moved again

hey all,, i have a new blog and website. hope to see you there.
http://williamnickjohns.com/the-Journey-so-far/
http://www.williamnickjohns.com

I've moved

as it turns out,, our domain has blogs,, so i have moved there,, and its 10 times cooler,,, music , video's and all... so go here peace and blessings
http://darkvisionsstudio.tripod.com/worldaccordingtonick/

EARTH IS OURS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hello boils and ghouls!!!! Earth is ours is out,, and i suggest you get a copy. the book rocks,, bigtime, one of the best sci-fi books ever, and it has a cover by little ole me. It is also the first cover that daniel started teaching me on. this book is gonna be huge,, your gonna see it advertized on cable tv in the near future,, and there are some big things in the works for this book,, Trust me,, biggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg. For now,, thats a secret. heres a promo i had gary work up on it.....

IT’S HERE
Available through your local Book Store
& Winterwolf Publishing
ISBN# 0-97726-320-7

"Earth is Ours." is a fresh and uniquely original story line that bridges many genre. It is a story of a symbiotic relationship between a self-aware female computer and an American Indian man dying of old age. This is a forced relationship dictated by mutual needs for survival in a world stripped of technology by aliens. The main characters begin the fight of their lives, but before they can fight the fierce aliens, Levi and Amy must fight for control of who they will be jointly. What begins as conflict of minds, develops into tolerance, then cooperation and finally love. This love of total oneness creates a unity of incredible power and strength that provides the means to fight the aliens. Female brains and male brawn unite to battle against incredible odds for the survival of the human race. The conflict of minds, action, adventure and suspense are all interlaced into a compelling and fast paced adventure.
The characters are three dimensional with real emotions, not always perfect, but always interacting. The story is presented from differing view points with the two main characters expressing some of the same events from both a male and female perspective. As they interface, the events are often seen from conflicting emotions and motivations; sometimes cynical and often humorous. It is the ultimate struggle of male versus female while combating monstrous aliens.
http://winterwolfpublishing.com/

Damn,, i can't get the cover to load up,,, grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, I'm seriously thinking about moving my blog to Live journal,, they seem to be much more dependable,, and no spam. As soon as i post this,, i'm checking on that. Like right now lmao... peace out

any advice?

For the first time in my life,, i have a sinus infection,, and it sucks. I started taking anti-bioactics yesterday,, and i'm sure that will help soon,, it the meantime,,(and like always,, i let it get to far before i did anything) my face hurts,lol,, it hurts when i chew,, my throat is soar,, and my whole body is acheing. I sure some of you have went through this, and any advice on how to deal with it,, i would appreciate.
I changed the settings on the blog, so anyone should be able to post again,, you just have to type in a word verication,, so it will keep spam offf here. Its getting kind of late here, at least for me,, and i'm having trouble sleeping because of the pain in my face. lmao,,,I made some hot milk, and hope that will help,, but i've been reduced to drinking that 2% fat free milk,, so i hope it will do the trick like the real thing. Truth is,, the 2% ain't bad,, taste pretty good. i'm a milk lover,,i go through a gallon a week, just by myself. Lisa told me that she wants me to try soy milk, once shes here,, thats what she drinks,, I'll try it,, but it just doesn't sound to good. Shes gonna make me try Tofu and Sushi too. I get the feeling, my diet is gonna change bigtime, probally a good thing, as long as i can squezze in a pizza here and there lol. that shouldn't be a problem,, lisa loves pizza too.
Damn,, i have so much on my brain lately. The trip coming up to Colorado to get my baby,, and after 5 years,, having a woman living with me again. i'm really looking forward to it,, sometimes i get very loney, and with al the things that have went on this last year, like my health,, it will be nice to have someone who loves me at my side.
Working with dad is very hard on me too. like the doc's said, i'm not supposed to be doing that type of work anymore,, and i know why, my body just can't handle that type of stress anymore. being in the heat, doing physical labor,, has made me very sick a few times over the summer. i was worried, that that day might be my last. But, i keep hanging in there. I can only hope that things work out soon to where i don't have put my self in jepordy anymore, just to pay the rent. Just a few more paintings.
Whats that saying.."that which does not kill us, makes us stronger" lol,, i'm yawning now, so the milk must be working,, good night my friends,, peace and blessings

step 5 underpainting

the magic stuff is just an indication of what will be happening,, but don't take it to seriouly,, cause it want look like that when its painted. Daniel sent me one of his paintings yesterday,, where there is some magic going on,, it really helps a lot to study what he did and how he did it.
I'll start painting in the background sat,, gonna be with dad the rest of this week,, got a couple extra things to take care off. let me know what you think,, peace out

jack in the box

the ringmaster/ nevermore

hmmmmmmmmmmmm

sorry guys, for some reason,, i can't get the pics to load,, i'll try at another time,,its monday,, what can i say lmao

