Got my website back up!
polycounter lvl 19
www.kevinjohnstone.com
Just noticed that it won't display correctly in chrome though fine in ie so I will have to investigate. if anything else comes up with different browsers let me know, especially if you have a workaround as im not so good with this stuff.
thanks
k.
Just noticed that it won't display correctly in chrome though fine in ie so I will have to investigate. if anything else comes up with different browsers let me know, especially if you have a workaround as im not so good with this stuff.
thanks
k.
Replies
here is what i noticed... using Firefox (3.6.13)
This image on the hospital section didn't load http://www.kevinjohnstone.com/Images/Gears2/COG_Hospital/COG_Hospital_Arch.JPG
Other then that one I think it all looks great. Nice to see some of your non game art up on the site as well
Lookin good though.
Are you still considering messing with the logo placement?
true OG!
There's a lot of stuff missing if u don't mind me saying!
Jesse- Good catch, I missed that one, might be an issue with upper or lower case jpg, Bluehost appears to be fiddly with that and i refreshed a number of images with lower case enforcement on in Photoshop so this is likely.
Sean: For sure, that needs sorted, I just had to get this thing up rather than fiddle anymore.
Shotgun - Yeah I laughed at that one myself , digital Freudian slip perhaps?
I've been considering adding a link to my old Rors Journal site from the Love section, it would open into the old site , seperate from the new so folk that were interested could get that nostalgia high. It would probably have lots of broken areas and I wouldnt be willing to fix em though, think it would be worth it?
I feel like indiana Jones now.
Your hi-poly work is simply awesome.
Like someone else said, it took me a while to find your high poly work, which I find to be much more impressive. If that work was easy to find or highlighted more, it could be....advantageous.
seriously amazing. makes me want to die.
This is part of my reason for considering having an external link to my old rors journal site. The old work could go there
I like how you also do all of the 2d stuff next to 3d
Nice.
Yea maybe move some of the weaker pieces in love into an archive and link to it at the bottom? I have a feeling I know which ones you might cull and they are still good pieces just not as strong as some of the others, it would be a shame if they disappeared. I hope you keep the 2 Cerebus pieces up... if nothing more than the encourgement to go read an awesome series of phone-books heh.
Ideally the first page would load up with just a bunch of art on it and you wouldn't need to do much (or any) clicking to get around.
other than that, amazing stuff. most of it ive seen here on pc or on zbrushcentral, but its always nice to go back and take another look.
I'd say 'good luck' with the site, but since it doesn't seem the aim is finding another job, I'll just say 'good job'
Not sure what's up with the chrome issue but fixing the size like shotgun said fixed it for me too. Maybe it's something with the default text of those cells? I dunno.
I've updated things so they work in Chrome, let me know if that works in firefox now also? I fixed the broken Arch image as well.... and culled a bunch of weaker stuff, theres still some weaker stuff, but they're sort of personal to me and I can't quite bear to cull them yet.
I think I will uploaded my rors journal site as a nostalgia link on the Love page.
And yeah, it IS weird to just make an art page for the sake of art instead of the focus being on getting a job. The point for me this time is to step away from the job a bit, it's no coincidence that I haven't ran a webpage or done much personal work since I started at Epic!
Anyway, now that I have a page up again, I have a forum to spout of and to host my own ideas ... which is the fun part
thanks for the feedback.
I especially enjoyed the "Love" section. It's interesting to trace your life story through you art. I don't think you have to cull it. I mean, even if you were looking for a job I doubt you would have trouble finding one, so why go against your sentiments? It's your site and I enjoy it being about you rather then the usual portfolio sites.
Thanks for being awesome, enjoy yourself and I can't wait to see you post some of your writing.
Cheers!
I remember rorshach by the times i made quake 3 maps, didnt know it was you! You had some texturing tutorials and stuff like that i think. I always thought i wanna be liek this guy
anyway cool stuff and all the best for future projects!
you plan on on picking up on some character stuff in the future?
Cheers
Your current body of work is inspiring a lot of people right now and it really feels like it's tucked away and hard to find - why is that?
I dont think showing old work is a bad thing, but when following what I thought was the logical route to "the goods" of Kevin Johnstone; Love > Mouse, I was quite underwhelemed.
If I may, I suggest you lead in heavy handed with your current work and make the older gems be the stuff for discovery.
Great work fella, now slap us in the face with it.
Do you think a different front page that sort of lays out the brief of what each section is with a couple of pics would help? Maybe I should have that Gears2 Outpost door worked into it as it's a good gateway image. I'll have to think about this a bit but I get it. I have the tendency when clicking a new website to sometimes only give it half a dozen key clicks or a 3 image limit to decide if I want to continue... if im in a mood heh
The front page image and text is sloppy atm anyway and needed changed.
re: culling, I won't be doing more I doubt, certainly not in the painting section or the pen section as I dont want to part with those progression pieces that took me from there to here, I love them, warts and all, nice to see someone else digging that.
Mostly I'm putting this page up again to motivate me to build higher quality stuff for myself. When I looked through my old work this year I noticed that the best pieces imo where the ones I spent the least amount of time on and I wondered how many of them would look if I took the kind of time on them that I do at work and then I realized how screwed up that is of me. I SHOULD be taking more time for my own stuff than for others!!!!
