laurajohnston
laurajohnston
Laura Johnston
238 posts
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laurajohnston · 8 years ago
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Checkout this unusually large dumbo octopus! The scientists who found him believed him to be almost 1 meter long! On average these guys only grow to be 20 centimeters, so he’s definitely an anomaly. 
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laurajohnston · 8 years ago
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laurajohnston · 8 years ago
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a thought
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laurajohnston · 9 years ago
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🕉💓Fritz
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laurajohnston · 9 years ago
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This looks just like my kitty!
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laurajohnston · 10 years ago
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If you like pattern and ornament check out the book Designa
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French street artist Arthur-Louis Ignoré, aka ALI, has found a unique way to embellish his surroundings. Using resilient materials that can last for a few months, he paints mandalas and ornaments on walls, streets, sidewalks, buildings and just about anywhere else he can reach. ALI is not interested in making sketches, and prefers to let his subconscious take over during the creative process. To him, randomness is key. The end result is a spontaneous and meticulous body of work that explores pattern making through ornamentation. 
See more on Hi-Fructose.
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laurajohnston · 10 years ago
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Happy #internationalslothday #slothfans !
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laurajohnston · 10 years ago
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Love Tardigrades! Want!
Ode to the Tardigrade
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A Tardigrade, also known as a water bear, is a resilient creature. They can survive in some of the most extreme environments (think boiling water and almost absolute zero) and are known for their strange gait, which look like a bear’s walk. Inspired after watching a feature on these little monsters in Neil Degrasse Tyson’s Cosmos, designers Eric Ho and Kostika Spaho got to work and created a 3D sculpture of the Tardigrade now available on Shapeways. These eight-legged creatures can even be printed in stainless steel, brass, silver, and 14k gold! Get a little trophy celebrating one of nature’s most gritty inhabitants.
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laurajohnston · 10 years ago
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at Stow Lake
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laurajohnston · 10 years ago
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#petportrait commission: City Dogs (Marshall and Stella)
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laurajohnston · 10 years ago
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If you're in #Seattle don't miss the #chuckjones exhibit at #EMP
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laurajohnston · 10 years ago
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Fantastic Illo! Thanks for sharing.
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Hello internet, I have a Patreon now!
For $1+/month you’ll read my monthly processpost, full of behind-the-scenes shots, tips & tricks, discarded versions, sketches, and other things that go into my sausages. For $2+ you’ll also be the first to get new zine pdfs before they’re up elsewhere!
So to whore out promote this thing, I decided to write a quick processpost about the recent Criterion cover.
Grindr
As I wrote earlier, AD Eric specifically asked me to draw a meat grinder with a neat strip of film coming out. I was worried that the requested chaos would stand out among the predominantly minimalist Criterion covers, so right away I decided on a simple vibrant color scheme to unify all the imploding details. I picked colors with flat blocks on a clean layer–this way I could switch off the lines and consider their relationship divorced from the context.
Lost cat
One of the film’s funniest scenes features a couple of cats actively ignoring a saucer of milk, and these cat I insisted on plugging onto the cover, although the second one was cut out of the final version. If you see the creature wandering half-drawn along the discard reels, please put it out of its misery (and say hi from broman).
Grindr rev
For the meat grinder design I deliberately avoided looking at any reference photos of meat grinders, and instead tried to put together a meat grinder that would be refurbished out of discarded film equipment. It turned out a bit too wacky, so I simplified and boxed down the shape into a cozy rectangle.
Mess
Logic, particularly in scale, had to be avoided. It’s not often that an Art Director asks you to draw something messy and chaotic, so I was pretty excited to see how far it can go. Of course, a balanced accidental arrangement is much harder to figure out than a sensible pattern, so it took a good deal of tweaking, rearranging and disrupting. I wrote a long list of objects and recurring motifs, grouping them by shapes and colors, as well as by their appearance in connection to the characters. For most of them I tried to approximate the feel of a half-remembered image slowly drifting in and out of focus. About 20-30 things didn’t make it to the final, which was heartbreaking, since they included a very nice chair.
As for the inside design and the booklet, that will be in the first Patreon post! Bye now.
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laurajohnston · 10 years ago
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Nice process post! I love the swooshy legs.
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Yesterday I found out that my NPR caldenar piece won a Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators! Huge thanks to everyone who supports my work, I have a few caldenars left and I’ll make a nice big giveaway for them (& other items (and a YZ4 kickstarter!)) very soon, so stay tuned.
Meanwhile, I thought I should show some process bits & dits.
My original ideas revolved around Georges Perec’s Life A User’s Manual, but I’m glad that we didn’t go for an actual building–only last week during the OuLiPo events I learned that Life was in fact inspired by a Saul Steinberg cartoon. I was perilously close to plagiarizing not one, but two of my heroes!
Drawing heavily from Steinberg, I tossed out all background ideas and focused on voices, dividing the broadcasting & listening segments, and constraining myself to a number of mediums & finishes for each one, plus three colors from the NPR logo.
While drawing all these people was borderline fun, the digital part took ages, since I was still putting everything together on a little macbook and in fact never got the chance to see the whole thing fullsize until it was printed.
If anyone is wondering, the post-it man’s leg is taken from the Cyclops chapter of Ulysses, while the score I can’t remember (shame, shame), but it’s probably something great.
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laurajohnston · 10 years ago
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Me around 1985? 86? School shot I had retaken 😂 #tbt #throwbackthursday
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laurajohnston · 10 years ago
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Wonderful illustrator! Love all her stuff.
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Be a warrior, not a worrier. A recent daily doodle :)
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laurajohnston · 10 years ago
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Redonk Izzy #catslife
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laurajohnston · 11 years ago
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Merry Christmas all! (at Ocean Beach, San Francisco)
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