New items in the shop

I don't know if I've mentioned it here, but I have a shop on Etsy:Your place to buy and sell all things handmade. If you're looking to pick up some cool art and craft stuff, you should definitely check the site out. My shop is located under RedHerringJeff, and I have several hand-printed items, as well as original drawings and digital prints for sale.

I'd been holding off on putting my most recent originals up for sale until after the Archon convention, but now that that show is out of the way, I'm posting them to the shop a little at a time. Here's a couple of the things from this week.

The original inked version of the art for the West Canaan Wizards.
The Original Inked artwork for the Frat Boys Versus:Party Animal
A high quality digital print of the Pytheus Club cover.

Been SUPER busy this week. I'm finishing up the inks on the cover of the Frat Boys -Versus- cover for Hex, and I've got some work done on a surprise project. You'll get a preview of that on Friday instead of the "usual" Daily Life post.

Until then, take care and be good!
Your friend,
Jeffrey

Science is about ideas and preparation

A few years ago, my oldest brother got me a book for Christmas called "Build Your Own Humanoid Robots", by Karl Williams. There is a sort of pattern with the two of us... a set of gift buying rules, I guess. Generally, everything is off the beaten path, and touches on our interests and sensibilities in unobvious ways. The use for this book is nearing as Abby gets older, and some of the little boys I know are approaching an age where little fingers are less clumsy, and interest and attention can be held on a project through completion. This leads me to the title of this post.

I was thinking about making a robot. This brought to the surface of my brain a memory of my youngest brother (he was about 10 at the time) collecting old electronic junk (literally parts of VCRs, Stereos... I think he might have had part of a CPU in there) to make a robot out of. None of these things were really useful to his final goal, I think. This was an idea without preparation, and looking back on it I wonder how things would have turned out differently with a few less encouraging "mmmm-hmm"s and a little more guidance... I take my share of dropping the ball on that one. So... let's say you wanted to make a robot that had legs like a crab, and moved like one. (idea) Part of the preparation is obvious robot stuff (programming, servos, actuators... remote control), but part of it is less obvious. Stuff like biology (studying the muscles and joints of a real crab and how it moves), fabricating (parts have to be made somehow) and drawing. So many of the best ideas fall apart due to poor planning.

Mostly this post is set-up for next week. Your homework this week is to think about what the word "Subversive" means to you. I'm going to endeavor to adequately explain where I'm going with it (with a little help from my local library). There are some ideas and thoughts that have been weighing heavily on me of late, that I think I would like to share with my friends.
This weeks drawing is basically just practice for my next cover for Hex, trying out some new brushes and inking techniques, and practicing my color work. The colors on this one are still pretty rough. I'm hoping to grab a couple of minutes this week to tidy them up a little bit and push this drawing to a better finish. Her shirt was originally just going to be a big red circle... maybe with some text in it. The Eggplant graphic was totally accidental, but once I saw it it was too good to just let go.

Until next week. Take care and be good.
Your friend,
(in an effort to be more searchable) Jeffrey Johnson

Self Portrait Twelve of One-Hundred

Started this one as a set of four images that progressively abstract. I'm really happy with how this one turned out... looking back to a year ago (or really, more recently than that) I can see a lot of improvement. This is starting to feel like some professional work from me. More focused and what not. Sometimes it's hard to make time for this, but I'm always glad I do.
Thanks for looking, and I'll talk at you again soon... by the way, my internet is still out, so posting is gonna be tricky this weekend.
Your friend
KC

Self Portrait 10 of 100

My internet is down at home, so I'm running a little bit behind in my posts. I was looking at Chuck Mates sketchbook on Conceptart.org, and thought I'd give digital painting a try... Tragidy. It's actually not that bad in the grand scheme of things, but I came up against a wall pretty quickly. I think next time I'll work in grayscale. There's just too many color options in PS, and it's hard to come to grips with a new medium when you have too many variables to deal with.



Take care and be good!
Your friend
KC

Self Portrait Eight of One-Hundred

This little slice of heaven was skewed a bit by the angle of my drawing board. Kind of a boneheaded thing to do, but a good lesson in paying attention to what you're doing. Its ball-point pen, and marker. Relatively usual materials for me, not too exciting, but I feel like I'm getting into the swing of things, and am starting to turn out some drawings that I'm happy with.

