Monthly Archive for March, 2010

Sanu in SL: Give Peas a Chance.

Published on March 29, 2010 in second life. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .
Kat Johnston Second Life (Sanu): Give Peas a Chance. War - what is it good for? Absolutely nothing (say it again!)

One of the thing I think I love most about Second Life is the ability to have an absolutely random conversation with a friend, and then turn that conversation into the inspiration for a whole range of products. I always have a backlog of things I would love to make, but it is often these random conversations that kick all other ideas aside for a while!

People often ask me how I get the inspiration to make so many things… I have to say, random conversations often account for some of these items. It truly is amazing what you can come up with while just talking fun and trying to make each other laugh.

Anyhow, that is how I came up with this little item today. Radio, a friend of mine, sent out a gift to her group – a paper plane which sticks in your hair, with a cute little set of peas in the pod on the wing. I asked her why she was attacking me with paper planes, she replied, and with a little more back and forth, a full-out pea war had been declared. Needless to say, Sanu will undoubtedly be flooded with pea and peapod related items over the coming days… I’ve already planted this particular peapod behind enemy lines, bearing the words ‘Give Peas a Chance’, simply because I find it oh so difficult to avoid using corny puns when given the opportunity.

Anyhow… that is all for today. Perhaps not as impressive a post as the last one with the koi, but it took all morning to get those peapod and pea textures just perfect!

Body Art: Feeling a little koi.

Published on March 28, 2010 in Body Art. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .
Kat Johnston Body Art: I'm feeling a little koi today with this sharpie marker tattoo!

Last night I had someone over wanting an image of a koi, and this is what I came up with! I’m rather happy with the overall result. It would have been somewhat better if my fine black pen didn’t keep conking out on me every 2 seconds as I approached the end of the drawing (which is what accounts for some of the the shoddy outlining on the waters), but still, it isn’t all that bad. I think I might have to introduce a round of something to clear the skin of any residual oiliness before beginning my work next time, for any larger images.

Some days I wish that sharpies worked a bit more like other media – paint, pencils… even biros. The inability to build up some shading did result in the fish looking as if it is simply ‘sitting’ on top of the water – well… that and my distraction here and there. I did have some tendrils of water snaking across the body, but they kinda got drowned out because I lost my lines when I was going over the top with the darker shades and outlining. But no matter! I shall remember that more for next time.

The other thing I would love to have is a blending base. At the moment, I have about three shades which work well as a blending base, but all three are in the warmer area of the spectrum. I’m not sure what anyone else would call them, but I am referring to the colours which blend well into the skin while also having the ability to ‘pick up’ the other colours and apply them evenly, with an effective gradient from a strong colour into almost-skin shade. Anyhow, it is something for me to look into. I’ll see what I can find!

Body Art: Something a little bit bitter.

Published on March 22, 2010 in Body Art. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .
Kat Johnston: Ain't no party like a lemon party.

There was a get-together on Saturday night, featuring a few old friends, and a few new. The ever charming Jaki (a friend of mine with a near psychotic obsession with Hello Kitty) proceeded to very thoroughly freak out one of the new crew by consuming a lemon wedge… rind, pith and all.

Anyhow, the new addition to our little group had to scoot home early for some reason or another (possibly a made-up excuse to escape having to witness a lemon being decimated by a perky, Hello Kitty loving geek), but we continued on with the evening back at home… where I was promptly asked to fetch out my sharpie markers and draw a lemon for someone to ‘bite’, so that we could send a picture on! Anyhow, this was the result.

Lovingly rendered, taking way too long because my thin black sharpie is all but run out (side note: really must replace that soon) and under the stress of having a canvas that moves too much because she was laughing and conversing as if there wasn’t someone on her back trying to draw a smooth line or shade carefully, it nonetheless turned out not too bad.

I think I have to do some more of these little ‘temporary sharpie tattoos’ some more in the near future. They are, after all, incredibly fun to do, even if they are a little labor intensive for the amount of detail I tend to want to throw into them. Anyone in the Brisbane area want me to draw pretty things on them?

Cesi n’est pas une rl pipe

Published on March 21, 2010 in Digital and second life. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .
Kat Johnston: A virtual world take on 'The Treachery of Images' - I call it 'The treachery of Second Life'. This is not a real life pipe.

I have not posted in quite a while, I know! Real life has just been busy busy. It always is. That is hardly an excuse though, don’t you think? So here was my little burst of creativity for yesterday.

As many of you surely know, I play around in Second Life quite a bit. I enjoy the medium for creativity because of the great possibilities you have available to you – from detailed immersive  environments to the challenge of making something so incredibly tiny that it takes some really creative camming to see all of the delicious, glorious detail. It’s like writing your name on a rice-grain: seemingly pointless, but nonetheless awesome.

Anyhow… I got to chatting to someone while in Second Life the other day about semiotics. Semiotics is the study of signs; it is a subject that truly fascinates me. When I was studying semiotics, a particular artwork came up quite a bit. It is now a personal favourite, and I could not help but do my own little spin of it following that conversation.

Rene Magritte’s ‘The Treachery of Images‘ presents a seemingly contradictory statement: it shows an image of a pipe, with the words ‘ceci n’est pas une pipe’ (or in English, ‘this is not a pipe’ just below it, clearly pointing out the *ahem* treachery of images: the picture of a pipe is not a pipe at all, but simply a representation.

So yes… this is my own little version, nicely customized for the world of Second Life. While I could have very easily left the text exactly as it was, I feel that it was nice to give it a touch more context. It makes me smile that in a universe such as this, people are quite willing to spend their money to buy a virtual representation of a representation of a representation. I wonder what Magritte would have said about that?