Blackwoods Graphics

This is one side of the Blackwoods Graphics postcard flyer for an online t-shirt shop ran by my brother Eric. If you'd like to buy a cool silkscreen printed t-shirt with a picture like this one on it, or a different one of your choosing that is equally if not more cool for only 15 doller bills, then come to http://www.blackwoodsgraphics.com/. I think there are four shirt designs up right now (two of Eric's, two of mine), but much more to come soon.
This design was originally a charcoal drawing done all the way back in 2005, and not only does it show an awkwardly creepy little basement-dwelling dwarf of some variety, it also has two cautious prairie dogs facing each other, almost nose to nose. Can you see them? Can you, indeed?

The hell of it was beginning to set in

This is a 5"x 7" watercolor from 2009, started in 08 on a camping trip near the salt river in Arizona. My friend Jayson caught about seven scorpions that night and morning with his bare hands. I think he had like three different types of them in different cups and water bottles, it was crazy, and therefore, I put one one of them in a painting

I don't condone violence on any animals, especially vultures, but this one was needing to be eaten by this weather beaten drifter, and the scorpion caresses its feather tips and softly hums it a death song as it passes into the clearing beyond the bird's eye view.

Redcap

And yet another digital sculpture, been spending a lot of time on ol' zbrush lately. This fellow is a redcap, which is a murderous goblin from folklore who dyes his cap in his victims blood. The background in the top one is a picture I took of this giant gnarly root we burned while camping next to a flash flood a couple years ago.

Blackhorn

Another digital clay sculpture done in zbrush. I absolutely love this program. This guy turned out creepier than I thought he would, and I like that.

Basset Hound Puppy

One of the many watercolor dog paintings Ive done in the passed month. Always liked dogs, but I dont think I ever really noticed their true beauty until I started painting them, such grand creatures. I've been advertising (with my dad's help) watercolor pet portraits around the valley, and on the interweb. I will paint yours, too. Just send me a picture of it at puppetlegs@gmail.com.

Ochre Bloke

White Devil

Sea Turtle

The next couple of posts will be of some watercolors painted in the last few days. They were all painted on the same page (18"by 24"), so I just took a few pictures of the ones I thought turned out the best.

Zbrush

This is a digital sculpture I made on ZBrush 3. I'm just starting to figure things out on it, but it's an amazing program, with endless possibilities. I actually started this one out with a model head and shoulders, but I tried to make it my own, morphing the features around, and adding color, hair and horns. Check out the gallery at zbrushcentral.com to see other peoples work who really know what they're doing, so awesome.

Love Liza

Here's another marker drawing I did a couple years ago from one of my favorite movies, Love Liza. Phillip Seymour Hoffman is on the right, and Jack Kehler is left, shaping some hamburger meat in his hands, I believe, talking about remote control boats. I will sometimes just pause the movie I'm watching at a random part and try to draw or paint whats on the screen.

This is a marker drawing I did in a guy's blackbook at the first friday artwalk in Phoenix. His name was Yolk, and he came up to my booth and handed me his black bound drawing book that, you know, graffiti dudes pass around and do their graffiti on, and I thought he just wanted me to look at it. He told me he'd circle back around to pick it up, and when he came back, he asked what I'd drawn and I was like wha? so he told me to take it home. All the other pictures in it were drawn by tagger guys, real quick style drawings mostly with crazy graffiti lettering. I don't really know how to draw cool letters or even do that style, so I drew a blue devil warming his hands over a candle from hell, orally making the sound of a scratched chalkboard. I ended up having his book for like three months.

happy happy Valentine's

Happy Valentine's Day, folks. I painted this last night for my wife, Meg. She's so great. I wish I could paint her a new house, a new car, loads of money, etc...but until I can, I'll just continue giving her pieces of my heart and soul in pigments and clay (gush).

Boyblue

Here is another recent one, done in 09. This was shortly after I started really getting a feel for watercolor, knowing when to stop adding so much paint so it wouldn't turn out all muddy. After adding the black ground over the red-orange of the sky, I turned it upside down and let the long streaks of black snake down by themselves (all of them getting just a little push for a head start, of course), and they all stopped right at the white clouds, because of the paper being dry there. I liked how it turned out, the black trailing to the yellow white of the clouds reminds me of a pint of guinness with thick head.

Beach Creatures

This is an acrylic painting (8"x10") that I finished late last year. I'd actually started this painting in 07, and kept putting it off, working on it here or there at my leisure, like I do most of my more detailed paintings. I really like how this one came out. The beach has an Alaskan feel to it, for me anyways, since I spent half my childhood there, and often think about the bluffs and beaches. The creatures are all familiar, but with freakish attributes, like the furry turtle shell, and the dolphin/whale guy's arms. The octopus is relatively normal, but with a cartoonish twist, which you will see in a lot (if not most) of my art.

Here is an artist trading card I watercolored a couple months ago. Its only 2.5" by 3.5", but I think for such a small painting, it holds a lot of feeling. The person relaxing by the shack may look comfortable, but he's not. He's dead.

Blogenstein

Hi, I'm James Douglas Johnson, but you can call me Doug. This is my art blog, where I will try to upload different pieces of my art frequently for your viewing pleasure. I've never blogged before, so I'm sorry if I'm a little blogtarded. Hope you enjoy, and yes, I do love you.