Hopefully, over time the Love section will be stronger than the Money section, I'm a long way away from that point but at least I'm walking in that direction now.
Thanks as always for the feedback, you all create work for me every time you open your mouths sure, but thats not a bad thing!
But then again, i am a sucker for simplicity, Seeing art that attract me right away, make me want to know more about the artist, and well the art.
Banner/"The Art of Kevin Johnstone"
"Welcome to the website of Kevin Johnstone"
Gears of War 2
(links)
UT3
(links)
Personal Art
(Paintings/Drawings/Pen & Ink/3D links)
Words
Help
(links)
Me/Contact
(links)
good stuff though!
I agree with previous posters, it does strike me as a website not geared towards getting you a job, but then I think that is the intention.
Great work though, hope you keep updating
How long do the 3D pieces take you to model some of those have insane amounts of detail they look like they'd take a while or atleast several crates of redbull to complete?
Another question that I wanted to ask is that are some of those pieces strictly
focused and true to the concept art associated with them or are they your own inspiration/both?
I saw one particular piece that had a really nice middle eastern feel to it so was just wondering what inspires you Kevin?
I'm going to add a jazzier front page with something similar to my old rors journal images such as
[img]http://www.kevinjohnstone.com/Images/Love/Digital/r_entry00.jpg[\img] tricked out in hipoly that indicates a direction like to the sections also. I'm not going to direct the attention away from my weaker early community pieces or the fact that I haven't really done a lot of good work for myself in recent years. I'm leaving that stuff as the focus, warts and all because this is not a portfolio site. It bothers me a bit, that the Love section has become so weak the last few years, so I'm leaving it as is, it will motivate me to make it strong. If people wander in , unknowingly, check out the old stuff and write me off, well thats ok, I've had more than my share of compliments and respect already I think. -On Times Taken They vary, generally I take 3 - 4 days on an average pieces of hipoly work, process, lowpoly creation but sometimes I take as long as 3 - 4 weeks instead of days. The Locust Palace scene took a month, the concrete slab floors took a day for the set of 4 because i made one plain and bold then gradually wore away the original more and more, then made a super decayed one and shrank it by a 1/4 and instanced it. The concepts I show on each page are the only guide I had, theres a lot left to work out by myself, but having a bunch of other cool art being made by the others in the team helps to feed my inspiration too and sometimes I can steal their work! Many of the alpha stamps I used on the Locust set were made by Peter Ellis and Jordan Walker. -On inspiration I guess words inspire me, I'm at my best when I have the freedom to input the backstory, it doesn't happen often , its more common that I just privately write a backstory that no one reads or cares about for my own satisfaction and explanation of what I am doing. If it works well, people can read my story in the environment. I think that worked with the Locust set for some people. I read a lot of people commenting in reviews or on forums that they thought those Locust underground cities were far older than the story explained in the game. Some wondered if we were setting up a future Gears story where we explain what was really going on there, who really built that place, maybe the locust just came in and occupied structures that were discared by older races previous to them. Thats not the Gears story, but it was my gears environment story, its the story I was trying to tell with the pagan / incan style engravings, it's why there are so many maw emblams and vertebral worm forms. I knew there was going to be a big worm underground and that it was responsible for burrowing out much of the hollows and there was some loose talk about how important it would be regarded by the Locust. So I made it their God. I pushed the idea of the holy trinity of worms because all belief and folklore mythologies talk about the rule of 3 and I thought that if these folk were rejected from humanity they would reject our notions of what God was. If they thought of the worms as god, well, there'd be no angelic baroque art styles would there? It's all be massive mouths and long ridged tendril forms and like most pagan cultures they had a woman in charge, it was a matriarchy which pushed me to make lots of orifices and rebirth or flowering motifs which tied in well with worm mouths. That was good fun to daydream about and I got lucky with what I did. One day Cliff came in and complemented me on my worm pillars and asked me if he had talked to me about the Worms backstory before I made them, I had to say no, but I had just thought logically it would go that way... and thankfully that tied into the idea he and Lee / Rod / Pern / Nash had been talking about
I can finally say 'good luck' because your plan for motivating your love is a worthy goal. It seems on the same lines as my comic project, a return to personal art for reaching to yourself and 'the people' rather than always focus on blueprint art for 'the man' :P
Love your stuff man. Always pleasurable on the eyes.
When designing characters worlds and weapons some personal projects that I have going on aswell I find it hard to design especially without knowing where, who, why and when all of those factors come from and how they change and adapt through time it's great leverage and so it's really good to see how thinking like this has pushed you to design in such a way.
I think it's great that you get to freely express yourself more both within your work place and your personal pieces you definately leave a remnant of yourself, thoughts, inspiration aswell as really injecting significant amounts of culture into your work something that I want to eventually achieve with practice.
Extremely motivational Kevin so thanks a tonne for sharing.
I really like the layout of your website, especially the "Love" tab with digital, pencil, pen and ink, and 3d. It was nice to see your old stuff too, you don't see that too often from people already in the industry.
I'm downplaying my emotions here. I literally screamed "Yes" when I saw the thread
Spark
So for instance if I open all of them up in tabs with firefox, I'll just see a bunch of tabs that are all named "Cog_Hospital".