The Art & Illustration Of Samantha Johnson

Professional Illustrator & Fantasy Art Enthusiast. Cartoon Junky. Occasional Idiot. ⭐️www.patreon.com/srj_art ⭐️ www.therealmofsam.etsy.com ⭐️ www.therealmofsam.com

[srj-art]

Pictured - Gatchaman Origins, Ch1 Three Fates - P33 Preliminary Layout

Hi. I’m not on here much at all anymore. My tumblr just doesn’t get enough traction for me to keep posting, but I am absolutely still making art (yes, fantasy art too!), and I am definitely still working on my Gatchaman Origins fan comic. In fact, this has become my main focus and I am currently on a rigid set of deadlines to try and crank out the first chapter by Spring 2021. It’s gonna be 43 pages, full color true to Tatsunoko’s retro technicolor style, and that’s just the first chapter. This is a big dumb project that I can’t make money off of.

If you want to follow along, the absolute best place is my Patreon. Nearly all of my Gatchaman related posts are early access for Patrons but go public (free!) after a few days. The exceptions are high res images, which are available by request (Free!). My non-paying followers get notifications as soon as I have a new tidbit that goes public. Right now I’m finalizing my preliminary layouts and gearing up to start on the final art by the beginning of September. Rest assured, if there are any big announcements, I will plaster them all over my social media, but I tend to forget about tumblr.

Other places you can find me where I’m actually active:

Instagram

Twitter

Facebook

If you would like to support my work financially but Patreon’s subscription setup just isn’t your bag, you can check out:

My Etsy Shop - The Realm of sAm - I have lots of goodies (and now stickers!) for sale, and if you let me know you are a Gatchaman fan when you make your purchase, I’ll make sure you get one of my Joe the Condor stickers. (I don’t sell licensed character stuff, but I had to buy 30 of them so I could put one on my iPad case 🤓.)

My Teepublic (Yay, it’s updated and curated!)

My Society6 (hahaha, when was the last time I was on this thing?)

My RedBubble (at least there is art in there. )

And last but not least, you can leave always me a tip on Ko-fi.

I don’t have a place setup for hosting the comic yet. If all else fails, I’ll just make a link to a downloadable pdf and set it loose on the internet. It’s gonna be free anyway.

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HEy, tumblr, I haven't posted on here in a while. Here’s a thing I’ve been working on. I switched from using a Wacom Intuos Pro and Photoshop to an iPad and Procreate with the Apple Pen. This was my very first illustration in Procreate, (allllmost entirely. I did import it into Photoshop at the end to make some color adjustments and burn a little more contrast into that background). It’s a nice character study and it was a ton of fun, but it also helped me acclimate to the new drawing setup. I’ve never had the ability to draw directly on a screen before! It’s a good change, and I am definitely a big fan of Procreate now! This is a 9x12 image, and lemme tell you, I have never drawn anything perfectly centered, full sized, on 9x12 paper without it being a ginormous hassle. Oh my god. Yes yes, traditional drawing on actual paper is a great place to start, very important, but now I have the power to ink with an undo button. I feel like no mere mortal should wield such a bold and powerful weapon, but here I am and yes I will.

I’ve managed to really nail down an animated style, but I also wanted to emulate Tatsunoko’s hand painted backgrounds that our heroes usually got pasted on top of. This rendition of Joe the Condor is how my child self remembers the show, and how my adult self wishes it really was. ❤️

My apologies for the watermarks, but art thieves abound.

[srj-art]

My goodness. That model plane sure looks familiar. And look at the size of that page! Why...that’s some full sized sketching right there. A comic just might be happening. 😉 Still sticking with a digital format/release, but I made a template for print because practice. 

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Working! Here's a sneak peek from my #gatchamanoriginsfanproject. I'm rather pleased with these faces. I won’t quite finish my preliminary layouts/thumbnails this week, but I’m so close. So next week I will start dedicating 1 day a week to the final comic art! This is the next big step! 😃 Over two years into this madness and it is finally coming together. ❤️

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Scribbling out some concepts for the cover to Gatchaman Origins - CH 1! And now that I've done that, it's time to get back to figuring out my layouts... All 43 pages of them. 

