Cheryl's Art!

Drawings of Paintings

2012-01-17T23:34:00.000-08:00

Over the break I went to the National Gallery of Art to do some sketching and learn from some peeps who know a lot more about art than I do. These sketches were done in ink and then whatever amount of color I felt like adding was added in Photoshop later.

My mom was nice enough to go with me and read her book while I sketched, so to repay her kindness I snuck back around and sketched her.

I would totally date that guy on the right.

Chase Twenty-Eleven

2012-01-09T19:49:00.000-08:00

Last year I helped do the credits to a short film made by my cousins and their friends, and I was called in again to be the on-set artician. We didn't end up doing credits this year but you can see this little number in the background of the first scene (watch the film here). Below is a photo of the original and then the digital recreation.

Jeremy Warner: Animal Friend

2012-01-09T19:42:00.000-08:00

Stay tuned for the continuing adventures of Jeremy Warner, friend to the beasts. A friend of mine is doing a hilarious web series/campaign for his website, Divvy That, and he had me design a logo for the show.

Mongolian Club Logo

2012-01-09T17:58:00.000-08:00

My good найз нөхөд down at BYU created a Mongolian club and asked me to make something pretty to represent it.

The horse figure in the middle comes from the Mongolian coat of arms, so don't go thinking I'm cool enough to come up with that on my own.

10/26/07

2011-10-26T23:55:00.000-07:00

I got a Facebook message today from my dear little friend Namuunaa reminding me that she was baptized four years ago today. She was fifteen when we first started teaching her. She's the youngest in her family of five. A few months after she was baptized her oldest brother joined the church, then her sister, then her mother, and finally her dad. She's pretty much amazing. I got to spend a lot of time with her and her family this summer during my visit to Mongolia. She and her sister are both budding artists and Namuunaa and I went on a few sketchbook adventures together, which has to be in my top 3 memories from that trip. Here are a few items in homage to this awesome little Mongol ohin:

Yep, she plays the geetar too. A girl of many talents.

Statue of some baatar or another that I sketched on one of our adventures. Namuunaa did a sketch of me sketching this.

We also spent some time sketching in this cute little park just down the street from her apartment building in the 11th microdistrict. I lived two buildings away from here on my mission and never saw this park.

While we were sketching at the park these two eerily cute girls came up and started pestering us. Not one to be out-pestered I started filming the younger one and asking her questions and telling her to smile.

Here she is summer of 2009 on my first visit back. No surprise that her nickname is "Big Smiles."

Here she is making lunch this past summer.

Түүний хийсэн lunch.

Namuunaa's older sister, Tsatsral, is studying thangka painting in school. This is an exercise she did where she painted flowers and other plants from life and then stylized them the way they would appear in a thangka painting.

One of my companions, Khorloo, and I with Namuunaa this summer after a fireside at the main church building.

And just for kicks, here's a video of Tsatral and Namuunaa playing with shagai. I guess technically I was playing too, at least for the first five minutes until they schooled me and I respectfully bowed out and let the two life-long players duke it out.

Happy Birthday!!!!!

2011-09-26T20:29:00.000-07:00

I cartoonified my dear friend Liz for her birthday this past week.

Some Drawrings from Mongoria

2011-09-15T22:09:00.000-07:00

I did some sketching on my recent trip to Mongolia and China. I slapped some color on them in Photoshop because it's so easy and why el hecko not? More to come, and hopefully soon.

My favorite thing about this particular oven is that it was in a ger at a campground right on the banks of Huvsgul Lake.

One of my former companions and current friends, Khorloo Enkhbaatar.

A lady who was on the bus to Murun with me.

My friend, Uugantsetseg, sleeping at her mom's house where we stayed 2 nights.

OH MY GOSH IT'S BEEN 3 MONTHS SINCE I POSTED

2011-06-21T11:17:00.000-07:00

I am so, so sorry. I didn't mean to let things get this out of hand. Rest assured I have been arting, just not posting.

I illustrated a book cover for my cousin's husband. I don't usually get into fantasy-type art so this was new for me. I know exactly what I think is wrong with it, as per one of my favorite art quotes: "Art provides uncomfortably accurate feedback about the gap that inevitably exists between what you intended to do, and what you did." The point is, I did it! And I enjoyed doing it. And now hopefully you will enjoy viewing it!

Chase 2010 Credits

2011-03-31T23:05:00.000-07:00

My cousin and I have talked about doing some collaborative work for a long time...and we finally did it!!! Every year my cousins and their friends make a short film that features chase scenes and cool camera moves. You can watch the 2010 edition of the Chase franchise here, but I just wanted to post the credits on my blog here. My cousin gave me ten or so still frames for me to work with. I simply created PSDs with the line drawing, cross-hatching, and color on separate layers and he animated them in After Effects. Hooray for collaboration!

Calm down.

2011-02-09T22:35:00.000-08:00

I was informed a few weeks ago that some Chinese-Canadian people get antsy when I go too long between posts. Hoping to keep that antsiness from turning into all-out rage, I give you this. The urge to digitally paint something hit me tonight so I grabbed my sketchbook, found something decent, scanned it in and painted it up. This is what I have to show after 90 minutes. I'd like to refine it further but my artistic ADD bids me move on to something else...

She said YES!