Talked with Daniel

Good monday morning everyone. I started underpainting last night,, got amy in there too. I'll do some scans later today after i get the whole thing done. I was just to tired to mess with it last night.
Got to have a good talk with Daniel yesterday afternoon. The movie is done now,, all he has left to do is the movie poster, and dvd cover. this was the first time i'd be able to catch him on the phone in about a month,, hes been so busy,, i didn't even know if he liked the Return of the King. well, he did,, he said he was really impressed with it,, and was impressed at how well my drawing and painting skills were coming along... happy dance lol
I know have a pretty good ideal of what he has in store for me. After i finish Target earth,, he wants me to do 3 maybe 4 paintings, based on themes he's gonna assign me. These are to groom me for the gaming market. he said i need some very specific pieces to show as samples, and then,, its the bigtime for the Nickster,, at least, i'll be able to make a good living. I'm gonna start these pieces as soon as i get Lisa back here.
I have worked for a gaming company before,, but they wanted me to do figure designs, and the money was okay,, but the work was boring,, i'm gonna show you the drawings and then how the scupts came out. It was pretty cool to see some of my drawings come to life as figurines.

well, i'm not sure if the pics loaded or not lol, if not,, i'll post them above. so everyone have a good day,, and i'll see you all tonight.. peace out

step 4

step 4

I love sundays. Lets see,, always have pizza for breakfast,,, and of course,, FOOTBALL!!!!!!!!!! For the game or games i make a big platter of munchies..which include jalapeno poppers,, slices of very sharp cheddar chesse, summer saugage, crackers, olives and pickles...Yum yum.
I want to apoligize for how rough these sketches i doing for target earth are,, the reason,, it because im drawing over a gessoed surface,, and i really don't like doing pencil work on gesso,, as a matter of fact i hate it lol. But i don't have a choice this time. i had to take an old unfinished painting,, and gesso over it. ( don't worry,, it wasn't a very good one,, something i started about 3 years ago) This board is mounted on foamcore,, so it makes it very sturdy,,and makes it possible to show you the work during all its transformations. But it can get expensive,, to get a piece of illo board mounted on foamcore,, for the cost of materials, and the labor involved,, is about 30 bucks a pop.
When i was healthy enough to have my own carpet business,, 30 bucks was nothing,, i would get 10 boards done at a time,, but these days,, 30 bucks is alot. its so funny how things come full circle,, years ago,, ilived the life of a straving artist,,(very happy years for me) I had to sell my plasma to have money to buy art supplies. An now once again,, i'm back to the life of an straving artist.
But good times are ahead, there is a lot of major awesome things going on in my career,, and its just a matter of time before the money is there. you know the funny thing is this. I do feel like a rich man,, i have all the things in life,, that truely make me happy. Lisa will be here next month,,and were gonna start our family, we hope. The powers that be,, have blessed me with a wonderful talent, and imaganation, and somehow,, even during these poor times,, somehow, someway, i'm always provided with the things i really need.
I used to take money and posesions for granted,, not any more. Now i realize just how hard it is to get money,, and every thing that i still own,, has become treasued. I don't take anything for granted anymore,, and i think,, part of the reason for the illness i got,, was to teach me these values again,, somewhere along the way,, i just forgot.
heres the pencils for levi,,, i'm gonna finish amy after the game, and start painting tonight,, i'm hoping the underpainting will be finished by tommorow night. Have a wonderful day all.

