Monkeys, Ninjas and Robots

2010-09-01T14:31:00.000-06:00

Trying to learn how to use my Wacom Tablet

Pretty

2009-02-09T19:38:00.006-06:00

Drawing I did of Steffie, The photo below is a reference, I honestly think I didn't do her justice, I mean look how pretty she is. But I do think it's pretty good for something I did while I was teaching... (my 5th graders are SOOOOOOO friggin good).

panel 3 an 4

2009-02-09T19:07:00.000-06:00

panel 2

2009-01-25T20:53:00.005-06:00

Mural

2009-01-20T20:28:00.004-06:00

Panel one is complete, here are pictures:

ZOMG BLOGGGGGGGGGEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRR

2009-01-16T18:01:00.003-06:00

So,
It's been forever and a TON has changed since my last post. I am now quite happy I didn't bring that one last thing back from china with me.

I'm an art teacher!!! (a damn good one too I think) I've been teaching for half a year now at Vogel Intermediate, and it's a blast I love my kids and they seem to like me too... well most of em. I have some great talent in a few of my classes.

Lets see, there's a new girl. Stephanie is amazing and she's my muse. We aren't anything serious by any means at all, but maybe someday. She has a little boy, he just turned 4 his name is Pierce (cool name huh?) and he is alot of fun.

I'm being far more artistic than I was, I am getting way back into painting... I might attempt to build a portfolio with it an get my masters in it. I could have fun being a painting professor I think.

Currently at school I am working on a GIGANTIC Mural. I'll post pics of it in the near future so you can see how giganitc. I'm going to try and post in here again and update it with artwork... starting with this one....

Meow

Home....

2008-07-05T03:58:00.002-06:00

Well, I'm back in Texas! I must still be a little jet lagged seeing as it is 5 am on a saturday and I'm pretty much awake. I left China on July 2nd at 3:45 pm, I arrived back in Houston the same day at about 9:35 pm. My luggage got lost in Newark, New Jersey, but luckily it was sent to the house here in Huntsville the very next day.

I'm still not completely used to the fact that I'm home. The sky still seems way too blue and the grass too green. I now have friends in every corner of the world, which I find amazing. I really miss some of them, (one I miss a whole bunch) and I'm already formulateing plans to get out and see them, I'd like to get to Australia as soon as possible. I've had Mexican Food and BBQ an Kalachis and awesome corn on the cob... One things for sure I won't miss Chinese food... Also not being staired at is wonderful. Walking through walmart with out a single person giving me a second glance was awesome. I, on the other hand, was amazed at the diversity of people there.

It's good to be home, I just wish I could have taken one more thing back from China with me.

Qing Dao trip number 2

2008-06-03T05:05:00.002-06:00

Erhu, Qing Dao, China 2008

So I just woke up from a nap that was a bit too long and now I feel groggy and sick. This is one of the reason why I hate napping. When I take them I always oversleep and then feel bad for at least an hour or so. So, What's new? Well this past weekend I went to Qing Dao with my buddy Ali. It was a really good time. We at a ton of food that isn't Chinese,checked out the beach, and the local night scene. All in all we had a great time and met some really cool people along the way. I kinda wish I'd done this sort of weekend trip a bit more often, but I never had enough money to really do that all the time. Anyways expect more pictures like the one above to appear from Qing Dao.

Also, if I do have any readers on here (I should look into a counter or something) please vote for the above photo, and my other one at the JPG Magazine website. You can find both of my entries here:
Erhu
Fish

You do have to register to vote, but it takes 5 seconds to do that.

They have 3 themes every month or so I think, and you can submit photos for them and there is a chance they might pick you to appear in the magazine, I figure getting published and (and also the 100 bucks they give you) make it worth trying to enter. So, I'll probably try my luck with every topic. This month is Creatures, Favorite Hangouts, and Street Fashion. I didn't find out about this thing until late in the entry phase, so I didn't get to find a street fashion photo (there are only 18 more hours left to enter and its raining so I don't think I'll get one in), but next contest I should definitely get all 3. I think that Erhu photo is a great pic for favorite hang out, you have 3 very different people all standing/sitting along this board walk. The older beggar, a street worker, and a young woman. It was taken across from May 4th square. I asked the guy who was playing the Erhu if I could take his photo after I gave him some money and he said he didn't mind. He had a killer beard.

I recommend this site to any other amateur digital photogs out there, getting published always looks good on a resume.

Job!

2008-05-27T08:37:00.002-06:00

I've got a job!!! woo.
I am the new Art Teacher at Vogel Intermediate (4th and 5th grade) in Conroe ISD. I am in charge of 2d education which is good since that is my forte. I will also be responsible for creating large scale murals that will be put on display in the cafeteria, should be fun. But! I'm trying to get back into doing more art. So, I am currently taking request. If someone wants me to draw something just post a comment here or e-mail me or something and if I like your idea I'll draw it for ya, if I really like it I may completely color it an such. It's nice knowing I wont be poor when I get home.

I am going to Qingdao this weekend, and planing a few other trips to be taken when over the next couple of weeks before I leave for home on July 2nd. Also packing...

Anyways, new photo up, not sure how much I like it. I like some of the shadows.

Goin home soon.

2008-05-10T10:15:00.002-06:00

So, no new pics yet (probably tomorrow or later tonight depending on if I decide to watch a movie). But, I guess I'll talk a bit about current affairs in the life of Johnny.

I will be heading back to the great state of Texas on July 2nd. Currently I have two good job opportunities open to me. One is at Vogel Intermediate (5th and 6th) where I was a student teacher, and the other is at Buckalew Elementary (a k-4 school in the same district). I just found out about this new one yesterday via an e-mail from the principal wanting me to fax my resume, which I am doing on Monday. I'm not sure what exactly is going on with Vogel, I had a phone interview with them a while ago now, and it went very well and everything was pretty hopeful sounding, I was one of three strong candidates, one was a social studies teacher already at Vogel looking to switch over to art, another was an art teacher at a different school in the district looking to move to Vogel, and then Me. I had the full backing of the current art teacher who was retiring, which I think was the main reason I was in the running, and plus I'd taught there for student teaching. A week after the interview I got an e-mail from the principal saying she was waiting for a teacher to "r-sign" (not sure what exactly this means) before she offers me the job, and she was expecting it to happen that week, that was April 24th, and it is now May 11th,and still no new word. I e-mailed Mrs. McDonald just now asking if she has any new information and telling her about the opening at Buckalew. To be honest I think I'd prefer the Buckalew job. K-4 is such a fun age group, and I think my schedule wouldn't be quite as hectic as it would be at Vogel (I think there were about 8 30 min classes a day there, and it's like running a mini marathon every day.) So, hopefully I'll hear good things back from Buckalew.

So, if I have a teaching job when I get home what I'll probably do is take the first year pretty easy (or at least the first semester) and then maybe take a few extra photo classes at night at Sam Houston and then after a couple of years look into grad school. I'm not sure I'd be able to full time teach and get an MFA, so when I do that I'd either have to find a part time art teaching job, or sub while I get me degree. I think a couple years devoted to teaching elementary art would be fun as well. Also, after 2 years I might be able to get into international schools as well, which I might think about getting into, but maybe not until after I have my MFA.