This was a retarded post, because I had nothing really to say.

Talk to you tomorrow!
Your friend
KC

Self Portrait Seven of One-Hundred

Okay, like I said this is a little out of date. I did this for an Illustration Friday topic "Scale". I'm not going to explain it, cuz it's pretty self explanatory. I will say, though, that I have perhaps an unhealthy obsession with my weight. I'm not really fat... I know that, but I am overweight, (like the rest of America pretty much) and I'm very conscious of that.

Other than the commentary on my issues, I feel like this is a definite turn in a more professional direction. It's cartooney, but it really feels complete, and more well thought out.
Talk to y'all again tomorrow!
Your friend
KC

Day six of one-hundred

Ugh... I thought this one was pretty okay at first. But I think it was the super-cool background I was reacting to. Boy, what a stinker. This one, though, is illustrating some particular issues. The main one is that I sometimes am just not paying attention. This leads into the other issues. Formulaic drawing (I know the nose goes here, and the eyes are here... let's just do this and get it done.) and using props to say that I got a likeness...

By that I mean that I wear glasses with black frames, my hair is short(ish), I have a large unruley mustache, sometimes a beard, and I have earrings. So putting these props together on a generally egg shaped head means that I did a portrait of me, right?

Really, this is more of what I was talking about yesterday about being professional, and turning out more professional looking drawings. I'll work more on it tomorrow.

Thanks for stoppin' in again, and I'll have more to show and tell tomorrow!
Your friend
KC

Day five of one-hundred

I guess it seems kind of retarded to feel like I gave to do two posts today to make up for missing yesterday... It kind of feels like I'm posting into the void, but I think it's important to stay up with this. And the point is that hopefully people will read it. Maybe someday, I'll actually have something interesting or funny to say. Ha-ha!

Okay. I crammed this one in right before bed, and rushed it so I could just be done with it. On the one hand, that was fine because at least I got it done. On the other hand, looking at especially this one, but also these first four as a set, they seem unfinished, and more importantly unprofessional. Doing it is part of the point, but just doing it to do it isn't going to get me where I'm going. It's like going on a trip with flat tires... You'll get there, but you'll have wrecked rims, and get terrible gas mileage doing it.

I hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving (or Thursday for those of you not in the states), and I'll talk at you again tomorrow.

Your friend
KC

Day two of one-hundred

Okay, day two. One thing that I feel like I should tell you, is that these images are about ten days behind. I gave myself a little lead time so I could catch up in case I get behind. Also because I started the project before I had the time to set up the blog. Ha-ha!

Looking back on this one, there are some errors. Most noticeably the eyes aren't level, and the top of my head is a little misshapen. I remember, too, that I started getting restless and distracted about halfway through. I shouldv'e taken a break and come back to it, but I didn't and ended up with a kind of muddled, unprofessional drawing. I feel like the good things about this one are outweighed by the bad.

See y'all tomorrow!
KC

Day one of one-hundred

Hi! I guess since this is the first post, I should say something about who I am, and what I'm doing. Introductions are always the hardest thing, especially when you're writing into the void... Ha-ha! So, anyway, I'm 30, and live and work in the Saint Louis area as a graphic designer and illustrator. Art has been a part of my life for most of my life. Unfortunately, looking back it seems like I had more potential than passion. I always have more work to do, and I need to expand my skill set, and discipline if I want to move forward.

That's what this blog is really about. I don't have the time or fortitude to run through four or ten pages in my sketchbook everyday. But one a day is not unreasonable. There are 100 pages in your average sketchbook. 100 in 100 days. To make things a little simpler, I'll do a set of 100 of the same subject. That way I can narrow down the variables and focus more on what I'm doing.

Finally, I have three goals.
1.Focus and self discipline.
2.More accurate portrait.
3.Freedom to experiment with media, style, and technique.

It feels like I wrote an awful lot there... That won't happen all the time.Thanks for stoppin' in, and I'll talk at you more tomorrow.