Sunset

I was coming home from work and this image hit my eyes. Now.. I would have to say that it is not abnormal to come across a sunset, it is however an amazing sight to see every time you see one. I've been working a lot recently and haven't blogged much this past week or so.. But i don't want to give up. Its good to see that within' my first month of true blogging I've gotten quite a few more hits than I expected, and hope that some of you are liking what you're seeing here. If anyone has any questions or requests for tutorials or techniques, i urge you to comment. I'll be posting my next #Mundane picture soon.. but for now here is an extraordinarily normal sunset that we are privileged to see most days. Enjoy.

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 #Pornography or art?!

Bettie Page

Here's an oldie... i made this when i first got my wacom drawing tablet. The pin-up has always intrigued me and Bettie Page is the quintessential  pin-up model so i figured i'd try. This is one of my personal favorites to date. The female form is beauty personified IMHO. 

”Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.” - Albert Einstein 

For a scientist and theorist, Einstein was one of the most insightful people this world has ever encountered. He had become one of my true inspirations for greatness and his mentality should be held up to the light with that of Gandhi and Nietzsche and Buddha as far as enlightenment. The surprising thing about inspiration is that it can be found anywhere, at any time. These people who achieved greatness  are a testament to how inspiration can effect those around us and the best part about this is that some of your closest friends and even random interactions can bring on inspiration just with a few words. NEVER under-estimate the people you know.. it would be a shame to let their inspiration pass you by without touching your life. 

Ok my random rantings are getting a bit hard to follow here.. let me ground this article a bit. Finding inspiration is not hard, it only takes one tiny thing to draw it out of us. Its amazing to me to see the multitude of things that inspire me. But i am blessed, i have so many great people in my life that bring this idea back around to a tangible concept.


Don't overlook the inspiration that's already there. Find it in the mundane, its there, believe me.. and inspiration comes in many forms effecting all parts of our psyche.. look closely and you'll find it everywhere.

Y'all come back now.

John-

AMitF - Stardate 3272.31

This may be a Sin

Oh dear, what have i done? Yes that's right.. I've gone and made our beloved Mona Lisa into a tragedy.. (don't worry its not the real Mona Lisa). I have a friend who was telling me that someone she knows was redecorating her kitchen or house for a day of the dead theme. So i got my inspiration.. and perhaps it was a little bit sinful to murdalate a great masterpiece like this. BUT IT FELT GOOD! 

I actually wanted to challenge myself to see if i could actually do something like this, and I think i did a fair job. Hooray for photoshop! So lets see if i can get any feedback on it when i set it to sale as a poster on zazzle.. i might get some pretty nasty hate-mail.. hehehe.. gotta love some hate-mail.

Tell me what you all think, i'd love to hear some feedback.. I've had this blog going for about a week now and still have yet to get a response.. then again, i'm not the best at promoting myself, so if any of you like what you see here.. Like my blog, or share it.. Tweet about it.. and remember, look both ways before crossing the street. That means you might have to put the cellphone down for a second and actually look.

Til Next Time

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-