Once Upon a Sketchbook

This is great! It creates simulation to the eyes and pulls you into a story that is alive.

 

I have two thoughts here -
0) You should consider utilising this site or something like it and
1) Your artwork reminds me of H.P. Lovecraft

 

Self-publishing certainly seems interesting Speed. My concern is the promotional end. I have always been a tad withdrawn. Not one to approach strangers. I don't know how many books I could move when the thought of asking someone in a book store to check my work out makes me feel queasy.

On a different note . . .

There are a couple of drawings that I scanned from the book that aren't ink.

Eruption


Man Reflective

 

Sometimes a funny thing happens. Here is a drawing from one of those times. I am going about my business and for a short, no-mind timeless time I find myself somewhere else. In this case I noticed I was in a dry place, with the air full of the scent of flowers and hot sand. There was a ceaseless clicking and rustling of insects about me. Leaves and flowers moved in the light breeze. In the near distance there was a tall, bizarre, twisted tower structure that looked like it had grown from the earth. Atop it, the tower rocking slightly back and forth beneath it's weight as it shifted position was an oddly constructed dragon. I stayed still and watched the beast peer into the distance. I noticed there was another tower behind the first, with it's own dragon.

So I drew it out in my little black sketchbook.

Dragon Perch

 

You hang out in some cool places... and in your head is probably the coolest of them.

 

Eruption is sick! is that lady coming out of a volcano or is that just where her feet touch the water/horizon of whatever she's on?

 

Sometimes it's a lonely, empty wilderness with nothing but the skritching sound of tumbleweed as it drags over the barren ground. Other times, well - let's just say I can keep myself entertained rather readily.

Eruption is a lady coming out of a volcano. More accurately I would say that the volcano is like a doorway that she steps through when it is time to stretch her arms to embrace the sky. It brings her joy when the water dances like that to greet her.

I like the look of frogs. Bugs & bees are pretty cool. And squirrels, though really just tree rats, have a vitality it is hard to ignore.

Squirrel & Frog

 

The squirrel and frog are very cool, but the limbs are fascinating! My brain is translating arms, legs, a heart, a scrotum (!)... and I'm getting the impression you knew you were implying those elements. Your work is more fun that those find-the-hidden-objects puzzles.

 

Wow, wow, wow. Beats my stick figures any day of the week.

There is so much going on in all of your drawings, I could spend hours appreciating the world in each of them. Eruption is delightful. I was also quite taken with the possum and the grasshopper. I got the distinct impression from the possum's eyes that the grasshopper would make a delightful meal. Had me wondering if possums actually eat grasshoppers. And the grasshopper with an almost WTF expression on his face and in his posture. Priceless. The emotion we never get to see in the natural world of predator and prey.

You have quite a knack for portraying the world we know as it might be with a few minor but interesting alterations. Imagination at its finest.

Your work deserves a much wider audience. Surely you know this.

 

I must admit GOD that you are on to something there I did slide some stuff in to a lot of the images, and used the occasional model photo as a template for parts of drawings. I also was (and am) a fan of multiple views of things, so that you might find faces or creatures or what have you all interwoven merely as background elements. I don't really recall what parts of what were what parts of what now (this work was done 10 years ago, and I was more interested in the process than the building blocks).

Thanks Joniemack I do try to put something in to the work. I am so glad whenever I hear that someone sees that little extra!

Frog Circle

 

I think this will about wrap up this thread as far as posting artwork goes. I don't think there are any more scans kicking about. It's been 5 or 6 years since I last took a look at the sketch book that my #2 son now has - maybe there is something else I could pull out of it at some future date. Till then here are a couple of drawings that were basically free association meanders . . .

Longnecks



Critters

 

jesus..

you're brilliant kramus!

Longnecks is absolutely amazing...I could totally see that piece hanging on my wall somewhere.

 

this piece tripped me out kramus...........love it man.

 

Nice lines Kramus!
It's a pleasure to see you work.

 

Like 'em all, but the octopus is my absolute favorite.

 

Really believing this is not spam, mods please note my post is purely for the sake of those thread readers who may find this of interest. I actually take my occasional blog post or a thread post I make here at TFP and put it into my personal website, but I think this is the first time I've mentioned the fact here at TFP.
I decided I'd put this thread into my blog on my website. It seemed worthwhile and had a lot of work put in to it. So, with some edits and maybe an addition of a drawing I've done so. If anyone is interested in the continuity of a single-post format it can be found at Once upon a Sketchbook - Mark Johnson Fine Art

 

Always a pleasure to see your work.. no worry about it being considered Span.

 

Your work...wow. It gives me a very particular feeling, one I've experienced while viewing the works of Shel Silverstein, Hieronymus Bosch, Maurice Sendak, Gustave Doré (specifically, Cocytus), and a couple obscure turn-of-the-century children's book illustrators. Almost like succumbing to a Venus flytrap. Dark and strangely irresistible.

 

@whoknewhawtwife I had a reply typed and my wonky phone ate it
I had the thought - imagine how this stuff could look if I wasn't thinking a bit like Degas, who liked to draw "pretty things" and left the more fraught work to others. My Lady suggests my work is improved when it is more accessible. For an insular fellow such as I that can be a tall order. I will be doing some Googling now re yr post. Thanks for the input

 

A Frog Regarding the Moon