Some wild ideas

So this all started as a class thing, where every week we would turn in an idea, no mater how wild or crazy, for an art piece. This is the list of the ideas I had for this quarter. Please enjoy ^^

Kristen Johnson
January 12

Today’s political party people in a Batman setting, either an animation or a comic where Obama ends up being Batman, and Dick Cheney is the penguin and Al Gore is Poison Ivy. The idea would be to basically to show the stress and how much pressure is on The President and how impossible it is to get stuff done with conflicting forces and how many people get in the way. The people of the house and senate would work kind of as henchmen.

The story would start out in the Oval Office; Obama is having a monologue talking about the world and the troubles. While looking out the window at the end of his speech he sees the presidential seal in the sky and walks out of the office.

While walking down the hall, multiple secretaries and cabinet members are discussing issues, some big some small. Then he walks onto the rooftop and sees the vp, Joe Bidon. He discusses an issue, such as health care, but I don't want to use that one. He runs to the house and Al Gore starts talking about global warming and how people school die to save the plants and then Al Gore fights Obama with people of the house are henchmen. After epic fight scene he goes to the senate.

The people of the senate are under control of the conservative Dick Cheney, very intense battle where his speech is about money and guns, claiming that Obama is worst than a communist, because he is a socialist. When Obama finally wins he goes back to his office, all beaten and worn down, then turns on the news to see people complain about how he does nothing.

The end would end with a monologue similar to the beginning. Talking about the roughness and the challenges with the job and that even though he is not appreciated, he does serve the country and therefore does not plan on ignoring his obligations he has chosen to defend his country.

Kristen Johnson
January 19

I would like to get a small gallery space. Nothing to small, big enough to fit people walking around, but more or less one room. I would like to literally, have multiple gesture drawings and completed works of the nude models in different movements and different sizes. There would be no room around the pieces. It would have a one, together and unified look that will make the person walking around feel like they are in the sketchbook page. So for this to work the wall and ceiling would be completely covered, and there would a few unique sculptures that would have a figure drawing feel.

I think the purpose of this would be to make people feel what its like for the learning process of realism for an artist. Its all about the processes and how we are surrounded and consumed by our work. I think that it will make non artist feel what its like. They will feel awkward, or nervous. They will have an opinion. I want the person to relate to the story of the artist, the amount of work, the amount of understanding used to create work.

Kristen Johnson
January 26th

I don't know the media I would want to do this but it is inspired by a dream I had. I currently don't talk to my mother because of a serious situation that cannot be ignored. And even though I have tried to forgive my mother she always betrayed me.

I had a dream that my mother had a heart attack. She was alive but in critical condition and I thought about going back to my hometown to visit her but I couldn’t. I felt like I couldn’t so I tried to ignore it. I tried hanging out with my friends, but then I couldn’t get my mind off it, so I decided that even if she betrayed me, I would go home, but when I got there it was to late.

I know this doesn't go into complete detail of my current situation, but I think at some point I would like to write a graphic novel on this situation.

Kristen Johnson
February 2n

I like to doodle woman characters in interesting little unique outfits. I know this would be kind of fashion, but I would like to create these dresses and outfits and just show the sketchy fast pace of my doodle in a completed outfit. I don’t know how I would show this work, right now I would want to make it just to for myself. But I think it would be really into photography of these women dressed as my doodle characters in different setting. Probably like a fashion magazine, but blown up, and exhibited in a gallery space.

Not sure what the meaning would be, but I would want it to be visually forward and bright imagery in a darker setting with high contrast. Like the images would be blown up so the girls where life size, with spot lights.

Kristen Johnson
February 9

So this is an idea for a very small comic that would be produced for the anime community and the fandom. This is based off something I have seen, but might not make as much since if you are not in the anime culture as much.

It would start off me getting in line for a ticket at a convention for anime. And in front of me is a small group of middle school girls in different costumes, with a dad guardian. He would be talking about how he doesn't know how he feels about the whole anime culture thing and how its really weird to him. His daughter would justify it.

Then out of nowhere a pedobear cosplayer (pedophile bear – doesn’t actually doing, its just an ironic name for a teddy bear) he pops up and hugs the little girls then runs away. The girls laugh and giggle and the dad who doesn’t recognize the pedobear as anything other than a large teddy bear then makes a comment a short simple line about how he guesses the convention isn’t that bad.

The joke is that while justifying the innocence of the con, they get hugged by an icon of perversion, which is funny because they know he is only dressed as this fictitious character. And the dad just sees a polite person in a teddy bear costume and only sees the innocence without seeing the name tag.

