"Mike & I's" : Us as Wallace and Gromit characters (they also did Chicken Run)... a very British claymation show... 

"FIVE YEARS!" In celebration of our 5th anniversary next month, I'll be making and posting "Mike & I's" :pictures of Mike and myself as different characters we like. This one is from Cars, Mike's the M3 BMW and I'm the mini cooper. 

*Click on image to enlarge* I think the comic has potential in picking fun of some things in the art I'm doing... like top heavy manga cuties. The warrior princess will return, not to worry... she's out unionizing at the moment... 

*Click on image to enlarge it* This is the first of a new comic I'll be doing about my life called "The Drawing Board." I'll start a site for it, and let it be a web comic, then maybe approach a local paper with it. Just something to do 'for me.' It doesn't take too much time, and I think it'll help me in other areas. Oh, and this is a true story (except the coffee bit). 

Oooo, I luv the charcoal! Had to spread out a drop cloth and sedate the neat freak I married with golf and beer, but nothing beats the crisp 'nowness' of charcoal... thinkin' of doing Little Bunny Buckeroo in charcoal and printing it dark brown. These two are for my art show next month, I call them the Two Banditos. 

Oh yeah... Look out possums! Workin on the text for the next Little Bunny Buckeroo book, yeehaw! 

Virginia 2007!

That probably got my mom's attention (sorry!), but I was invited to participate in a 3-man show in an art gallery in Virginia next summer.

So... Roadtrip!

Yes, it's nice that my artwork will see parts of the country their maker was too busy to go explore.
I have work in Plano right now, which I hope to drive up and see next weekend if we have time. It does feel a little strange, like I mailed off a part of myself, and people are milling around the gallery space, checking out my kneecaps, or my kidney, or my fingernail.

But then I don't feel weird that part of me is now infiltrated people's houses, either hanging on the wall or on the bookshelf.

Maybe it's the part where people come to see the artwork and I'm not there to add commentary. I dunno, but it's a neat-weird feeling. Like eating sushi, I could get to like it alot.

a page of nor, this begins a new chapter where the scrolls will tell the history... the background will be a solid black to set it apart from the rest of the story. It looks a little off center because of the gutter part on the right. 

Witnessed a crash this morning

On my way to work I came up to the top of this huge hill I go down in the morning and had to slam on the brakes suddenly. In the middle of the hill, two cars were strewn out over both sides of traffic, and the truck was on fire. Not smoking, not overheating, I mean orange flames shooting out of the front of the car, the hood was knocked off. People were pulling over and running out of the car. It probably happend a minute before I got to there. No cops, no ambulence, just people trying to help people out of the two cars, the non truck looked like Godzilla had stepped on it. I came home and looked up the news article and it chilled my blood...

Two vehicles crashed head-on on FM 2222 at McNeil Drive Tuesday morning.

The accident killed James Wesley Estes, 53, dead.

Witnesses say an eastbound Mercedes made an abrupt lane change and forced Estes' car into oncoming traffic where it was hit head on by a truck. The accident had traffic closed in both directions until 10:20 a.m.

Estes was pronounced dead at the scene. The driver of the pickup was taken to Brackenridge Hospital with non-life threatening injuries. The Mercedes was not damaged and did not stop.

Police are looking for that vehicle.

"Since the driver of the vehicle didn't stop, we don't know what the driver was thinking. The information that we [have] is according to the witnesses who saw the Mercedes attempt to pull into the inside lane," Toni Chovanetz of the Austin Police Department said.

The only description of the Mercedes is a silver 2006 model.

Three other vehicles were also involved but the drivers were not hurt.

Ok, so I drove past the silver mercedes, most likely, coming in the opposite direction I was driving, because there aren't any roads he would've turned off on on 2222. I want to say I can't believe that he drove off, but no, I have to say it is totally believable. Some person driving a luxury car figures he/she's better than those around them, and when the crash happens, do they have the moral integrity to try to help pull someone out of burning car, if it means facing the music? The answer's: *squealing tires and a puff of smoke.*

I was really moved watching people running, not walking, not trying to dial their cell phones for professionals, they were hauling ass up the hill to help total strangers, one guy even had a fire extinguisher (where did he have that, the glove box?!). I called 911, but they'd been notified. That made me proud to see Americans rushing to help each other. And it sickens me that another American kept going up the hill, and that hill's huge, so they saw it happen in their rearview mirror and just kept going.