If I don't have a teaching job next year I'm going to devote all of my time into getting started at grad school spring 2009, so taking as many photo classes at Sam as I can this year while putting together an application and portfolio.

Anyways thats all for now. Tomorrow I'll post a new photo... oh wait that reminds me I do have a photo up I haven't blogged about... I'm not sure how much I like it though... here it is:

Quick post before bed.

2008-05-04T10:44:00.002-06:00

Two new photos on Flickr.

Took this one today at the Peoples Park Aquarium. It wasn't really much of an aquarium, most of the fish were either really ugly or goldfish (or a combination of the two) There were some wierd turtles and a scary gigantic fish that scared a small child, but the best part was the Sea Lion, he give Shelby, Amanda, and I each a kiss on the cheek. He was funny. I felt a little bad for him though, he has no friends and his cage is a bit too small. I have a few other photos from the aquarium, which will be popping up sooner or later.

This is from my second trip to Beijing with Lance and Tom, it is at the Secret Wall, well in route to it anyways. It was cold. I have work in the morning or I'd write more about it. Tell ya what I'll post more photos from the secret wall and tell ya all about it, including how Lance (the guy in the photo) got sick from wearing little more than a glorified windbreaker. (actually I just told you what happened with that so I probably won't mention that again!

Night!

Wow, a new post!

2008-05-02T08:31:00.006-06:00

So, I've decided New Zealand is cool. The one person I've met from New Zealand is a cool guy, his name is Richard, he is a fellow teacher here at the University in Shandong. He is very well spoken, and one of the only foreigners to have ever told me that he likes Americans. I met him a while back,but I've only just recently been able to hang out with him.

Also, the more I listen to Flight of the Conchords, the more I like them. Unfortunately I don't know too much more about New Zealand, other than the fact that Lord of the Rings was filmed there, and that there are 10 sheep to every person. That's a lot of sheep.

Anyways I've decided that when I get home I'm putting most of my energy into getting into grad school. I've been wanting to get my masters pretty much since I left Edinboro, so now I figure it's time to actually do it. Anyways thats all for now...

New Photos soon, I promise this time.

Wow I'm bad....

2008-04-11T04:22:00.002-06:00

...at keeping this thing up to date. Well I'm not goin to talk/type too long since I am goin to dinner with some friends in a bit, but I'll say a few things.

First, it seems as though China has lifted the block on both blogger and Wikipedia. I never thought I'd see the day. So, maybe my posting will be easier.

I'm trying to kick myself into getting a few things done. One of which is uploading more photos. The second is updating this thing regularly, and another is starting a webcomic or website... I've been kicking around webcomic ideas since Highschool,m a few of them ALMOST got made, but I'd like to actually do one. I figure it would give me a good reason to draw every day.

I had a Job Interview over the phone with Vogel Intermediate back in Texas, and it went well, hopefully I'll hear back from it soon. I have my flight booked. July 2nd I'm coming home. What will happen after that hinges on whether or not I get that job or some other job at a school back home. If I don't I'll probably sub or work some crap job while I start on a masters.

China News...
not too much interesting going on right now, I'm back in the flow of teaching every week, so working with the students and such occupies most of my time. I am indeed rather sick of Chinese food, but what can ya do eh? Chinese people are interesting. Thats about all I'll say about that right now. Maybe more on it later, right now I gotta go.
-Johnny

Been a few days...

2008-03-26T08:04:00.004-06:00

So, I figure it's time for a post. Lets see, for the most part I've just been working and applying for jobs. So far, I have one interview with the school I student taught at, just waiting for the principal to give me a time frame. I also applied at a high school in the same district. If it comes down to it I'd take the high school because I prefer teaching to that level.

I purchased a 120 gig portable hard-drive recently, and I've been on a download kick recently. I've got a list of 50 some odd movies I'd like to put on the hard drive, and I've downloaded about a third of em already.

I started reading Gunslinger book 1 of Stephen King's Dark Tower series. So far it's ok, I'm only about two chapters in so I can't really pass judgment yet. Once I get used to the way it's written I think I'll enjoy it a lot.

Before I started reading that I was reading a Star Wars novel. I used to read a ton of Star Wars books when I was younger, but I stopped for a long time, and I just recently picked them up again with this start of this new Legacy of the Force series.
So far it's good, but I'm a bit behind in the continuity of the Universe, so I constantly have to look things up on Wookieepedia about characters I'd never heard of and such. I kind of wish they would let the core cast of characters from the movies (Luke, Leia, and Han) step aside and retire already. I understand that Luke and Leia are both Jedi and therefore can fight and live well beyond that of normal men and women. Han, however, is a normal guy and he is like 80 now, but he is still running around and getting in fights and rolling it off his shoulders like its nothing. I honestly don't think He'd be able to keep up with Leia at this point in his life.

Give us some new characters... characters that AREN'T directly related to the Skywalker family. Thier kids are cool, but surely there could be a powerful influential Jedi that isn't a descendant of Anakin. Most Jedi other than Luke, Leia, Mara, Jacen Solo, Jania Solo, and Ben Skywalker always end up being bit or supporting characters. Maybe if I had read the New Jedi Order books there would have been more exciting non-Skywalker characters, but somehow I doubt it. Oh well.

*SPOILER ALERT*

I do, however, like that Jacen Solo is being made into a Sith.

*END SPOILER*

What they should do is start making books set BEFORE the movies. They could never really do that before the prequels because Lucas didn't want em to possibly screw up the stories for the movies (apparently he wanted to do that himself lawl). But,the movies have been out for a while now, lets see some Old Republic books! Darth Bane was a good start, but I want more! I'm greedy that way.

Speaking of an elderly Harrison Ford (kinda), The new Indiana Jones looks Awesomely amazing.

Well I think that's about all for now.
Coming Soon: More Photos and a review of Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny.

Shoot Em Up

2008-03-20T10:00:00.000-06:00

Shoot Em Up is what I call a good bad movie. The story is flimsy, the dialog is cheesy, and the action sequences are so over the top that they are just down right ridiculous. All this aside(or perhaps because of it), I can't help but like this movie. Lets face it, this film wasn't made to be taken seriously, I mean after all its a throw back/parody of films like Rambo or Die Hard where one bad ass of a man takes on hordes of enemies singlehandedly with little more than a 9mm pistol and a well sharpened tongue (one-liners aplenty people).

Just to give a sample of how wonderfully over the top this movie is, the first person to die in the movie is killed with a carrot. That's right a carrot. There are two instances of direct carrocide in this film. In the first our hero,who is known only as Smith, somehow manages to shove a carrot right through the back of a man's skull within the first five minutes of the film. There are also several other instances of indirect carrocide where a carrot is used to hold down the triggers of guns (thats right he does this more than once).

