Sketch: Little vamps need loving too!

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on July 3, 2009
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Kat Johnston Sketch: Little vamps need loving too, ya know... they don't stay young forever! Oh... wait... that's not quite right.

I needed a break from other things, so I decided to use my pen for something else more exciting than filling out forms. Oi, forms make me tired… not all forms are bad, just the ones I really, really don’t want to fill in!

We’ve had builders in and out and in and out and innnn and out of our poor little house here… plus a plumber over today. Painting is going to occur on Monday or some such nonsense. I really am getting to the point of utter frustration over it, but there ya go!

Annnyhow… all that aside, here is today’s piccie. She’s a little vampie girl, and I think she’s incredibly adorable! But then, I may be just the teensiest bit bias, since I drew her to begin with.

Judging from yesterday’s response to my jewelry (both in person and on the Facebook note made from these posts), it seems that I should try to battle my way through to my table again soon, and get to creating again. Now, if our house could just get back to a useable state (please, owners… seriously… getting a little silly now), I could move all the boxes that are currently crowding around my canvasses and tables and jewelry making equipment, and I could get back to work in there!

Ah well… cross fingers that something will get sorted out soon. That’s all for today, folks!

A little bit of jewelry.

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on July 2, 2009
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I promised jewelry… so here we go! Unfortunately, these are really, really not the best pictures in the world - I had to colour correct them a heap, and even then, they haven’t come up great. I didn’t have the greatest photography equipment at the time. I really need to make some more and get it photographed soon! So, despite the questionable quality… lets get into it, shall we? These are all older pieces: anything newish, I’ve really just made them and given them to the respective people they were meant for.

Kat Johnston Jewelry: Teal coloured glass, for the most part, with alloy metal beads dotted throughout. Kat Johnston Jewelry: This time yellow, and a mix of crystal, yellow jade, freshwater pearls, alloy metal, and I think that's about it. Kat Johnston Jewelry: This time we have freshwater pearls, crystal, alloy metal and smokey quartz. Kat Johnston Jewelry: glass, crystal, freshwater pearls, alloy metal. Kat Johnston Jewelry: glass, crystal, freshwater pearls, alloy metal, and I think that's about it. Kat Johnston Jewelry: If I remember correctly... alloy metal, glass, crystal and rose quartz.

Ok, once again I will state that these are older pieces, and I’m going to apologize for the photography again! It really doesn’t bring out the lustre, shine or colour in them… which is disappointing. Anyhow… that’s all for now!

A few of my favourites… but certainly not all.

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on June 30, 2009
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So it just so happens that I had an interview today, and because I was rushing out the door, I didn’t have the chance to grab any images of some of my more decent drawings or paintings. As a result, I gave a link to this site. Sooo, to make it easier to navigate through the loads and loads of pictures here (because I haven’t got the gallery section up and running again), I’m going to put just a few of my favourite images up in this post, ranging from a few paintings to some of my sketches. So… here we go!

Kat Johnston Art: A little further progressed... and still untitled.

My most recent completed painting, this one just blows me away… I love it to utter bits. Originally, it was meant to be completed in colour, however when the black and white was mostly completed, I realized that it was just not destined for that. This painting was completed in gouache on canvas, and finished with a semi-gloss varnish. The piece is called ‘Escape of the Nubian Contessa’.

'Rat King' 3

A painting still in progress, this one is ‘The Rat King’, though it is quite possible that the name will change by the time it is actually completed. Again, gouache on canvas, as yet unfinished. My apologies for the quality of this image - I should really retake this photo.

'Miniatures'

Some miniatures, measuring no more than a couple of inches by a couple of inches. Surprisingly enough, despite the tiny size of these, they remain something that I utterly adore to this day.

Ok, now onto a few drawings…

Kat Johnston art - looking at a blank page is hard. Its so full of potential, and -you- have the potential to screw it up. But as the saying goes: nothing ventured, nothing gained.

This one has a bit of a story. It is entitled “Atelodemiourgiopapyrophobia” which is a word a friend and I coined meaning ‘the fear of imperfect creative activity on paper’… in other words, staring at a blank, beautiful, fresh sketchbook and going ‘oh god, I really, really don’t want to ruin it’. Not so surprisingly, I suppose, it is drawn inside a sketchbook… and a nice one at that. Completed in plain, ole-fashioned biro.

Kat Johnston Art - A book unwritten remains unread. It takes a pen to paper and a risk of failure to make those words take wing. How's that for a bit of philosophical mumbo-jumbo for you? The unwise owl gets a little sense, perhaps?

Another from the same sketchbook, even. This is an image of ‘The Unwise Owl’, which means a fair amount to me, but perhaps not to others. Suffice to say, the Unwise Owl believes he is wise, yet does not realize until it is too late that this may not be so. He was the basis of a little childrens’ story I wrote.