Kristen Johnson
February 16

After listening to a narration by Patrick Stewart for the official Castlevania: Lords of Shadow E3 trailer. I got an idea to create a trailer for a sequel to paper tiger dogfight. This would be about Lovenote. It would talk about Lovenotes journey through the war and how he lost his paper doll who he was just wanting to get home too. After losing the war he begins a resistance with rocks that will overcome the new emperor and leader, The scissors, he will try and persuade the rock and divide them. And this movie will show more of the process of the beginning of a war between the balance and how Lovenote gave up everything for the war and how that affected him mentally and he felt that it was for northing if the paper could not some how get back into control.

As the war process begins again Index cards daughter who had been working to hold the balance with the rock and scissors will save the day. While it is discovered that Lovenote had done all of these things. Index’s daughter, Post’it will show compassion and stop him with her love and support instead of the violence like in the original when scissors and rock killed lots of people.

Kristen Johnson
March 2

So this is something I want to do next year my senior year in a metal shop class even thought its not my normal art style. I have created metal sculptures and worked in the metal shop class but what I want to do is create epic old weapons, like Maces, Axes, and Swords. I know this would be more for the look than the actual usage, but it is interesting how some people are still drawn towards these items and like to play epic action adventure games where the characters fight with such a thing.

The amazing part is the cosplay world where people commission work like this for their costumes and will pay hundreds of dollars for a two handed axe. I would like to get into that industry as a side thing. Making commissioned weapon. I really enjoy the old skill of blacksmithing, and would love to create these weapons.

The greatest part is, the industry now for these weapons is look over function so they can be extremely big, heavy, and with distorted shapes. Interesting to the eye, because no one uses them to fight anymore. I have some sketches of orginal ideas, but if I could ever get into doing this normally I would remake things like Dante’s Inferno game weapon, or the keyblades from Kingdom hearts for commissions, because people want that and there is a higher market for that.

© Kristen Johnson

Make Your Own Album Cover

Make Your Own Album Cover game. Although the rules of the game have appeared on blogs and messageboards all over the web, the inventor remains unidentified.

The game has five simple steps:

Get a band name! Simply use the title of a randomly-generated Wikipedia article.

Get an album title! Use the last four or five words from the last quote on a page of random quotations.

Get some album art! Use the image thrown up using this Flickr tool, which generates random images.

Make it look nice! Using Photoshop, Paint, or whatever graphics software you have, fiddle your band logo and album title into some kind of visually-pleasing assemblage.

Post the results And that's it! The fun part of the game is in seeing what beautiful collisions of image and text fate can throw together, and then imagining what kind of music the resulting band might play, maybe even inventing an imaginary biog for them. There's bound to be myriad Facebook groups dedicated to the game, and it seems to have spawned at least one "real" band, although for better or worse most of the associations the game throws up tend to be very post-rock.

The catch is that you can only spend about 5 minutes on it. So here is what I did.

© Kristen Johnson

Images of me

So I did something bold. I nude modeled for some drawing classes at the manifest gallery. There was some great work done and I think seeing how some people handled my body helped me think of ways to handle a figure in front of me during my own drawing sessions. Being use to looking out the window, it was a completely different experience being on the other side, being watched from others.

I just want to remind you that I did not draw these, if you are interested in taking some classes or hearing more information by the artists who did these images check out the manifest gallery at the website listed or check out them in person.

2727 woodburn ave., cincinnati, ohio 45206

gallery hours: t-f 2-7p.m., sat noon-5

http://www.manifestgallery.org

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Manifest-Gallery/81550623462

A Toast to the Late Bloomer

So this is my teacher Carol Tyler. She is absolutely amazing and very talented. She is published with stories of her own life, and is such a straight forward and honest person you can't help but feel pulled and inspired by her.

She's the teacher who introduced me to underground comics and opened my doors. If you haven't heard of her, please look her up and read her work. Maybe she will have a strong effect on you too. :)

Angie Laying Down

This one is a bit older, and not my best, but I finished it in 45 minutes, and I experimented with some different tips and tricks.

18" x 24"

Charcoal on Purple Paper

1/13/10

© Kristen Johnson

Vagina Monologues

8" x 9"

Charcoal and colored pencil on pink construction paper

2/8/10

© Kristen Johnson

Poison Ivy in the Nude

5" x 10"

Charcoal and colored pencil on green construction paper

2/8/10

© Kristen Johnson

The Last Conversation

This is page one to a comic that made me break down and cry. I spent a lot of time thinking about exactly how to illustrate myself, my mother, and my younger self. As it develops you get a chance to see the relationship by my mother and what happened to pull us apart, and you actually get to read my last conversation with my mother in 2007. While it is only a four page comic I want to keep this one a little more private until I find the right time to sell my work.

I have also started writing another small comic about a dream of my mothers death I had. Both comics address the issues of love and family. What do you do when your own mother tells you she doesn't love you. While everyone deals with it differently, I wrote a comic.