The films plot is pretty much strait forward action movie plot, I'll try not to spoil anything for anyone that hasn't seen it yet as I describe this. It starts out with our typical wrong place at the wrong time type scenario. Mr. Smith (played by Clive Owen) is for unknown reasons relaxing on a bench in a seedy looking area eating a carrot when a pregnant woman runs past him who is being pursued by a man with a gun. Mr. Smith saves the woman, and then after a shoot out while delivering the womans baby, he tires to help them escape. The mother is killed in the process, so now Mr. Smith is stuck with this baby who a man named Hertz (Paul Giamatti) is trying to kill (thats right they are trying to kill the baby). The rest of the movie is spent following Smith and his lactating prostitute/love intrerest/damsel in distress named Donna Quintano (Monica Bellucci) as they attempt to figure out why on earth anyone would want to kill this baby. All the while avoiding/duking it out with Hertz and his seemingly endless supply of henchmen. To find out the rest, go watch the movie.

Casting for Shoot 'Em Up is pretty spot on. Clive Owen's "Smith" is pretty much the same as the character he played in Sin City, a wise cracking cliche bad-ass who is both bitter and jaded, yet has a heart of gold. This role was pretty perfect for Owen, and I haven't really seen him play as anything but this type of character.

The Character that stole the show for me, however, was Hertz. Paul Giamatti makes a surprisingly good villain, he's twisted, intelligent, and a complete prick, and the constant phone calls from his wife about his son's birthday was a very nice touch and led to some of the funnier moments in the film.

Donna, Monica Bellucci's role, was really quite... blah. But, in action movies like this one female leads are generally there to be hot, not deep. So, I guess that doesn't really matter. The one nice character touch they did throw in for her was that she would swear in Italian when mad.

A note on the action. The action scenes are great, they are what you would expect from a film of this nature: bloody, long, and many. Also as the movie goes along each scene tries to out do the last. Smith fights while delivering a baby, having sex and while jumping from an airplane to name a few.

All in all, I'll say this it's not the best movie you'll ever see, and it's no masterpiece, but if you take it for what it is (a "shoot 'em up" action movie) you will enjoy it. But, if you are looking for a deeper level action type movie where thinking might actually be required, go rent Reservoir Dogs because Shoot 'Em Up will just disappoint you.

Photos Photos Photos... oh and some music and movie stuff.

2008-03-18T07:19:00.004-06:00

There are a few new Photos to talk about, so I'll take em one at a time.

Subway
This photo was taken when I while I was on the subway in Shanghai, as you can probably tell from the photo, the car was pretty packed. I think this was sometime around lunch hourish so everyone and their mother were going somewhere. This was a rather cool shot I thought, if you follow the link and look at the bigger version on Flickr you can see that it's nice a grainy due to the high ISO used for the low lighting on the subway. Sometimes this is a curse, but in cases like this I find it a blessing. Grain + Black and White + a vivid lighting layer = cool looking. Very scientific. I guess we'll see if the Flicker community agrees or not.

There are two versions of the next photo.

Crosswalk color version.

Crosswalk Black and White.
So, I am not sure which I like better, I'm leaning towards black and white, but if anyone actually reads this blog (which I highly doubt), and you want to toss an opinion my way about this (or anything else i post or say in here!) please comment. Be tactful and constructive though if you hate em both say you hate em but tell me why. Anyways this was one of a few photos I shot while crossing the road in Shanghai, there were so many people crossing. I'll eventually post a few more of the crossing photos so stay tuned. One of the reasons I chose this one is because of the sign. As Shelby noticed on flickr, there is a nice contrast between the three people crossing in the sign, and the horde of people that are actually crossing.

Thats all the photos for now, in other news I'll hopefully be hearing something about that job at Vogel soon. Waiting for schools to write you back is the worst part of applying for jobs.

Music: I just got into the band Hellogoodbye thanks to a recommendation from Amanda. They are a fun/happy synth-heavy group who are somewhat akin to Reggie and the Full Effect at times, and at other times seem more like Panic! at the Disco.

TV: I've started watching Lost, and I must say I'm hooked. The show really knows how to drag you in and keep you watching. So far I love it, I was almost really pissed at the show when I thought they had killed off Charlie, but he lived so everything was ok. Also, the more I watch My Name is Earl the more I like it.

Movies: I watched AvP 2,and now I'm wondering why I did. The first one sucked and I didn't even know there was a second one until I saw the DVD at Chi Sai... 5 yuan and an hour later I was turning the DVD off and looking for something more exciting to do. It's not even really worth giving a full fledged review of... The acting sucks, the story is nonexistent and full of holes, and I'd comment on the ending if I'd even made it that far. I also watched Flushed Away recently, which was good! I guess you could say it was Dreamwork's answer to Ratatouille which came out about the same time and was also about CGI animated rats/mice. The stories couldn't be more different though, and it was done by the Wallace & Gromit people. It was definitely fun, and French Frog Ninja's are always cool in my book.

I've had a request from my buddy Lance to do a review for Shoot Em Up, so I'll try and watch the movie again tomorrow and then do a write up for it afterwards. Look for more photos very soon as well.

New stuff...

2008-03-16T05:04:00.002-06:00

New Photo just put up on Flickr... I'm not sure how I like it. It was too washed out to begin with and I tried to fix it a bit in photoshop, but I'm not sure how well I did. I'm going to attempt to upload a new photo every other day and then blog about it as well, but whether or not that will hold true is yet to be seen.

In other news Mrs. McDonald, the mentor art teacher I had a Vogel Intermediate is retiring. I might attempt to slide into her job since people at the school no me and I think it would pretty much be a sure thing. I'm slightly hesitant though because she filled the role of 3d teacher, and I am definitely more of a 2d guy. But, she said that her husband may be switching schools as well so I might be able to slip into the 2D role! More news on this as it develops.

My other mentor teacher, Jenny Pascualis running or helping run a gallery in Houston, she said something to be about putting together a show when I get back state side, might be fun. I have a few plans I'd like to go about putting into motion when I return, getting my masters being one of them, learning Flash is another, and I'd really like to drive from Texas to LA and take a ton of photos in route. Sort of a deserty photo tour. Hmm, thats all for now. More soon!

30 Days of Night

2008-03-10T07:25:00.002-06:00

I just watched 30 Days of Night, and I really liked it. I'm glad it was good because this was like my 4th attempt to watch the thing. All the copies they seem to have here in Zibo seem to have a messed up sound track that is all crackley. Finally I just downloaded it (arrrr I'm a pirate!). The copy I got was really nice quality too.