Kat Johnston Sketch - this is maggie... I was testing out a new pen.

“Maggie’ is the name of this lovely lady. This  picture was just drawn quickly, to test out a new and wonderful ink pen, however the results went above and beyond what I could have wished for. Working with different mediums is just so incredibly fulfilling - I can take a break from one, switch to another, and when I come back to the first I have a whole new take on how I can work with it, too.

Ok… that should do! At least for now. Unfortunately, posting a picture of every favourite image I have here would take a long time, and just be silly. Clicking on the tag ‘favourite’ for this post, however, will bring up a wider list of the sketches posted here that I love the most. Hopefully I’ll get the job (cross fingers, everybody), and if I have to resort to offering bribery with baked goods, I’m willing to do it. Everyone likes cake, don’t they?

Regular programming resumes tomorrow… in the meantime, I’m going to try and dig out some of the pictures of jewellery I’ve made, which are buried somewhere on this computer… if I can find them, I’ll throw up a few pictures of those as well.

Sketch: Something -not- on a person for once!

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on June 23, 2009
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Kat Johnston - a quick line drawing... he's adorable!

It actually feels as if I haven’t done a plain ole sketch on paper in quite a while… though that honestly isn’t true. I think it just feels that way because the last few posts I’ve done to the blog here have been done with images of body-art with sharpies rather than… well… plain ole sketches on paper.

Well, here is a quick sketch done today, and I can’t say that I wasn’t somewhat inspired by a earlier incarnation of Sven from Questionable Content. What can I say? He was absolutely adorable with the longer hair and the rounder nose, not that he looks any worse now… just different. I’ve been trolling through the archives from the very first of this webcomic, and if you’re not yet come across it, now is just about the right time to go take a peek. My apologies to Jeph (creator of QC) if my ’sorta inspired by Sven’ is too similar in some respects! Just let me know if you’d like me to take it down (if you ever see this) and I would be happy to oblige.

So anyhow, that’s about it for today. Another day forward in another thrilling week, which will most likely be peppered with calls back and forth between builders and real-estate agents and the thrilling (yet somewhat disturbing) sound of me yelling at nothing in particular because yelling at something causes more trouble than it should. More tomorrow!

Body Art: seems I’m drawing a lot of dragons lately…

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on June 22, 2009
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Kat Johnston body art: Yay! Another dragon... and this time he's green. Phew!

Another day, another dragon, on another person’s arm. It seems that dragons are well requested within my little circle of friends… that said, this dragon wasn’t actually ‘requested’ so much as ‘drawn because I knew that it would tickle this person’s fancy’. The background then came later, once I’d had a bit of a break. By the time it was done, at least she’d started actually sitting (or laying, rather) still.

Sorry that there was no posting over the weekend - it’s been a bit busy, of late, so doing posts for here wasn’t exactly top top priority. No matter though - I’m back at it today. And that is what matters, when all is said and done!

So, anyhow, not much actual news to add here. There’s nothing especially interesting or fascinating going on in the world of Kat, just the regular ole day to day stuff that requires doing. Speaking of which… time to get back to work. Talk later, everybody!

Body Art: A clockwork orange… dragon?

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on June 18, 2009
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Kat Johnston Body Art: A clockwork orange dragon... his name is Clarence!

I have been having so much fun doing these ‘faux-tattoos’ recently. I’ve decided that coloured sharpie markers are the bomb. This one was done last night on a friend I had over for dinner. We had tasty, hearty stew with mashed potatoes. Isn’t that just the best type of meal for these cool winter nights?

Anyhow, I asked her what she would like drawn on her, and her answer was a clockwork flower dragon. While I could have gone the way of creating one composed entirely of mechanical parts, I just didn’t feel quite like that… so we met half-way! Oh, and when deciding on a name, I picked Clarence. It’s such a gentlemanly name for a dragon such as this, don’t you think? Given a bit more time, I probably would have added just a tiny touch of colour around the outline to make it ‘pop’ from the skin a touch more, or a little more detail… but since it was already pushing 11, I just had to get done. I am very, very happy with the results.

I think I’m really starting to get the hang of working with these markers on people - I’m getting decently gradated shading, and becoming more confident with my lines, though some people really should stop moving when I draw on them… yes, I’m looking at you, miss! And now I’ve started formulating another awesome idea, for my next venture into the joys of drawing on people with markers. It contains a lot of blue, something a little abstract, and no dragons this time methinks… any volunteers?

Oh, and please forgive the somewhat shabby masking around her figure (I can do better, I’m just lazy today) - I just wanted to darken the background, since that particular picture was taken in front of the bed here in our computer room. As cute as the bed may be, it did kinda draw away from the focus!

Sketch: Emma and Archibald.

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on June 16, 2009
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Kat Johnston Sketch: It's my little girl and Archibald. Archibald is a rooster.

