Monthly Archive for January, 2009

An unlikely hero… in black!

Published on January 31, 2009 in Plain Paper, Portraits and Sketch. 0 Comments Tags: , , .
Kat Johnston Art: An unlikely hero is the title of this piece... and... that's it!

The third day of testing my new ‘thirty cents for a pack of five’ pens – this time, giving black a whirl. I like it! Luckily, it actually takes a fairly tragic pen for me to dislike the black of the black. The blues and the reds are far more difficult to get just right.

I’ve named this one ‘An Unlikely Hero’, though oddly enough, I don’t know quite what happened to propel her to hero status! Perhaps it has something to do with that little headdress she is wearing… or maybe it has something to do with the way she ended up with that birds-nest of a hair style. Either way, I have a feeling that the way she became a hero is as unlikely as her seemingly heroic nature. Perhaps she is an accidental hero? A hero of chance?

Perhaps she is a secret princess who was raised as a pig-herd in an adoptive family, while only finding out that she must rise to hero status because she exhibits the royal family’s hereditary birthmark and the kingdom can only be saved by her? She found a sword lodged in a stone and went ‘Oh, that shouldn’t be there! Let me find the right spot for this,’ and lugged it home? Ok, so that’s more of a princely thing, but I say that there is no harm in flipping the tables every now and then. Stories of enterprising princesses-to-be appeal to me.

Ah well… as with some of my other pictures, I don’t always get a perfect read. We’ll see how I go tomorrow.

Testing the red… slightly disappointed.

Published on January 30, 2009 in Plain Paper, Portraits and Sketch. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .
Kat Johnston Sketch - I'm testing out the red pen today.

I must admit, when it comes to red pens, I adore a nice, deep, rich, blood-red shade. This shade? Welllll… not quite what I love. It is nice and all, don’t get me wrong, but not the perfect colour of red I crave.

I find it rather funny just how much the colour of a pen can influence just how I draw with it. The colour, the flow, the amount of variation I can get between one pen and the next… I do the majority of my sketching in pens. I enjoy them so much. If you screw up, you screw up – you either start over or try to salvage it, and either way it will eventually turn out ok, or at the very least, you have one more picture to toss onto the ‘maybe not’ pile.

From the bold, even distribution of colour in a picture like this, to the subtle shading and tone variation of pens with a less ‘wet’ ink, I am constantly delighted by the amount of ways that this simple stationary item so often passed over can transform a simple sheet of paper into something stunning, or evocative, or playful, or sweet… I’m sure I’m not the only one that starts clapping their hand delightedly on the way to a big stationary shop, am I?

Just testing out a new pen… don’t you love blue?

Published on January 29, 2009 in Plain Paper, Portraits, Sketch and second life. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .
Kat Johnston Sketch - this is maggie... I was testing out a new pen.

I was wandering casually up and down the aisles at the supermarket no more than a block away from my home, perusing the shelves stacked full of various things splashed with a gaudy display of imagery supposedly intended to urge me to buy them, to set them above and beyond their paler, dowdier cousins. And yet, there tucked away in a dusty corner of the stationary section with a home-brand label on them lay a set of ’5 gel ink pens’, rather modestly sealed in their little plastic pocket. They were thirty cents. I needed them – not need need, but wanted nonetheless.

Therefore, after stuffing my basket full of all the strict necessities (you know… feta, lettuce, a kilo of stuffed green olives…) and my thirty cent set of gel ink pens, I paid for my goods and headed home. The groceries went away, lunch was prepared… two turkey salad sandwiches, in case you were curious… and I skipped downstairs, plonked my plate down, took a delicious first bite and reached for my sketchbook.

You see, the fun thing about new pens, is finding out just what their quirks are, quite what the colour is like… quite how you’re going to use them. You see, not all pens are created equal – the smooth, confident strokes of one just may not feel comfortable with another. On top of that, there is the colour – the blue of this particular pen makes me all gooey on the inside. Its a perfect, rich, gorgeous shade of blue, rather than a pale, washed out imitator of such a brilliant hue. Oh the disappointment of finding out that that perfect looking pen has uninspiring ink! Such things are a travesty.

Anyhow… above was the test piece for one of my five gel ink pens… though I really only need to test three – luckily for me, for my thirty cents I got blue, black and even a nice looking red!

On the Sanu front, I’ve just released my new set – two sets, actually, though they are really the one split into two parts. The bunny featured just a couple of days ago is the focus, which, if you buy both parts contains a massive 28 pieces. Here’s a couple of images of them, for those who haven’t checked them out in store yet.

Sanu Stuff: the signage for the Cameo set part 1.

Gotta love a jewelry set that comes complete with mini top-hats and finely detailed eye-patches, yes? Well… I think so, anyway. Sorry, you may just have to zoom in close to see any detail on these ones… I told you the other day they were small!

Sanu Stuff: The second image for the Sanu Cameo set... this time, part 2!

Mmhmm. This is a post.

Published on January 27, 2009 in Plain Paper and Sketch. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .
Kat Johnston Sketch: oh yes... you've guessed it. She's not incredibly pleased right now at all, is she?

No Sanu stuff today, just a quick sketch which is probably an all too good reflection of my mood from the early afternoon onwards for various reasons. Luckily though, some comfort lasagna and peppermint tea can do well to sooth a little grumpiness… especially when it comes with a side of cat-cuddling.

I’m keeping this post short today – I think it might be time to lure the hubby to bed for some snuggles rather than sitting in front of a computer for even a minute longer.

Please excuse the mess as we remodel.

Published on January 26, 2009 in Bunnies, Owls, Plain Paper and Sketch. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , .
Kat Johnston Sketch - look! Its a little bitty owl. Isn't he ohhhh so cute? I think I need to do some more owls...

I actually meant to draw this little picture earlier today, but it was not until James inadvertently reminded me by doing something absolutely unrelated to either owls or baths that I remembered that I had to. You see, last night I was taking a nice relaxing bath, sans bubbles, and dozing away. Entirely focused on nothing in particular, my head lolled to the side and a little owl popped out at me from the tiling.

His eyes went wide, quite startled at being found within the unevenly glazed surface of ceramics stretching along the wall. ‘Oh, oh my!’ said he, fluffing his feathered wings, ‘I certainly didn’t mean to disturb you.’

‘Oh, no bother,’ said I, ‘Please, sit a while and talk with me?’

So he did, and it was rather an interesting conversation, when all is said and done. There is a lot that a little owl within a tile knows, for although he exists only by a trick of the light and stray smattering of a darker shade upon light, he actually seems rather well versed in the ways of the world. That said, he is an owl. They’re meant to be smart!

Sanu Stuff: a close-up of a work in progress... a locket with a difference.

Ok, talk of bathroom banter with imaginary owls aside, onto a little bit about Sanu today. The picture above is a capture I took today of a little something I’m working on – a cameo set featuring a bunny I recently put together for the project. Although in this image it seems of a relatively decent size, it is as tiny as can be – I do so love to torture those teensie tiny prims, I do!

Its a lot of work, but I have to say… the results are just as I wished them, at least at this point. Elegant, refined, ridiculously over-detailed with teensie tiny pieces and a touch of humor to boot. Well… that’s Sanu for you!