The movie is based on a graphic novel/comic book that I'm going to have to pick up because the art looks pretty cool. It's a vampire story set in Alaska. The movie is set in a small isolated Alaskan town that receives no sunlight for a whole month (30 days), and has such harsh winters that for this month most of the towns folk leave (reducing the population from about 500 to 200) before the final sunset. The only communication with the outside world during this month is through phones/internet. There is a single chopper that can still leave in an emergency. Unfortunately for the town just before the winter someone steals and destroys all the cellphones, the helicopter is sabotaged, and all the sled dogs are killed. Eventually, as people start dying all power and phone lines are cut off. The movie then becomes a survival/hunt story following a small group of protagonist (which includes Josh Hartnett as the town sheriff and Melissa George as an ex-flame of Hartnett/fire marshal who gets conveniently stuck in the town before winter). The best part of the movie, however, is the vampires. They are rather different from your traditional vampire in that while they do have the thirst for blood, and seem to share the same strengths and weaknesses of normal vampires,they don't act like your classic Vampire. They aren't the traditional Gothic sex symbols you see them as in most vampire flicks,instead they are far more feral/instinctual and driven almost wholly by their thirst for blood. They seem to have lost most of their humanity with their curse (or affliction what ever you want to call it). They do still think,however,and talk. The main/older vampires seemed to speak Latin or some language like that, while the newly turned ones still spoke English. They also set traps and such for the protagonist further demonstrating that there was a method to their madness, making them that much scarier. The ending will probably be a point of debate to some people, I personally like how they did the final fight/ending, but I can see how some people will find it incredibly cheesy. Remember this was based on a comic book though and it IS a vampire movie at heart (two stereotypically cheezy things) before you get too disappointed.

Now, I'm not saying classic Vampires are lame, but it sure was a nice change of pace. Sometimes Vampires are over glorified in my opinion or made to seem too pretty and nice with some minor (or major) sadistic undertones. This sometimes makes them too human and relateable (well minus the whole blood drinking thing), and while this works for some movies such as underworld where the Vampires are the good guys, it falls short with others. It was good to see truly scary/monster type vampires in 30 days.

My top 5ive most interesting on Flickr.

2008-03-07T22:25:00.004-06:00

I'm goin to post my top 5 most interesting photos on flickr and talk about em. This is according to my Flickr "DNA"

1. Forest of Shadows

This is also my one image on Explore! The photo part was taken by the very talented Shelby Karns. I did the ninja stuffs... I really want to do more ninja photos I've specifically taken photos to be used as backgrounds for more ninja work, but I don't have a scanner right now. Maybe in the near future. Of the ninja ones I did this one is one of my favorites, I really like the sai he is holding, Raph was my favorite Ninja Turtle.

2.Language Barrier

Sometimes in China you people will run up to you and try and talk to you and you have to keep repeating that you don't understand (Ting Budong or something like that) a million times before they finally get that you don't really speak Chinese. This guy was trying to tell us something that he seemed to think was really important, but we couldn't get it at all. He kept pointing across the street too. The photo itself was pretty good I thought. The DoF is really nice.

3.Forbidden Duracell

I'm glad this one made it in my top 5 most interesting because I like this one quite a bit actually. We found some batteries someone was throwing away (or maybe lance was throwing them away I don't remember), and they were sitting on top of this pillar in the forbidden city. So,I took a photo of em and I think it came out really well. It's fun to see the chinese on a duracell.

4. So... Can I Call You?

I don't have too much to say about this other than lawl!(that's net Slang for LOL,which is net slang for Laugh Out Loud... ridiculous no?) I did this a long time ago back as a Graphic Design Final in Bob Conlon's class I got an A in that class. The kid in the picture is a younger Shelby Karns.

5. Flight Attendant 2

Probably one of the best photos on my stream. nuff said.

Ha Ha!

2008-03-07T21:38:00.000-06:00

So, I found a way to get around the Great Fire-Wall of China, so I might start posting here again.

China is a very different place. I am not sure what my plans are for next year yet. I might go home I might stay another year. I think I'll only go home if I have a job lined up, otherwise I'll stay here.

Being a foreigner in China is interesting, especially when it comes to other foreigners. We all tend to stick together and there are so few of us that it's a close knit community and everyone seems to know everyone else's business within 5 minutes. It can be pretty nuts. Lets see... since my last post on here I am single now,My Flickr Has grown considerably, and one of my photomations has actually made it on explore! I'm busting out in the Flickr realm a little I guess. I haven't updated it in about a month and I still have a million photos to edit. I really wish I had a scanner here so I can make more photomations, those are fun. Maybe when I'm back in the states I'll put together a gallery show of Photomations. I wonder how well that would do.

Ok I'm going to talk a little bit about music now. I don't know if it's growing up, or getting old, or what it is, but my taste have been shifting alot lately from fast noisy poppy punk/ska to more mellow indie rockish stuff. Don't get me wrong I'll be a Reel Big Fish and LTJ fan till I die (although LTJ has disappointed me with their last album.), but I find it hard to just sit and listen to music like that for hours on end like I used to. I like it when I'm at the bar or in a party situation, but if I am just sitting around (like I am now) I'm far more likely to be listening to Cake or Death Cab for Cutie or Ben Folds. I've recently discovered a band called The New Pornographers and I love em. Same with a band called The Decemberist both of those bands along with Built to Spill have found their way into my regular rotation.

Anyways It's telling me that I may not be able to publish this... So, maybe I wont be posting to here again after all... but If I do I'll try and do so again soon and talk about photos again or something. Here goes nothing.....

Soon to be Jet Lagged.

2007-08-14T15:09:00.000-06:00

Well, its been a while since I've posted and ALOT has happened.

I've spend the last few weeks in PA being the best man at Shelby's wedding, and spending an awesome 7 days with Amber!! But, now it's the 14th of August, and that means my flight to China is tomorrow!!!!

I must say im getting rather excited, it still seems a little surreal to me that I'll be leaving the country for a whole year tomorrow... Of course I won't be in China until Thursday... Lousy 13 Hour 45 Minute flights.

My itenerary is as follows... I board Delta airlines flight 5160 at Cleveland airport at 1:10 and land at JFK airport at 2:57. I then have about an Hour and a Half to find my terminal and take some photos before boarding air china flight 982 at 4:30pm. I will land in Beijing around 6pm Thursday. (that's about 5am Thursday for you Texas folks) so, I loose a whole day in the process. At least it will be that much closer to my birthday when I land eh?

After I land and get my luggage Shelby, Amanda, and I are to be picked up by a van sent from the Hostel we are going to be staying at. You can check it out here www.leohostel.com looks like a pretty nice place. I'll probably try and write a quick e-mail or blog sometime after we get there so everyone knows we are all ok.

We will then go to the train station and buy our tickets to Zibo, which is where we will be living. Chances are we will end up staying in Beijing for a few days (including my birthday which is the 17th of August for those not in the know!) which is rather exciting because Shelby and Amanda have nothing but good things to say about Beijing! I'll of course be taking a million pictures at all three of the airports ill be in (esspecially Beijing), and around Beijing. I will eventually be posting them on Flickr and here(if I can access it). But, dont expect to see them for a few weeks depending on how quickly we get settled and over Jet lag.

I'm not nervous like I thought I would be, just excited, the only thing im worried about is flights and connections and such, but so far the weather looks good and there are no delays so I'm not too too worried about it. I am going to miss my family and friends and esspecially Amber (I love you baby!) a hell of alot, but ill be talking with them on Skype so it won't be total isolation. Anyways I gotta run and get things together so I'll post soon from China soon!!

-Johnny

Dragonflies, Target, and Horses

2007-06-10T18:09:00.000-06:00

So, its been a while. I have been working too much, but I have been keeping my flickr up to date (kinda) so check it out. Ill put a few highlight photos up here though, starting with my most recent photo.