[srj-art]

Working. I was hoping to have these rough layouts for chapter one completed today but looks like I have to try for the end of next week. Also glad I decided to toss my dialogue onto these digital roughs. Future Sam will appreciate the fact that I made sure everything thing fits and flows properly before we attempt the final comic. You wouldn’t believe the edits this has gone through already. Anyway. You know who these kids are. 

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A little progress on this workday. Digital scribbles over pencils scribbles! And making sure there is room for all my damn dialogue...

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After some much needed time off I’m back to work! Sort of. The problem with taking time off from art is it can be a little rusty when you come back to it. 😅 So here’s an Eagle doodle for practice. Just trying to wrap my brain around anatomy and foreshortening again. Ken is Jinpei’s age! My Gatchaman Origins fan project is still underway, it’s just going to take a while since I am only one person doing the jobs of like...everyone. I’m still shooting for end of August as a Chapter 1 release date, but I desperately needed to do something to get my momentum rolling again. Thus the break and coming back to art. No burnout allowed!

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Some digital scribbles as I figure out this scene. These two adorable kids might be destined for something great. 

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Sorry for the silence! I’ve been working on some preliminary stuff that I really don’t want to share just yet. Here’s a peek at what Patrons got this month! This line art is from a Hatter’s Mad Tea Party themed puzzle card I was commissioned for a few years back. Patrons received a high res pdf all ready to print out as a full sized coloring sheet. I must say, I am still rather pleased with how these lines turned out. 😊

[srj-art]

I’m having wayyyyyyyy too much fun. 😃 This is a detail of the Black Bird bodysuit. I have no idea how he gets into that thing, but it’s a cartoon so who cares. Maybe the Black Birds have the same transmutation technology as the Science Ninjas. Cape and helmet are on separate layers and he needs a side arm yet.

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So close! I have a lot to fuss with yet, but over all, the think this is going to be a pretty nifty Black Bird Captain re-design. I haven’t really changed all that much, but I’m also a big fan of not fixing what isn’t broke, especially when it comes to iconic costumes that were iconic because of their original look. 

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Layers and lines! It looks more convoluted than it is. I have his arms on separate layers so I can see all the hidden areas. This is useful for concept work when I want to see how clothing seams line up or a continuous pattern. But yeah. Got some nifty ideas going here. Now to give him a cape and a helmet!

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Wait. Those aren’t the Condor’s colors. And that’s not a Science Ninja suit! Sam, no!

SAM, YES!!!!

[srj-art]

I have my concept art base! Hah! Next I get to experiment with super suit designs. His hair and arms are all on separate layers. All suits and clothes will be on separate layers as well so I can swap out or remove whatever. Yepp. He’s a paper doll now. 😆 If all goes well, I’ll draw a profile and back view for the concepts I like. This is mostly for practice as I’m honing my newly acquired digital drawing skills. But I need to come up with prototype suit designs for my comic anyway.

[srj-art]

I can do video screen captures!Digital inking is just like regular inking. Except. You can redo the same line until it’s perfect, instead of muttering profanity and trying desperately to correct a slightly skewed line by making it just a hair thicker but not too thick and crap now I better thicken all my lines so this super thick spot doesn’t look out of place. (Fun fact: people compliment me on my control over thick and thin in my line art. But. That’s mostly just how I hide my mistakes.😃)I’m digging photoshop’s smoothing function too, which I’m finally getting the hang of adjusting while I work.

[srj-art]

Man, real humans are so stumpy compared to anime proportions...

I’m stuck on my comic thumbnail panels again so I’ve spent the last few days working on a Joe the Condor base that I can add prototype/concept super suits to, (as well as various dumb outfits of my choosing. Mrehehe poor Joe.) In the mean time, he’s stuck standing around in his underwear until I add those layers. If this works and makes my life easier as I hope it will, I’ll do the same for all 5 of our Science Ninjas. This is the first full body drawing I have ever done digitally, and I’m rather pleased with it. I honestly never thought I’d utter those words. I HATED digital sketching when I first started it at the end of February, but here I am! Here’s a side by side of my initial scribbles and the almost complete base. I’m going to clean these lines up a little more and either turn them black or properly ink them. I didn’t mean to get so refined with the blue lines, but this is all practice anyway as I continue to learn how to draw digitally.