Well, I have a new hobby on my way to work from now on. I'm calling in every silver mercedes I see heading west on FM 2222. It'll be like Where's Waldo, only I hope they charge Waldo with manslaughter and haul his butt in jail.

This is from the graphic novel and reminds me of my family who I will see this weekend. It's after the girl's demon is exorcised, and while that never happend to me (that I recall), I'd like to this this would be the reception from my parents I'd get. 

Doin' the Lap Dance

Ok, wildly inappropriate blog title, but this is my first post from my new Laptop! I say that calls for a lapdance, hey, who's got change for a twenty?

My recent title of Art Director made the laptop necessary, since I kept going to meetings and had to scribble down what I had to do on my computer when I got home. And with traveling, and because I fantasize about doing Photoshop in bed wearing jammies, and other legitimate reasons, I'm glad I have a laptop.

Granted, I have no real idea how it works yet... all in due time.

That was a fun awkwardness at the computer stores:

"Ma'am what were you looking for today?"

"Oh, um, I need a laptop."

"Which model were you interested in?"

"Oh, you know the kind that fold up?" **OK, it wasn't THAT bad, but it wasn't pretty!**

Mike has let the yard go rogue as he cleans house on the laptop. He had to de-junk it and install all the stuff I need. Isn't he a good "hunter-gatherer" for the 21st century?

Well, I'm going to try to figure out how to turn this puppy off and go to bed!

I'm submitting some Nor art for the Art Center's children's illustrators show next month. I'm thinking these will be fun for people to look at, a teaser for the story. Plus, my friends up that way will get to see me possessed!! 

This is an "art sample" page I'm planning to email to someone who saw my work on childrenillustrators.com We'll see if the nibble takes the bait! 

A trip down memory lane...

Yes, it may date myself, but this little email thing had me cracking up, so I've added my comments to it...

YOU WERE A GIRL IN THE 70S IF...

You wore a rainbow shirt that had half-sleeves; the rainbow went
up one sleeve, across your chest,
and down the other. (Yep, had one, I think it said Key Biscane or something)

You made baby chocolate cakes in your Easy Bake Oven and washed
them down with snow cones from your Snoopy Snow Cone Machine. (Stephanie Sykes had the snoopy snowcone maker, but I had the Pepsi machine - explain that again to me, Dad?)

You had that Fisher Price Doctor's Kit with a stethoscope that
actually worked. (Yes I did)

You owned a bicycle with a banana seat and a plastic basket with
flowers on it. (Yes to plastic basket, no to banana seat)

You learned to skate with actual skates (not roller blades) that
had metal wheels. (Kids, don't skate on pea gravel)


Your Holly Hobbie sleeping bag was your most prized possession. (Strawberry Shortcake could soooo take Holly Hobbie in a cage fight)

You had the Donnie and Marie dolls with those pink and purple
satiny shredded outfits. (I totally had the Donnie doll, and he had a purple satin stage outfit... I always made him the bad guy cause he had the leer going on, made the other dolls nervous)


You spent hours in your backyard on your metal swing set with
the trapeze.
(The swing set tipped over at least once!) (Dad's garden project became the cement jungle)

You were really into ping pong and pogo sticks. (Uncle Bill, remember the pogo?!?!)


You had homemade ribbon barrettes in every imaginable color. (Ah, the puprle and white ones had clear plastic beads on the ends)


You wanted your first kiss to be at a roller rink. (Does "kissing" the floor or walls count, cause I did that alot)

Your hairstyle was described as having "wings" or "feathers" and
you kept it "pretty" with the comb (and a whole can of "White Rain")
you kept in your back pocket.


You know who Strawberry Shortcake is, as well as her friends,
Blueberry,Muffin and Huckleberry Pie.* (I had a crush on the Purple Pie Man... explains alot doesn't it?)


You carried a lunch box to school and it was metal, not plastic. (Yes, Charlie Brown was a fave, but Ryan had the cool Muppet one that I sweet talked out of my dad's "Johnsonian" museum, so I have it!)