A dragonfly...

Lance from work...

Barbed Wire and prison horses!

Final Student Teaching.

2007-05-17T18:28:00.000-06:00

Ok so I posted the rest of what I will be editing and uploading of the student teaching batch. I really like the one I linked above for somereason. It will probably be everyone elses least favorite. Oh lack of self confidence, how I love thee. Anyways, you can see the rest of em on Flickr as per usual. I think from now on I will be limiting my blogger post to only a few pictures at a time and links to their respective Flickr sets for those that wish to see the rest of them the reason fo this is that ive noticed the post that have a million pictures in them tend to really bog down the load time on this blog. So, thats how it will go from now on. I have a Million and 1 pictures to edit and upload, some on my computer and some on my camera still. As I mentioned before I have over 400 quilt photos... I think ive finished about 11. heh. On top of that I have about 100 photos I took of my dad golfing yesterday. and also about 40 other miscellanious shots including shots from Target ( I sense a series coming on there...) and also animals (prison horses, my dog, and deer). And random shots of Huntsville at sunrise. Look for some of those to come soon. I am going to continue to plug away at the quilts, where I do intened to edit more of the 400 of those... but I will save my mind by randomly editing some of the ones from the above mentioned sets that I am doing for fun (the quilt shots im hoping to acctually turn some what of a profit on.

In other wierd news, yesterday I got a call on my cell phone, the number was private. I answer it and some guy tells me I won 2 tickets to the MOMA in New York. I tell the guy I live in Texas and I dont see how I could possibly get to New York to make use of such a prize, but thanks anyways, and he says "Ohh thats too bad, sorry to bother you." so before he hangs up I ask him how I was entered into a such a contest in the first place, and he says they find artist on the internet and offer them this prize... he then appologized again and we hung up shortly after. Seemed very wierd to me. But oh well. If more comes of this ill probably write about it.

Look for a few quilts and maybe some other fun stuff in the not too distant future!
-Johnny

Been a while...

2007-05-09T06:09:00.000-06:00

So, It's been a while since I posted here. There are several reasons for this, the main one being work. I was working at both the Theater and at Target for a bit, so I was pretty tired and such, so when I was at home and I didnt want to do anything but either play WoW or sleep. But, I am done at the theater now, so hopefully I will get back in the swing of updates. My sleep schedule is still a little out of whack though.

So, whats new? Well I took over 400 some odd photos as the Airing of the Quilts here in Huntsville for my mom's quilt guild. I tried to get every stingle quilt there, but I know I missed at least a few. It took several hours to take the photos, the wind was crazy, and the sky overcast, so the lighting is not the best, so I imagine it will take several more hours to go through and edit the photos. I plan on making a CD to sell to the guild members and maybe make a little extra cash. Ill also post the best ones on Flickr and here.

I finished the Folk Fest Photos, and you can see one at the top of this post and the rest at Flickr. I'd have posted more here, but im feeling a little lazy and tired.

I have to go over to Target today, on my day off, to make sure I get next monday and thursday off... why? Because the city of huntsville felt the need to give me two different Jury Summons on those days, with only about a weeks notice, and since im technically not a student any more, I have no excuse. Bastards.

Anyways, thats all for now, I'll post more later!

Student Teaching 2

2007-04-28T20:03:00.000-06:00

More photos from student teaching. There is going to be one more batch of these before I have em all posted... I also need to put up the rest of the Folk Festival photos at some point... heh I also took some photos at the culminating cerimonies for student teaching, which was a waist of time. I only took a few photos then I left early.

Student Teaching 1

2007-04-26T20:09:00.000-06:00

Well today was my last day for student teaching, so brought in my camera to show it off to Jenny (my mentor teacher) and to take a few photos, so this is the first group ive uploaded. I have several more I will be making minor touches to and uploading that will in all likely hood appear in a later blog. As usual all of these can also be seen at my Flickr. There are also more folk festival photos I will eventually get around to uploading.

In other news I've offically brought my blog back online. I look it down for about a week or so because a few of the kids in my 3rd period were trying to use some of the things I was typing to (quote nate) "give me this buisness". BUT I am done student teaching now so I dont have to worry about that. Most of the kids in that class will have already forgotten about me and my ramblings by the begining of class tomorrow. And if they are persistant and start leaving inappropriate or annoying comments, ill simply delete them. Those of my students who are acctually here to look at new artwork, and want to comment with out being lame are welcome to do so.

So the photos I took today... I took photos during 2nd and 4th period, I was conveniently away during most of 3rd, but even if I was there, there is no way I would have taken out my 700 dollar camera during the class anyways. It probably would have been covered in clay or something.

The kids are begining to work with clay, doing figurative sculptures. Jenny waited until I was gone to start that seeing as my area of expertise lies mostly within the 2 dimensional realm. I had alot of fun with student teaching, and I'll miss both Jenny and the kids (most of em anyways). But, I am glad to have it done!!

Next stop, China, but first more photos:

Fruits

2007-04-26T20:00:00.000-06:00

So, this is the newest "Photomation" I call it "Fruits" because it was a drawing that was based off of an image from a photo book called Fruits which features photos of Japanese teenagers dressed in thier wackey extreme out of control fashion. I maintain that this is because they watch too much anime. And everyone knows that anime rots your brain. And your teeth sometimes.

Anyways, Im going to post the non Photomation version as well below...

Folk Festival Part 2

2007-04-26T19:46:00.000-06:00

Rangers

More Photos from the Folk Festival.

Commander

Steady Men

Cannon Fire

Folk Festival part 1

2007-04-23T07:27:00.000-06:00

Bluebird

Ok so is the first set of photos I took at the Folk Festival, I managed to take like 80 before my battery died (I hadnt charged it since the day I got the camera so I probably should have charged it before I left that morning.) Im goign through them all and picking the ones I like and posting them on here and flickr. I comepletely forgot to adjust my ISO on these ones (im still learning the ins and outs of the camera) so my ISO was really high on all of em and it made thema little grainy. But, some of em I still really like. Here are the rest from the first batch.

Ducks

Cabin

Mohawk

Smithy

The Smith

New Camera!

2007-04-20T19:23:00.000-06:00

So, I've been sick lately, and I acctually missed school today because of it. BUT, in other news, I got my new camera! The picture above, and the two ill be posting below are taken with my brand new Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT. This thing is rather amazing. so many setting and features and things to learn. I've been reading through the book while ive been stuck in bed coughing up a lung, and I think im starting to figure it out. These photos are a result of playing with it on the full manual setting (which ill probably use most of the time) with no flash, just adjustments of the apetrue and shutter speed to get the lighting right in my low lit living room... Anyways here is the other one I like...

It's my puppy doing what he does best... lounging. The shutter speed was pretty slow on this shot so I acctually set the camera on the ground to help keep it steady. And I also like that I can take photos in Black and White rather than taking color photos and switching them in photoshop. The next photo is a little different...

This one I took of an elvis toy thing... although its acctually part of a phone. It is suposed to dance and sing jailhouse rock when the phone rings, but it had long since broken. Anyways the photo was a little blurry, so I just started playin around with different filters and such in photoshop until I came up with something I like.

