Kat Johnston

Tag: markers

  • Body Art: Something a little bit bitter.

    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?

  • Body Art: A clockwork orange… dragon?

    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!