My name is Mike Johnston! I am a graphic artist with a concentration on illustration, and multi-media. I enjoy working in digital and traditional styles and formats.

I started this web site back in 1995 as a creative outlet for my freelance illustration while going to school for Graphic design. I currently work as an educational illustrator for Pennsylvania’s Alternate System of Assessment (PASA). I do spot illustrations and full-page illustrations for instructional documentation and skill assessment tests for students with cognitive disabilities.. I am always looking for freelance, and you can get in contact with me via my contacts page.

A little more about myself, I am a B-movie / Horror / Sci-fi movie junky, and I am a rabid zombie fan! You can see my zombie drawings and even commission some zombie artwork from me. I also love cartoons, mainly the old Hanna Barbarra toons, and old Bullwinkle style cartoons. I have allways been an 80s pop culture nerd.

I enjoy taking part in weekly drawing web sites, such as illustration Friday and post frequently with submissions revolving around the themes provided there. I also enjoy sketching and pretty much do it all the time on anything I can find. It wouldn’t be unusual to see a sketch submission done on a napkin or a random piece of scratch paper. Check out my art blog to see what I have been working on!

A few years ago I started to have eye problems for the first time in my life. At first it started as little sparkles in the outside corner of my right eye.  I previously had 20/20 vision, and had never even been to an eye doctor outside of eye exams for jobs and driving and stuff like that. So I made an appointment at the local eye doctor. This was the beginning of my journey. Soon I would be diagnosed with a tear in my retina of my right eye and intermediate uveitis, or Pars planitis to be exact. Intermediate uveitis refers to inflammation localized to the vitreous and peripheral retina. Primary sites of inflammation include the vitreous of which other such entities as pars planitis, posterior cyclitis, and hyalitis are encompassed. After much testing, it was decided that my intermediate uveitis or pars planitis was idiopathic, this means that the disease or condition arose spontaneously and the cause is unknown. My ophthalmologist tells me it could just burn itself out at any time, in the mean time my pars planitis is aggressive, and I have to have regular steroid injections and constant monitoring to control bouts of macular edema and the occasional retinal tear to maintain my vision.

This has some effect on my work from time to time when a flare up gets bad enough, but for the most part it is under control, and i just deal with it as problems arise.. I stay optimistic about a possible chance it will be cured or just go away.

I hope you enjoy my web site, and find it interesting and or useful.

Thank you
Mike