Kat Johnston

Tag: green

  • Sanu in SL: Give Peas a Chance.

    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!

  • Painting: The first for 2010 – Toni’s Dragon!

    Kat Johnston Painting: This is the dragon painting I did for Toni for her birthday. It is pretty, and green, and has wings and stuff. Cute!

    Phew… my first little painting for 2010! A friend of mine has a 30th birthday coming up on Tuesday, however the party was held yesterday. Although I posted that I was going to draw the card (because she reads this blog – I couldn’t give the surprise away!) I also painted her gift.

    So… why a green dragon, on a green background, looking very green? Not really too much to say – she likes green, and she likes dragons. I’m really deep, aren’t I? I was going to add a splash of another colour, but then I liked it so much the way it was that I just decided not to. The completed work actually contains a grand total of 4 colours – I’ve decided that I love working with a limited palette when painting. While the colours used are limited, I still think it pops rather nicely. I realize that the composition isn’t exactly grand, but I like it that way!

    I would have liked to have taken some better shots of the final product – the problem with using a satin varnish is that it gives the painting a very nice sheen, but for taking photos, it isn’t the greatest. Well… at least not at night with just the room light to illuminate the room. The light in my studio (in photos, at least) makes everything appear very warm, which unfortunately just doesn’t show off green in the greatest light without a flash.

    But anyhow… happy birthday, Toni! I hope that you enjoy the dragon, and that you have a wonderful day when the day actually rolls around.

    On an unrelated note, I’m getting the distinct feeling I should really add a dragon category.

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

    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!

  • Another day, another sketch.

    Kat Johnston Sketch - another night of marketing, another random sketch, another day closer to the end of the semester.

    Another random sketch and one I do not yet think is complete. She’s telling me she wants more and I’m telling her ‘later’ because I need to throw something up onto the site now! So I will throw up a ‘completed’ one later, if a completed one later happens to exist. It started off with the face, and then the curves down below… then things sort of started growing from there. Where it will go… I actually have an inkling or two, but I’m going to keep them to myself and leave it as a surprise when you see more of her.

    A little interesting link today, because I know how much I love finding these little gems of the internet: One Mile Scroll, which I discovered through my twitter feed thanks to @caroline, another twitter user. It turns one whole mile into a scrollable webpage, complete with the option to contribute height markers along the way to make the scroll more interesting. A novel way to deliver little factoids alongside transforming “virtual space into an actual, physical distance”.

    I must admit, I wasn’t expecting Twitter to be of much ‘use’ to me when I started playing around with it, but I have actually been finding it incredibly fun to get involved with it. Yay Twitter! Oh, if you happen to want to join me on twitter, the username is KatJohnston (original I know), or you can just click here to see my Twitter profile. An incentive for joining me there? I send out an update on Twitter automatically each time I post a new entry on here – so you can be the first to know when something goes up!

    Edit: just adding in another interesting little link because I am sure that some others would enjoy it as much as I do. Before I die I want to… is a project that takes snapshots of people with polaroid cameras (who have stopped producing their materials and is thus ‘dying’ in its own right) with their hand-written statement of what they want to do before they die on their photograph. The site then states that it wants to go back and actually find out if people have done what they have set out to do after a good period of time has elapsed. I love the concept behind this, and the execution is also just great. Well worth a look. Uhh, and if anyone happens to have a polaroid camera and some film in Brisbane and doesn’t mind taking a shot of me, I’d love to have my picture up there too! Can anyone hook me up?

  • Assignment Folders are Good for Something.

    Kat Johnston - Dandelions sit on a sea of pleasant green. Assignment folders actually are good for something other than holding assignments, huh?

    I picked up my assignment from the uni a few days back. They have to be submitted in document wallets. I seem to have a preference for the green. Anyhow, long story short, I was then waiting for my dinner to be prepared that evening so had a few minutes to myself, with no other drawing material really available (other than the assignment itself… and the cover sheet… and all the rest), so I decided to graffiti the front of my folder instead. This is the oh-so-glamorous result. The food was quick! I call it ‘Dandelions on a Sea of Green’, or alternatively, ‘Assignment Folders are Good for Something’. Both work.