The Mundane #1

#1

Sewer Pipe

I've been watching one of my favorite illustrators and motivational inspirationalists <is this even a word??> over the past few years, Her work is amazing and I'm humbled to have her as my mentor. Patricia Saxton (visit her blog here) has a very focused lifestyle when it comes to creating artwork. She is way more focused than I am. She inspires a  creativity in me from her artistic style, and from her dedication. She smiles across the digital plain of our current lifestyle and shines her brilliance onto everyone I've ever talked with who knows her. Not only that, she's family and that warms my heart.

She has a focused project called 52 Weeks of peace that is now at week #71 and is working on another series called a plethora of P's which is just as impressive from a design and artistic creativity standpoint. I revere her dedication and would like to start my own dedicated series.

This Mundane Project is now underway and I'll be focusing on taking photographs, designing posters, creating illustrations of things we see everyday and overlook the artistic value of their functionality. My goal is to inspire art and show that even the most trivial things can be viewed in a slightly different way... an artistic way. My hope is that through this i can inspire everyone to not take the things we have in our life for granted and appreciate the everyday with a bit more of an open view.

Now I admit, that as of now my artistic style is very retro washed-out. Instagram.. I was making pictures like this before it was cool, that's just how photographically hipster I am. :\ but that's besides the point. I don't really need to prove to my audience that i can do this.. I want... in fact, I need to do this for myself to prove that i can still live in this hectic world and have a focus centered on my passion for art.

Patricia, if you're reading this, THANK YOU!! You inspire more than you can ever imagine, and I can't wait to see where this project will lead me.

Inspired and excited....

John-

AMitF # 8 or Nine.. This is what i do...

Dis or Dat

So what is it that a graphics designer does? Well we take images, make images, change images, and use our amazing powers from knowledge and creativity to produce the best possible visual representation of what we are working with.. Here is an example.. A before and after picture of my family. (before i was born, too) Is my grandma not the cutest old lady?! (she's the one one in the designer glasses!) anyway.. This photo on the left is the natural state of the photo.. See the color degradation? Now I know its hipster to have you photos look retro old these days by way of Instagram and what not.. (which I can do as well if you want).. But old photographs are very delicate artifacts. Preserving a photograph with a high resolution quality is a lot more complicated than one would imagine. 

This is just an example, and I only had a low resolution image that i yoinked from facebook. The more resolution i have to work with... that's to say, if i had the opportunity to scan this image in myself, i could have gotten a more accurate working copy.. and the final image would have come out with a better picture quality. But the concept is the same. Color correction and photo retouching is not that hard if you understand what you're doing.. and I've taken some time to price out the competition ( My competition ).. and i've found out that if you know what you're doing this process doesn't take that much time, and that most larger companies are charging an outrageous price to have this process done. I hope i'm humble enough to give you all a fair deal and offer you this service at a really fair price. 

YES, it does take time, but charging folks 50$-80$ per photo is a bit ridiculous, so i'm just letting you know that my services are $8-$15 per photo (based on the amount of damage i have to correct, and if you order in bulk it'll be cheaper) plus the cost of shipping and handling.

DO I EVEN HAVE CONTACT INFO on my page?!

ugh.. artmonger78@gmail.com - or (919)926-9739

I'll make sure it is easy to find before the day is over.. y'all have a great Sunday!

John-

AMitF #4

Look over there!!! =======================>

Well I've gone and done it now.. i'm starting to merchandise myself.. whats next? i want a personalized light saber so i suggest you all help and buy some items.. i'll be updating the store with a lot more items over the next few weeks, right now i'm loaded up with a few designs... i think i may have to specialize so i can get a wider range of people.. Either that or figure out how to categorize and organize these much better.

Anyway, there are tee-shirts, ipad and iphone cases, tote bags, messenger bags, ties, shoes will be here soon, or so they tell me.. i can do custom sized prints of any of my artwork for you all as well if anyone wants to purchase something..

or you can help by donating..  how do i add a paypal donation button on this blog??

ugh...

Stay tuned.. i've got a lot more things in the works.. tutorial video's will be starting soon.. want to learn photoshop from a complete idiot? then you've come to the right place.. i'll show you how an idiot does it proper..

*smileyface*

John-

AMitF#2

Harley Davidson

I posted the barn door yesterday, every time i see a picture of an old door i want to know what is behind it.. So i thought i'd give you a glimpse at what i found after i opened that old barn door. There was a lot of nothing, but here... i turned my head and right there by the entrance was an old Harley. I nearly poo'd my pants... 

The best part was when i returned to the party down the hill my mothers cousin Tommy was just finishing a story about seeing headlights from the old Harley spinning up into the night sky after my uncle took it for a joy ride. Coincidence? perhaps not.. this beast needs to be restored, and i'm glad i know where it is now. 

Perhaps it'll still be there next time i can get up there..

The moral of the story is, as an artist.. don't ever stop exploring, you'll never know what you'll find...

John-

AMitF #1

Old Barn Door

In the past few weeks I've been slacking on getting things going with my artwork. Hell, I think its the life of an artist.. Procrastination.. I mean, we are always looking to make that piece even better, that color needs just the right amount of red, that photo the right amount of contrast. its never really done, we just get content with it over time because we've been looking at the same damn image or swatch or group of photos/paintings/musical compositions.. for so damn long that we're finally tired of it and hand it off to you to have a look at. We know that a lot of people like the picture at first glance, and we also know that only other artists really take a moment to enjoy the intimate time we put into making a piece that we're barely half proud of. 

But in the end we actually do produce some striking pieces, and we should be proud of them. I have found that my most memorable pieces come from moments of instant inspiration, and rarely come from hours of over-analyzation and re-configuring the minds eye view of the product we're trying to create.. THOUGH its not impossible. 

Anyway.. Here I am, spur of the moment setting up this blog to give you a look at my artwork and to bring out my thoughts on how everything works in my tiny little world. If any of it helps you, i'm glad, if not... well then i guess a GFY is in order.. 

Here look at this picture of an old barn door.. 

John-