New Blog and a Website

Hi, for those that follow this blog i'll be posting new stuff on my website.  you can follow this link but I also have a tumblr as well.

www.jtj-illustration.com
josephthomasjohnson.tumblr.com

Fly Away

Our last assignment for Illustration was pretty much an open assignment.  We were given a list of words to pick from and I chose Fly Away.  How I came up with this idea I'm not sure, perhaps my constant looking at artists that deal with Faeries and Animals in clothes.  Fun image to play with for our last assignment.  Watercolor 11x17.

Sketchbook Show

Recently was accepted into the annual Illustration Sketchbook Show.  Nothing big, but it's cool to see how illustrators approach their sketchbook, seeing how they work and think before arriving to a finished piece, simply letting the pencil do its thing, or observing the world around them.

and here is mine, this is the sketchbook some of you back in Minnesota may remember me caring around most of the summer.  This is that farm house across from St. Ambrose on County Rd 19.  Pretty sure I got sunburnt that day too......

Figure paintings and pastels

Some items from figure painting and figure drawing.  I think overall I'm on a good track but there are drawing issues that still exist, which can still be a difficult task to do even for three day poses.  Excited to continue Figure painting next semester though.  I would like to get up closer to the model to really tighten up the structure and features more but gets hard with a full class so hopefully next semester class will not be as crowded.

oil on gessoed illustration board, three day sitting.

Pastel three day sitting

Pastel one sitting

30 min Pastel study one sitting

Both watercolor one sitting

quick pastel studies

Many of the paintings weren't as successful and took well to pastels when are teacher thought it would be good so we can attack color.  I think it helped especially the painting at the top.  I took to pastel quite well and maybe will try an illustration next semester.

Through Nocturne Forest

A personal Illustration.  Watercolor and Colored pencil.

23.5 x 17 inches

Of Mice and Men Book Jacket

A book cover illustration for "Of Mice and Men"  I chose not to include the text but focus on the illustration itself.   This particular cover is designed as a wraparound cover or book jacket.  I thought it would be a nice change rather than having the two character walking, as is usually done, and opt for something of the environment that George and Lennie are in, focusing on the drama of the farm through the play of light and shadow, yet still quiet and tranquil.

Watercolor, colored pencil, pastel.

The Gentlemen in the Meadow

An illustration done earlier this semester for class depicting one of Russell Edson's poems.  Watercolor and colored pencil, 27.5 x 17.5 inches.  The poem was "The Gentlemen in the Meadow" and we could interpret it however we wanted.

Some Gentlemen are floating in the meadow
 over the yellow grass.

They seem to hover by those wonderful blue
little flowers that grow there by those rocks.

Perhaps they have floated up from that nearby graveyard?

They drift a little when the wind blows.

Butterflies flutter through them....