step 3

Ok,, we got Levi right now,, as far as his positioning,, and i got to tell you,, i do like this better. the only problem,, is i'm winging most of this painting,, no model shots really.So all i got to do know,, is add the details to Levi, and draw Amy back in,, i'm not gonna put all the magic going on, till i start painting.
gary suggested putting a cape on the supreme being,, part of me likes that ideal,, but i can't but help to think,, that it might make him look more like a hero,, instead of the bad guy,, what do you think?

step 2

Okay,, minus the hair,, heres what i got so far. I want to be able to see where the muscles are when i start painting. Now to put Levi in,, hes gonna be in front of the critters right leg,, but i don't want to cover up the leg either, i want you to be able to see that the varmit is walking...

changes

well, i'm home again today. Dad decided to play hookey today,, yesterday was my day lol,, the truth is,, my landlord's son was in a very bad accident,, and is expected to die,, and he came by tuesday night, and asked me to get on of his rentals cleaned up,, cause someone was moving in wensday night,, and he was not going to be around. The old man has been very good to me,, so i just couldn't say no,, i was done by noon, and was able to get some work in the studio done.
I talked to Gary yesterday, before i got started, and we talked about some changes,,(thank god,, i hadn't put much detail into it yet. lol) so i'm redoing the design, hope to get that up for you today. One of the main things is,, that the simain is around 15 feet tall, so he makes amy and Levi look like little ppl. So the new ideal is,, make there look like more distance between them, so i can make Levi and amy larger in the pic. Gary also wants Levi kneeing.
i got a note from daniel Late Tuesday night,, he wanted me to call him yesterday,, and i tried like the dickens,, but i just couldn't catch him at home, but its all fine. I know he wanted to talk about the pic too, might as well wait till i have the revise done. Big D is going through a very busy work period right now,, with the movie filming, and then having to come home and still get his normal work going,, hes pretty wore out.
I don't know about the rest of you, but i've been keeping an eye on that new storm,, Rita,, they say its the 3rd most powerful storm in recorded history,, my god,, The winds are like 175 miles and hour, and its gonna hit texas late tommorow night, I hope them ppl are getting the hell out of there, i doubt much of anything will be left in its path, and i've got a real bad feeling about it,, something is just not right about this storm.
well, hope to see you later today,, have a good one all. peace out

step one

Alrighty then,, where gonna start from the very first step on this one. But first, let me set up the scene....Levi,, The hero is facing the supreme Simian being,, what has went down is this,, is Levi had an friend helping help,, but the SB threw a mind blast at him,, and his body exploded,, throwing body parts into levis side,, opening up a big gash,, hes hurt,, bleeding bad,,amy is trying to protect him,, but the SB is attacking major bigtime. levi,, is in a state of shock.
Where gonna try something new with this painting,, i'm gonna show every thing,, every step of the way,, so what your gonna see below is very rough pencils,, at this point,, i'm just worried about the design. And i want all of you,, artist or not,, to put your input in,, and help me do this one.
The SB has no hair yet,, except on his face,, i was not to happy with the version i did in the first painting,,, mostly because he didn't look powerful,,, so i'm doing the muscle tone first,, and then i'm gonna add the hair,, trying to show the muscles more. Now the anotomy of this creature is something like this,, his arms are apelike,, much longer than normal arms,, and his legs are like tree trunks,, very thick,, to the point,, they make him look short,,, So trust me,, this causes some problems,, at least to my artist eye. so this has been giving me a fit all day. the other thing is,, i'm thinking about throwing one of his arms back behind him,, holding a sword like hes swinging it at levi.
Now with Levi,, the original ideal was to put his left arm out,, like hes trying to say stop,, but i was thinking about having his arm down,, holding that pick weapon,,, while his other hand is dripping blood from the deep gash in his right side, which will be bloody too
Amy is throwing up a shield of blue flame,, to protect him,, during all this,, because the SB is also throwing a mind blast at him,, like the one that just exploded his friend.
So for now,, i'm leaving everything like it is,, gonna see what gary and the D man think,, and you as well. I'm gonna be gone the next few days with dad,, and well get back on it come Sat... so please let me know what you all think,, peace out

step one 

Got it started..