Anyways, these were just me learning to use the camera, so they really arent all that spectacular. There is a historic faire in huntsville this weekend, im hoping to get down to it and take some photos if my illness lets up. So, look for that this weekend.

-Johnny

Been a few days...

2007-04-17T07:15:00.000-06:00

So, I've been busy and tired and other generic excuse #345 for not posting more regularly. In all seriousness though I have been tired and busy, I worked friday saturday and sunday 6-1 at the theater (well acctually they let me go around 11 on sunday), but that in conjunction with student teaching has left me pretty wrecked, hence the lack of updates on both here and my flickr. Although I get my camera thursday according to UPS so hopefully that will put me back on the once a day update track... I'm still pissed at bestpricecameras.com

Speaking of them, some guy named Bob left a comment on my post about the camera fiasco. He says they have been pulling this scam for 3 years now, and he got screwed over big time by them. Apparently he has the FBI inernet division seriously taking a look at them now. I tried to click his profile to see if I could get in touch with him and do anything to help out with this, but his profile is private and cant be seen, so Bob, if ya happen to read this post, leave me another comment and let me know if there is anything I can do to help.

In other news, Amber hit 70 in WoW yay! Now if only I could get her to do arena matches with me... Also, she got a new car, which she will be able to drive by herself in the not too distant future (I think she takes her driving test this wednesday acctually, I may be wrong though). Once again I still dont know how she went so long with out a lisence.

So, this is kinda interesting. Oneday ill come up with soem crazy idea, make it, put it on the internet and then make millions.

So yeah, the Vigina tech thing is worth mentioning, I have a friend that goes there, thank God he's ok, and so are all of his friends. He said he overselpt that day and missed classes that day and wasnt even on campus. I told my mom that and she said that everything happens for a reason. She may have something there. So, Mrs. Pascual is reading about the incident right now on Google news and telling me bits and pieces. I just wonder what could possibly drive someone to do something like this... and it's not like it was random either, apparently this kid chained and locked the doors from the inside of the building so no one could get out or in, so this took planning. Insane.

Well I gotta go get ready for class. We are in the computerlab this week, so its a little different. It gets really hot in there by the time 4th period rolls around. Hopefully ill post some new art sometime this week.

-Johnny

Kick!

2007-04-12T13:10:00.000-06:00

and the yellow one...

See I told you they would get scanned one day. I will write more about em when I get home.

So yeah, this is not my week. On my way home my front passenger side tire blew out. So, I had to wait 45 mins for AAA to show up an change it for me... Yes I dont know how to change a tire, and no I wasnt about to learn how with 18 wheelers flying past me at 70+ mph. Thats what AAA is for. Anyways thats why this post is being updated so late.

Anyways, These are the other cut-outs I did that I talked about in my earlier blog called Fight! They are cut out construction paper... basically I took a sheet of red cut out the design and glued it over a sheed of black construction paper... I th en took my throwaway red and glued it over a sheet of yellow to make the reverse type image, I got two pieces for the price of one!

In other news I miss Amber, our work schedules have been clashing alot and we havent had too much time to talk an such.

Online vendors

2007-04-11T14:51:00.000-06:00

Bestpricecamera.com sucks, dont trust em, they say your camera will cost 419 and come with all this crazy stuff, but then they have you call them and they tell you that your package doesnt include the battery pack or wires or programs... you know all the stuff that makes the camera work. Bastards. So, to get that stuff its about another 400 dollars. making the total 829 when they include the maditory insurance... So, with out thinking I say ok and call my mom with the updated price (my mom is helping pay for part of it for my birthday) and she tells me I should just cancel it and look else where, so I call them back, and im on hold for almost a 45 mins time. It's like the knew I wanted to change my order or something so they made me wait. When they finally pick up, I get some guy named dan, who I didnt talk to before, so he transfers me over to Ken the guy I had the first time, Im thinking, "great another 30 mins on hold probably" but luckily they picked it up right away and thus begins the negotiations.

Ken's good, he knows how to do his job. Well he was really nice the first time I called him and threw in a bunch of free stuff for very little additional cost, but this time he tells me right off that its gunna cost me 68 dollars to cancel my order.

So I said, "ok... so I dont want to buy the camera I havent paid for yet, and its goign to cost my 68 dollars?... How does that make any since?"

So, he goes into this nonsence rant about how the order was processed and they are gettinr eady to load the truck and ship it out right now.
Its like 4:02 PM if it was gunna be shipped it would have shipped this morning, not now...

I say no where did I ever read anything about a cancelation fee... well apparently its in the fine print and the FAQ on the website.

So finally I give up and ask him to make it into just the retail package and the lense, just what I need to make the camera work. Forget the bag, Forget the tripods, I can get those at walmart for like 10 bucks or borrow someones. So he knocks off all my deluxe stuff and I save 100 dollars... Wonderful.

I think im going to pay 419 and get myself a new camera and tripod and all that good stuff... but no.

So, to recap, what did I get and how much?

I got a canon Rebel XT with a 18-55 lense (the standard) for 729 dollars.

My mom is paying for 200 of it, so I am paying 529. I need more hours at work.

Needless to say, I'm not in the best of moods.

Amanda

2007-04-11T10:09:00.000-06:00

I've decided to blog this, cuz it is new... not brand new, but like a few weeks ago new. This is a print I did as an example of Reduction Block Printing for my 9th graders. It is Amanda, I KINDA drew it from this photo:

I obviously modified the pose and such,and opened the eyes, but its the same person... see any resemblance? The point was to make a Roy Lichtensein style print to demonstrate pop art to the kids, Some of the prints the kids did came out really awesome, they are hanging up in the display case now, so maybe ill bust out the school's digital camera and take a pic of the case so you can see some of the things they did. It was a lot of fun to teach and watch them create the prints. I have yet to grade them though.... bah I hate grading! Art shouldn't be about grades, it should be about freedom of expression. Unfortunately, most of my students need to be motivated to express themselves or they would do nothing but attempt to drive me insane, so knowing a major grade rides on the project gets em to actually produce quality work (well most of them anyways).

I'm happy with how this print turned out, this is 3/4, by far the best one. You can see all the prints at my Flickr

-Johnny

p.s. I swear something brand new will be coming soon.....

yawn

2007-04-09T07:36:00.000-06:00

So, I was a total bum this weekend, and I did no artwork. Well not entirely true, I sketched some on the back of the movie time sheet and then on the back of a free movie poster while I was stuck on podium at the theater Saturday night from 6-12:40. But, The only decent one was of Jack Sparrow (I was looking at the pirates 3 banner while I drew it), and I didn't remember to take the sheet with me so its probably somewhere in the Grand's dumpster by now. Other than that I did no art work.

I saw TMNT again,and I've decided that despite what everyone else says, I liked that movie. It was a throw back to my childhood.. Also, even though its computer animation, I really like the look and style of it. Plus the fight between Leo and Raph is bad ass, and proves once and for all the given the opportunity, Raph would indeed kick the ass of Leo. Leo's line of "I'm better than you." really gets thrown back in his face. Never tell a 6 foot turtle who charges into battle (by himself half the time) against countless hordes of ninjas, while armed with little more than pair of oversized forks that you are better than him. He tends to take it personally.