Every now and then "It's a Hard Knock Life" from the movie,
"Annie" will
pop into your brain and you can't stop singing it the whole day. (Oh, this email is EVIL! I saw Annie live with some friends and at recess we would play it out... I loved being Miss Hannigan, if that was her name)

YOU had Star Wars action figures, too! (I had Leia, and I have to say the other more curvy barbie dolls thought she was a little 'butch')


You completely wore out your Grease, Saturday Night Fever, and
Fame soundtrack record al bums. (Even better, Stephanie Sykes had the 8 track and we'd dance to both in her attic, and lemme say it's really creepy for a 6 year old to sing the lyrics to Grease Lightning!!)

You made Shrinky-Dinks and put iron-on kittens on your t-shirts! (OH MY GOD!! Mandy, you have to remember doing these at Hickory Hills... man, I'm craving that smell when they bake, probably some harmful toxic gas, but oh well)


You thought Olivia Newton John's song "Physical" was about aerobics. (I've just sprayed the monitor with soda, because hand to God, I really did!)

You wore friendship pins on your tennis shoes, or shoelaces with
heart or rainbow designs. (Yes I did)


You wanted to be a Solid Gold dancer. (Yes I did)


You had a Big Wheel with a brake on the side, and a Sit-n-Spin. (Yes I did, I got my school uniform caught up in the big wheel and got in trouble)


How about about drowning yourself in Love's Baby Soft? The first
"real" perfume you ever owned! (this is uncannily accurate, was the NSA listening in that far back?!)



You had subscriptions to Dynamite, Bananas and Tiger Beat. (Yes Tiger Beat : Guilty... ah, Michael J Fox and Correy Feldman)

You spent your allowance on Smurfs and stickers for your sticker
album! (Yes, and I feel Smurfette was a good role model)

You had a collection of Bonnie Bell lip glosses. (Yes I did, oh my god, and the Bonnie Bell face cleaner?! Can we say HARSH?!?)

Dittos and Jordache…need I say more??? (Ah, man... I don't know if I feel better or just older, but it was fun!)

This is a design for a tshirt I'm making that uses the "me" as a possessed kid... Evil little girls, that's what it's all about! I also considered the saying "Good lil' girls don't grow up to draw Manga" but went with this one instead. 

Here's Mom with LBKF in fabulous LA! There're out seeing my brother, and popped into a Barnes & Nobles and found their grand-bunny :) 

Someone's stolen "me"

Well, thank goodness I'm popular enough on the internet that someone alerted me that someone else was posing as me:

http://reganjohnson.deviantart.com/

Ya, I didn't start that site, and that's not me replying to people's comments (which are nice, by the way).

Now before people start taking up pitchforks, they aren't making any money off my work. I think it's more of a geeky fan kind of thing. They wanted to be in the deviant art community and probably had no artistic talent so they borrowed mine. I've alerted the administrator and as long as they yank it immediately, then we can all have ourselves a chuckle over it.

The person got my artwork from my Epilogue site, I can tell because of what I wrote is what he or she copied. I don't have time for non business related sites like Epilogue and this deviantart, though they help me in a google search. But I've always said the internet is like the wild west, and if you really don't want someone to "borrow" something, then don't put it online. This is relatively harmless, and the person more or less is using my words, and even my name. If this was an intern of mine, I probably wouldn't mind!

I have this funny scenario of some random big art director who finds the deviantart Regan Johnson and wants to do a 10 book cover deal of something. (this would never happen as it's not that kind of site). Hell, it would be fun if I could email this person and pose as someone important just make them sweat. What would he/she reply? "Oh, um... yeah, I got out of the illustration racket... er, a few years ago... yeah, too much fame and money, so... I'm just like, um, doing it for fun."

I bizarre kind of flattery, I suppose, huh?

Here is my Tree of Life painting for the SCBWI group art show. And well... I like it, and it does look a piece for some kind of children's market, but I'm going to fiddle with it digitally, because it's not quite where I saw it yet. 

Just a reminder about the photos...

if you click on them they will enlarge so you can see more details. :) Enjoy!

Here are some pics from TLA in Houston. That's our booth, a nice corner spot. Our flyers and books/bunnies. The convention center looked a little like the titanic. Madeline flashes the LBKF gang sign, and Miriam's smiling because day one was over! Whew!