i tell you,, sometimes finding the right model pics for a painting is the hardest part of a pic. I'm very picky,,, i know what i want in my mind,, and since i can't afford to pay models 50-to 100 bucks an hour,, i'm stuck with a huge inventory of mags i have to go through to find, jus the right pics.. my main thing and foremost,, i don't want anything that looks possed, i can't stand to look at any painting that looks like the models stood there and let you took pics of them,, very boring,, I love Boris,, his work is awesome,, but i have a major problem with his work,, for that very reason,, the ppl looked so damed possed.
If you want to give something "life" the first rule is,, make it look natural. period.......I'm working on drawing the new one out now,, and by tommorow,, i will be done with it,, i'm kinda waiting on some info from super gary,,, before i start putting finishing details on it. But i got it,, the supreme Simian,, is on attack,, Levi is hurt bad, and reeling trying to protect himself,, and amy,, is kicking ass in protecting him,, but you think,, the sitution looksssss bad for the heros.
I'm gonna show this painting every step of the way,, but like the last,, you want be able to see it as a whole to its finished,,, lots of scans,, and i'm nottttttttttttttt brave enough to ask lisa to put them together till there done lmao. Shes a total sweetie,, but she really has her plate full,, and like me,, shes trying to get everything done,, so when i come to get her,, she can take some time offf as well.
I want to promote a friend of mine,, he does horror art,, and in my humble opinion,, he rocks bigtime,, his name is Steve Gilbert,, go to this link,, and you can see his most recent works http://www.spookyart.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=7 If you love horror,, it will be well worth your time.
So till tommorow night,, peace out!!!!

Operation Lisa !

Well, the final leg of the road is here. One more painting,, and i'm off to bring my heart home. I've having a hard time keeping my mind focused,, because i get so excited thinking about her being here. I'm really looking forward to the trip as well,, a nice break,, and a lot of beatiful country to see.
Were she lives now,, there a lot of them old ghost towns arounds,, you know like the wild west. I dying to see them and take pics. I remenber as a kid,, when i would see one on tv,, i've always wanted to see them. I'm thinking about taking my gold panning stuff, and see if there is any gold in them there hills. lol
The trip will go something like this,, i'm gonna do the trip there in 2 long days, according to mapquest,, if i drove straight through,, no stop,, i could do it in about 25 hours. But i know i'll have to stop for gas about every 4 hours, food and coffee. Once i'm there,, find a hotel,, check in,, get some sleep,, the next day,, go get my sweetie,, and start our day with breakfast.
I'm thinking i'm gonna stay there 3 days,, and then take 3 days for the trip back. No point in rushing,, once i'm with her. Now to get readdy for the trip,, is something else lol. For one,, i have to get the painting done,, because the money from that is gonna foot the bill for the trip. I also have to clean up this house,, and start reorganizing everything to make room for her things. And then,, dad and me, have to get Betsy readdy for the trip,, you know, make sure she's safe and sound,, and very cleaned up .
Whats so funny,, is that my birthsign is Virgo,, and i use to be the neatest and most organised person in the world,, but all that has changed the last few months lol. I've found that when i'm painting,, nothing else matters to me,, and the dishes pile up,, clothes ect.. so i do have my work cut out for me.
yesterday was Ben's birthday,,, Happy Birthday Ben!!!!! Today i start on gary's painting,, tommorow i'm gonna be gone most of the day doing the VA thing,, and other errands,, but tuesday i'm hoping to get done with the pencil work done,, and i'll be able to scan this one for you.This one should really rock. Lot of action this time,, all hell breaking loose, and there are going to be some interesting special effects to paint as well, like the supreme simiam creature,, shots mind blast, and amy will be trying to protect Levi with a blue flame shield
Gonna be a long day,, but a good one,, my beloved Panthers play the patriots today,, outta be a good game i hope,, and hopefully we will get a win. Last week we lost the first game to the new orleans staints,, but i don't think anyone could have beaten them that day,, they where playing with pure emotion,, wanting to take a win home to the ppl of new orleans. It was a great game,, and was very close,, but the saints won it with a field goal in the last few seconds of the game. After the game,, it willl be time to get to work. So i hope all is having a wonderful weekend,, and peace out!!!

hey everyone,,, here is the final version,, text and all. If you want to order a copy, please go to www.blackpetals.com i want to thank everyone,, i sent this out this morning to my friends.. and there response was just awesome. and i know th next painting will be even better. i'm really tired,, got home pretty late after working with dad all day,, so i need to hit the hay.. peace and blessings all..