After I watched TMNT I promptly went home and watched the old school Turtles movie, the first one, where every other line Raph says (includeing his very first line) is "Damn." I had the intention of drawing ninja turtles while watching this, but ya know I ended up just watching it and remembering why Raphael was always my favorite.

Anyways, I want to see 300 again sometime this week... and Grind House... and Blades of Glory... and The Reaping. I'm sure if I put my mind to it I can see at least one of those movies.

Well, I need to go get ready for my first class which should be entering within the next 10 minutes or so. They are presenting their storyboard projects today, so I wont really get to work on any new art stuff today. Same goes for tomorrow, maybe ill try an do something when I get home, but chances are ill be playing World of Warcraft with Amber. maybe tomorrow I will get something new up. I MIGHT be able to put some old stuff up on Flickr, so check that out if you are interested.

-Johnny

Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT

2007-04-07T13:48:00.000-06:00

I am very excited because I just ordered my Rebel XT! This means I can start taking pictures and building a portfolio once it gets here... the next few days are gunna suck waiting for the thing. I'm going to have to start going out and shooting photos again... I need some cool places, maybe ill go to downtown Houston some afternoon. Oh and the zoo, course I'd have to bring my sketch book if I went to the zoo. But yeah exciting! Now all I need is that job with National Geographic then I can get paid to go on safari and take photos.

In other art news, I might do another ninja piece this weekend, but I might wait until shelby sends me the bigger versions of his photos like he said he would to do more of them. Once I get my camera I plan on doing some non-ninja photomations with pictures I take... I have a few different series in mind... here are the titles to give you some clues. "Aliens among us." "Girls" "I see dead people (Ghost, Zombies and the such)" "Robots" and finally "My God, look at all the monkeys!"

How to...

2007-04-06T06:43:00.000-06:00

go from this:

to this:

The first thing I do is choose a picture...

Next I print the picture out and use the print out to plan my layout of the piece, I use a colored pencil or pen to roughly sketch in the drawing or whatever is going to be on the "Photomation".

The next step is to draw the characters... I almost always draw in colored pencil. My reasons are three fold. 1. it eliminates the temptation to erase, drawing is a building process, you dont pour the foundation of a skyscraper and then dig it up before erecting the towers do you? 2. Colored Pencil does no smear. I tend to rub my hand all over my paper while drawing as I turn my sketch book every which way, and when I use graphite it just smears. and 3. when you scan it and start coloring in photoshop the colored pencil is easier to see and distinguish. When you scan your drawings makesure you scan them BIG this is important for the next step.

And that next step is to color your drawing in Photoshop! This is a pretty simple process, especially with these ninjas because they lack so much detail.

Some people like to clean up thier drawing a little before they start coloring, but I ussally dont see a point to it because the drawing will be thrown away, but I guess it can be helpful for selecting your lines, especially if you want to be lazy and use the magic wand tool, but the wand tool has never really worked for me adn you almost always have to go back and edit your selection in the mask. So, what I use is the Polygon lasso tool. I simply click around my drawing and select the areas I want to be colored.
Each color should get its own layer. with the ninjas I do the main body shape in black first.

Then, I start doing the details like the belt, swords, and "eye" part of the mask. Lyers are your friend, as I said every color gets its own layer. Most of the detail object layers are ontop of the ninja body layer, but a few of em such as the eye part, and the sword are on layers below the body layer, this way I dont have to select around the aeras so exact, because whatever extra areas I select will be covered by the layer ontop of it.

Lastly, I do shading and highlights. Because the ninja is so undetailed, there isnt much I do with this part on these drawings, infact I dont have any highlights at all, but there is some shading on the belt and sword straps... bassically I make a layer above that detail layer and apply my shading colors overtop of the base color layer. Once this is done you can get rid of the original drawing, and vioala you have a photoshop colored drawing that looks like a cel-shaded animation drawing.

For this piece I also did two other ninja drawings, but I only remembered to acctually upload one to flickr, so here it is... notice I did even less detail on this one because he is going to be place dint he background.

One thing to note is that with these drawings I didnt have outlines with these drawings, but if you did want an outline all you would ahve to do is select the outline with your lasso tool and fill in the color just like you do with your bulk colors, the only difference is that the outline layer will be ontop of ALL the other layers.

Now the fun part, placement in the photo. First thing you need to do is merge all the color layers of your drawing together, but make sure your still have a "transparent" (the grey checkerboard) background. Then you will need to open up your photo in photoshop. You may want to resize your ninjas down if your photo is alot smaller than your drawings... What I do is drag the full sized image into the photo (you do this by making sure the layer is selected, picking the move tool, and then simply dragging it from one picture to the next), and then I will resize the ninjas in the photo by using edit>free transform. This way I can resize and or rotate the image int he photo to make it fit. Remember to hold down the shift key while resizing with free transform, this will constrain the proportions of your image so it doesnt get stretched out on one side or the other.

Ok, so you placed your drawings in the photo, and sized em and rotated em how you want... done right? WRONG! now comes the part where you make it look like your drawings acctually belong in the photo.

First you need to add shadows. There are several ways this could be done. The way I ussally do it is I make a new layer, above the photo, but below my characters, and I use the paintbrush tool and paint in black areas where the shadows are goin to be, I use a soft edge brush so that it will be darker where I directly click but nice and fuzzy around the areas.
Then I use the gaussian blur filter to blur out the shadow even more. Then I ussally change the opacity on the shadow layer to make it really seethrough and blend with the background below it. Finally I touch up the aeras using the eraser tool, again the eraser brush is very soft edged so that its not eraseing away everything.

Once the shadows are in, its just a matter of finishing touches. In some cases you may need to adjust the lighting on your drawings to match the lighting in the photo (especially with color photos) For instance if the photo is lit by blue lights you will need to make the drawings look as though they are lit buy blue lights as well, unless you really want them to stand out and not look like a part of the photo. Also applying blurs to your drawings can help alot too. If you have a figure in the background will will probably need to blur him out a little to give him some atmospheric prospective. The small leaping ninja in the background has 3 blurs on him in mine, a gaussian blur, and two different motion blurs, one that is applied directly to the character, and another that is applied to a duplicate layer (a copy) of the character that is behind him. The other two characters have no direct blurs on them except I think the throwing star ninja has a very minor Gaussian blur on him. What I did for those two ninjas is, instead of directly blurring them, I duplicated thier layers twice, I placed one duplicate behind them, and one infront of them. I applied a heavy motion blur to both duplicates, and then set the opacity on the layer behind the figures to about 40%, and the ones in front of the figures at about 13%. I then moved the duplicates back a little to make it look like they were moving in one direction. On the throwing star ninja I really only wanted it to look like his arms were moving, so I used the eraser tool to erase out part of the motion blur layers.

And there you have it.

Forest of Shadows

2007-04-05T22:41:00.000-06:00

Newest ninja photomation, I like it... coming tomorrow a tutorial... on how to make these things...