I actually did name my little girl, a little while ago… her name is Emma. The rooster on her head, in this sketch, is called Archibald. They have much fun together. Some of which I might show at another time. In this pic, it looks as if Emma has shot and stuffed him to make him into a raccoon hat… but… um… made with a rooster instead. “Davy Crockett be damned!” says she. What disregard to tradition she has.

I’m actually keeping this post short today. So goodnight!

Body Art: Hearts and gears and bunnies, oh my!

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on June 15, 2009
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Kat Johnston Body Art: This is what happens when I get given a body to work on, and a packet of prettily coloured sharpies.

Finally! Finally I get to play around properly with prettily coloured sharpies… all over someone’s back. Started with the heart and went out from there. It grew!

I’m actually really loving playing around with sharpies on people doing these ’sorta not really permanent marker tattoo’ thingies. It took a little bit to get used to the way the coloured sharpies work and blend, but I think I’m starting to get the gist of it. When given the chance, I think I have a far better idea of how I’m going to draw a phoenix on a certain someone - though they’ll have to give me a bigger area to work with this time! Please?

In celebration of working with pretty pretty markers, I’ve created a new category for such things, entitled ‘Body Art’. That way they don’t just get thrown straight into the ‘Sketches’ category and that’s it. I figure that my friends will lend me forbearance for a while longer to draw all over them, so there is a fairly decent likelihood that I might post more pictures of them here. Yay for friends who tolerate my eccentricities!

I think that’s about it for today… enjoy the picture, and I’ll see you tomorrow. Phew!

Sketch: It’s been a while…

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on June 13, 2009
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Kat Johnston - my little girl looks to a star above...

9 days in fact. My apologies - it’s been one heck of a couple of weeks. Builders in and out of the house, real-estate agents not wanting to give straight answers, not getting a job I would have liked to have gotten, I have to get surgery because my knee is not behaving… all in all, it’s been a just a teensie bit rotten. But that’s ok. Because I have a sketch for you!

You know how I’ve mentioned my ‘little girl’ before? This is her. She’s a reoccurring character that I draw over and over, here and there. And she’s cute!

Ok, so onto something a little different. I went to a concert last night - the Pink Funhouse Tour concert. When Pink actually got to the stage, it was an absolutely fantastic show. She was brilliant. What was, however, disappointing about the night, was waiting for the actual concert to start. The tickets say ‘7:30′, so I expect an opening act, and then Pink to be on the stage by say… ohh… 8:00, or perhaps 8:30, tops. But noooo… it was already 9:15 by the time it got to the actual concert.

That, my friends, was a little disappointing - if we weren’t set on watching the main act, I would have walked out the door by 9. After all, you pay to see Pink, not Faker and a DJ for almost 2 hours. Not that Faker was bad or anything, and the DJ was actually fairly brilliant, but when you’re waiting for the main act, you don’t want to sit there and listen to something else for so long - it didn’t seem to pump up the crowd for the main act, it just seemed to draw out the time until it actually happened. Hopefully it was just a ‘first night in Brisbane’ type mishap backstage that made the wait so incredibly, incredibly long.

But the wait aside, the actual concert part of the night itself was fantastic. Pink really knows how to move around a stage and sing while being tossed this way and that in incredible feats of acrobatics, and the stage-show itself was just brilliant. Pink, not surprisingly, sung incredibly well, and even proved she wasn’t lip-syncing a couple of times by forgetting the words. Phew! Yay for the Pink concert!

I’m so not apologizing for enjoying awesome pop music by the way. So there!

Life Drawing / Sketch: The morning after.

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on June 4, 2009
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Kat Johnston Sketch: A nude I drew last night... perhaps I shouldn't put the word nude in here. Googling might get a whole lot more fun.

Mmmm, I am starting to enjoy the wonders of raspberry tea right now. It is both tasty and delicious. That is what I am drinking as I sit here this morning, doing this post.

So I think that it is going to become required to put up at least one picture a week that results from my life-drawing thingies on Wednesday nights, provided that I go to them. This is one of my picks from this week. Yup, I’m going a full nude this time, but surely the world can take it? It’s just a few lines on a page, after all.

I actually played around a bit with artistic license on this particular sketch. It was nearing the end of the session, and the girl just seemed a bit exhausted, and I have to admit, I was kinda getting to that point too. My back was being an utter pain in the… uhhh… back!

So anyhow, yes… it isn’t true to the person laying there, in that she doesn’t have hair that covers most of her face, or looked completely and utterly bushed… but I am happy with it. Of course there are errors, but hey, as I keep trying to tell myself, what can be expected from a 15 - 20 minute sketch? I’m almost tempted to refine this one into something better, later.

That’s about it for this morning, though I might post another picture later too, if I have anything to say, or a reason to say it. For now, I had best get into the day and try to start it properly.