and used mechanical erasers to address mistakes. Before the mechanical erasers, it was shear ‘elbow grease’. Learning how to hand letter with a Kohinoor ink pen was an experience that was generally helpful in my life.
The above image is at the Meridian Community College’s Swimming Pool facility in Meridian, Mississippi. I helped with drafting work.
One of the more interesting aspects of the experience related to skills built was endurance, in that their back work room wasn’t heated, and this was before the advent of printers, computers being used for drafting, and even ‘xeroxing’… so I had to use an ammonia-based product (a diazo printer) that developed the images onto paper that had a fluorescent yellow front. The ammonia vent didn’t work well and it was always an experience of dealing with the ammonia fumes. Regardless, it was quite an experience. I had my share of paper cuts and learning how to work the machine.
Below are some examples of images that would have been developed with a diazo machine. I created these images in about 1986. The image was a drawing I created for a Lazer Tag facility in Arizona. I don’t think the project was ever built. More on that later though.