The Last Conversation

March 16th 2009

I use to think I had two parents

Come on bubby, it is time for bed.

But Daddy never makes me go to bed this early.

Your Daddy? Do you still see your dad? In this house?

Bubby this is very important. You have to tell me. Do you still see your dad?

Mommy said not to talk about Daddy in front of you.

Tyler... You have to tell me if you see him here.

Your Daddy hurt me really bad and I have to know.

Yeah sometimes he visits.

But then I learned I never really had a mother.

Okay Tyler, thank you for telling me but you must go to bed now.

Okay? Goodnight Bubby.

*tick*

*tock*

*tick*

*tock*

And then, knowing what I knew, I had to sit there.

Alone in the dark for hours, waiting for her to come home.

Mom we need to talk.

© Kristen Johnson

A special thanks

This is the story that inspired me to know what I wanted my work to be about. American Splendor written by Harvey Pekar is all about his life and the struggles with being the average man. When Pekar discovers he has cancer he decides to write a comic about his experience about it.

I was dealing with a hard time myself. Dealing with different issues with my life I thought this could be a way to get it out, to deal with my problems and hope that they would inspire someone else as well.

Next time I will post the first page of the comic where I applied this philosophy, and go into detail about the work and what happened and what it means to me, but for now, this is a tribute to Harvey Pekar, Joyce Brabner, and Frank Stack. Thanks for coming together on this.

Lines make picture

So while out to dinner with a group of my friends, Kenny Heidenreich, Sunny Han, and Emily Thompson, we were ending the occasion with our little doodles and sculptures. When having a good time we always like to create little images just to be seen for a second then thrown away. This particular piece was started by Kenny and myself. He was making multiple abstract lines and shapes, and then I would finish the drawing making it appear to be something. This is just one of the things I made. So remember the first little sketch is by Kenny, and the second is by me over his. I kind of would like to make a costume from the idea of the sketch. Maybe even develop it into a character for a comic series about a villianess, not for sure yet.

© Kristen Johnson

The Game of Love and War

When I made this comic I was playing a lot of chess online. I am not very good, but I really enjoyed it and even joined a chess club for awhile. One thing I noticed so often was that some people would be really protective of their queen and sacrifice other pieces, because the queen is so strong, but knowing this, other more advance players would put them in a position where saving the queen, would ultimately mean losing the King and the game.

But its not just about the power of the weak in the game of Chess. Bringing the characters to life with fantasy and strategy in the story can really let you see how this relates to the real world and how your choices and sacrifices will effect your life. Of course, if you were really good maybe you could win the war and keep your queen, but are people willing to put in the time and effort to train for that ultimate happiness? I think everyone will think of their own personal agenda with life and how this fits in.

The Game of Love and War

This comic is an eight panel flip book

4 1/4" x 5 1/2"

Ink on Paper

2009

© Kristen Johnson

My Average Life with Smokers

I want to make a comic that is based around a character that many people can relate to, a common person who will experience events as if a day to day life. The comics would not have to be read in order to understand or anything like that. This is the written idea I made before making the comic. I think it is interesting, because this moment is something I know many people have experienced maybe not the same as the main character, but maybe you can relate to one of the other roles. Or possibly you have seen this situation happen to someone else. Feel free to comment on what this piece means to you, and what it makes you think.

My Average Life : By Kristen Johnson

My Average Life with the Smokers : Kristen Johnson

Ugh... Smokers.

They Are Always at the Exits

Oh well, lets just go.

Woah seriously?

I Know... How immature!

Excuse me?

They need to grow up!

Ahhhhhh!!!

First off these are fucking garabage that go into the Garbage can!

Not on the fucking ground! You stupid shitheads!

Secondly these cause lung cancer!

I don't want to die so you can slowly pollute the environment, land, and air,

while killing those around you!

And thirdly, I have asthma you retards!

One Sniff of these things and I get sick and cough,

if it gets down in my lungs from inhaling too much then

I get sick and vomit.

So there you mother fuckers!

Wake up and realize you're breaking the law by being so close to the door!

And secondly everyone hates your kind,

we are just nice to say anything to your face!

Woah seriously?

I Know... How immature!

I wish I was brave enough to say something to those smokers.

© Kristen Johnson

A Little About Me

I know right now there isn't much to show right now, but I am on a personal mission to start developing my self and getting my ideas down and out there. My goal is to post some of my ideas, one a day, until I get enough of a base to just update with my more unique and better work as it develops.

I am an illustrator and im on my way to having a collection of work to publish and show for the world to read and relate to. I hope you enjoy what you find and get a sense of what I am trying to do with this blog.

Thanks for your time,

Kristen Johnson