The Chase

2007-04-04T22:30:00.001-06:00

Welp, this is the next piece in my Ninjas series, It's titled "The Chase" I think this is my favorite so far. There are acctually two versions of this one, The black one above, and the red one which I will put down here...

I used to think the Black Version was better, I fixed the red one a little, and now im not so sure, if anyone has opinons let me know.

I mentioned earlier that I would be explaining the process in a future post... Well... its not goint to be this one, maybe next time. It's too late and I'm tired and I have school in the morning.

Fight!

2007-04-04T08:30:00.000-06:00

Ok this is a cut out I did one day while "teaching" my 9th graders. It's white contruction paper cut out and glued over black construction paper to create the image. I'll talk a little more on this later because I have to go greet my first class of the day!

Alright, school's out, but Art club is in! not too too many kids in, so im gunna let them do thier thing while I do mine.

First thing's first, a bit more on the above art work. As I said it is cut out... I really wanted to do something incredibly high contrast, and I thought a black and White ninja fighting would be cool for that, I stole the idea from an episode of Samurai Jack. Umm not much to say other than the fack that x-acto knife work is fun to do sometimes, I acctually did another one in the same cut out high contrast fashion today, this one with red and black, and I ended up putting its reverse on yellow papers, so I GUESS you can say I got two pieces of art out of one... Ill post those as soon as I get the chance to scan em.

Other art news, a few people, including Mrs. McDonald, my former mentor teacher at vogel Int have been asking how I do the "Photomation" pieces, so Ill post a step by step kinda thing in a future blog.

Non-Art News! Amber (my beautiful girlfriend for the uninformed), is finally getting her drivers liscence... how she went 21 years with out one I dont know. She passed her permit test though, and has already succeded in scaring her mom by checking text messages at a red light. "At least I wasn't sending any!" she says to me... She's adoreable. Also, she is going to be sent to grooming school soon and be liscenced as an offical groomer.. this is both good and bad. Good because she is going to be making alot of money doing something she enjoys, but bad because it means she cant go to China with me, which really sucks... More on this later.

Hmmm I cant think of much else to say right now. so Ill go check on the kids and maybe play with Photoshop and ninjas and photos or something.

-Johnny

From the Trees...

2007-04-03T12:42:00.000-06:00

Second of the Ninja series. Again the Photo is by Shelby. Click the picture to see the full size. I need a name for this series, Im thinking of just calling it Ninja or Ninjas... anyone have any suggestions? Anyways, unlike the first one, and probably the rest of these I will do, this one was done using Macromedia Fireworks instead of Photoshop. Why would I subject myself to this? Well, you see I am going to be doing a computer project with my students here at WHS 9th, and they dont have Photoshop, they have Fireworks and I had to learn how to use it. Luckily Fireworks is alot like photoshop, but there are subtleties and differences that drive me crazy. But, you gotta do what you gotta do. Anyways I call this one "From the Trees..." This is acctually the second version of this particular Photo, I ended up completely redoing the ninja because the original wasn't stylized enough. You used to be able to see the first version on Flickr, but I have since grown sick of my failings and deleted it, and it shall be lost forever in digital hell.

I know no one is probably reading these (yet), but if you are and you have an suggestions or critques or comments or anything feel free to leave some.

Anyways, I guess I should get back to teaching, Ive got about 30 mins left of my last class.

-Johnny

So it begins...

2007-04-03T05:39:00.000-06:00

Seeing as I'm running late for school, my first blog here will be short. I'm doing this as a place to collect my art work and thoughts mostly. I'm trying to get my self out there a little more, so I've got my Flickr site and now this, maybe one day ill be a real artist and make my very own real website! Ill talk more about the artwork posted later...

OK now that I am at school and it's only 8:05, and I don't get students until 9:00, I now have time to elaborate.

First the artwork... It looks pixalated on my screen for some reason and it didn't look like that at home, so I'm thinking its this computer, however, if you click on it you get the real size non messed up version anyways.

This piece is called "The Leap" and its the first in a series of what I like to call "Photomation" basically I take a photograph and put a cartoony style drawing on top of it. This Photomation series is going to deal with Ninjas.. So, look forward to seeing many many photos with cartoon ninjas super imposed over them, good news for those who like what they see above, and for those that don't... well I don't really care, this is what I feel like doing right now so it is what I am going to do.

The Photo itself was taken by my friend Shelby Karns, Ill probably be stealing... erm I mean Appropriating alot of his photos for this set because the shots from china really go well with the ninja theme, however, expect to see some ninjas in Houston or Huntsville once I get my Cannon Rebel XT in the near future.

Anyways its this really cool photo of a city in China called Qingdao, and the original concept was to have the ninja flying between the buildings, but because the only copy of the photo I had was so small, by the time I had shrunk the figure down to be proportionate with the buildings alot of the detail was lots. So, I changed it up a little and decided to have him in the foreground instead. There are two other version of this... one the original concept mentioned above, and another with he figure even larger, that you can see at my Flickr site: www.flickr.com/photos/johnny5ive

I think that's all for now, maybe ill post more ninjas later.

In other news, here is what is going on with me. I am currently in my second placement for student teaching at the woodlands 9th grade campus. I have about 4 more weeks of this, and a PPR TEXES Test to take and ill be fully certified as a k-12 art teacher. It will be nice to be done, but at the same time I find it kind of funny that I'm doing all this work to get this little piece of paper to say I'm "highly qualified" to teach in America, and then instead of using this certificate to get a job as a teacher like every normal teacher certification candidate would, instead, I am going to be getting on a plane and going to china, where I will be teaching college kids about America for a year, while also building up a portfolio of photographs taken in china. I even blew off the spring Job fair to go on a field trip with my students to the art museum. I think I made the right choice. It was funny, while I was at one of the museums I got a phone call from one of the schools at the job fair wanting me to go visit their booth. I laughed about it latter that day.

Hmm... what else... Oh I bought season 3 of Samurai Jack the other day, which is exciting because it has the crazy haunted mansion episode on it, as well as the chicken episode, and the raver episode.

Well that's all my rambling for now, I guess ill get ready for class or something.

-Johnny

Monkeys, Ninjas and Robots

Pretty

panel 3 an 4

panel 2

Mural

ZOMG BLOGGGGGGGGGEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRR

Home....

Qing Dao trip number 2

Job!

Goin home soon.

Quick post before bed.

Wow, a new post!

Wow I'm bad....

Been a few days...

Shoot Em Up

Photos Photos Photos... oh and some music and movie stuff.

New stuff...

30 Days of Night

My top 5ive most interesting on Flickr.

Ha Ha!

Soon to be Jet Lagged.

Dragonflies, Target, and Horses

Final Student Teaching.

Been a while...

Student Teaching 2

Student Teaching 1

Fruits

Folk Festival Part 2

Folk Festival part 1

New Camera!

Been a few days...

Kick!

Online vendors

Amanda

*yawn*

Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT

How to...

Forest of Shadows

The Chase

Fight!

From the Trees...

So it begins...

yawn