2011-01-27T23:10:00.000-08:00

I'm in favor of awesome people. I'm also in favor of marriage. Therefore, I am most especially in favor of awesome people getting married to each other. I am so much in favor of it that I readily jumped on board when a friend asked if I would help him out with a project. The end result of said project would be him getting engaged to a simply fabulous girl who also happens to be a close friend of mine. The result was this little book that portrayed the story of how they met, fell in love, and, on the very last page, finally got engaged. The trick was that when he gave her the book the whole getting engaged part hadn't happened yet. Once she got to the last page, however, life imitated art and he did actually propose in the location illustrated, and she totes said yes.

Merry Christmas to all

2010-12-23T22:23:00.000-08:00

This painting was inspired by an awesome photo taken by my cousin. Sitting wrapped up in a blanket staring at a Christmas tree while listening to Christmas music would have to be on my list of top ten favorite things to do EVER. In fact, I'm going upstairs right now to do just that.

Peace.

On earth, that is.

Little bit of a self-p

2010-12-23T22:12:00.000-08:00

My favorite part of being an artist is when your relatives tentatively ask through the locked bathroom door if you're okay after you've been in there for 2 1/2 hours and then they open the door and see you with your laptop and wacom tablet propped on the sink so you can sketch yourself in the mirror...yeah. The look on their face right at that moment, THAT'S my favorite part.

Cattens

2010-12-23T21:57:00.000-08:00

As someone once requested in some comment on some post from whenever ago, I painted some kittens. If anyone else wants to request something I'm open to suggestions.

Emma

2010-10-09T15:53:00.000-07:00

An experiment in live portraiture using my tablet. This is the face Emma makes when she's watching 30 Rock.

This little piggy

2010-10-05T16:05:00.000-07:00

I'm currently illustrating a children's book about a pig and these guys were "awesome but not what we're going for." Well psh. They're perfect for my blog.

Gestures

2010-10-04T22:31:00.000-07:00

I found myself in Provo last Friday and decided to drop in on the open drawing session in the HFAC. 15 pages later, my craving for 2-minute gestures had been satisfied. Thanks, Open Drawing Session.

Better late than never

2010-09-22T10:25:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, when you're working in the LRC, you find time to peruse the DVD shelves, and sometimes you come across Chinese propagandist films made in the 1960s. When that happens you sometimes have to grab the Chinese propagandist films and watch them and sketch the main character and then scan it into Photoshop and color it up.

I'm not saying it happens all the time, but sometimes it does.

Une fille

2010-08-29T00:42:00.000-07:00

I was looking for something to digi-sketch today as I sat at my desk. My eye caught on this little girl from this souvenir bank thingy that my sister brought me from France. I hated her kitschy ooziness with every fiber of my being and at the same time I knew I must draw her. Next I'm thinking of drawing some little kitties tangled up in a ball of yarn.

The Other Brother

2010-07-21T10:25:00.001-07:00

Wee Willy Winky, the youngest Johnson, is finally home from his mission. It's been documented in other places but now those who track my art blog can see for themselves. This was originally going to be a quick color study. It's a little bit more than that now, but not much.

I Made This

2010-06-28T13:46:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time, a few weeks ago my cousin and my mission friend got married. Feeling wholly responsible for the match, I felt it my cousinly/friendly duty to make some fake movie posters starring the lucky couple to put up at their movie-themed reception. It felt good to flex my artistic muscle(s? I don't know how many there are) having recently graduated. It's kinda scary not having teachers and assignments and being in charge of my artistic ventures. Alls I knows is it felt good to MAKE something.

2010-04-22T06:43:00.000-07:00

I took this picture 4 years ago when my two roommates and one of our friends were graduating. I realize that graduate-jumping-up-in-the-air pictures have been done, but that doesn't change the fact that this is awesome. Go graduates!

The Summerfolk

2010-04-21T21:51:00.000-07:00

I eventually want to do more concept work and character design based off of this awesome children's book my friend Becky told me about. Here's a story beat that I did for one of my finals. I really liked how it was turning out in some of the between stages. With polish comes a loss of some of the freshness of the original drawing.

Stop that fox!

2010-04-21T21:45:00.000-07:00

This is a painting I did for Dave's class this semester. I wanted to try for more of an illustrative feel so I took a scene from one of the Redwall books. This was painted in Photoshop.

Lighting Studies

2010-04-21T21:24:00.000-07:00

morning

noon

afternoon

evening

night

spring

summer

fall

winter

rain

monster attack

Studdy Buddy

2010-03-27T11:36:00.001-07:00

I think Brad will think it's pretty funny when he realizes that I haven't been doing my homework but drawing him for the past hour. Thanks bro!

Experimenting with textures...

2010-03-13T12:30:00.000-08:00

Run robut! Run!

The Dog Came Back

2010-03-13T12:27:00.001-08:00

Don't mock-ette till you try it!

2010-03-13T12:05:00.000-08:00

(Many thanks to Becky for the use of her personality and general body shape)

Digital painting...from life!!!

2010-02-17T23:18:00.001-08:00

In Dave's class today we did some quick paintings of each other on the cintiqs. Here's one I did of Paul-- academically sound but kinda lifeless:

Then I came home and took a long hard look in the mirror and found my inner self:

Is it just me or does this feel a little Brother Holden-ish to anyone?

It's my major, isn't it?

2010-02-04T18:47:00.000-08:00

An animation I did for Cynthia's class. Animated in Photoshop. A few awkward moments here and there, but I realized it's been some time since I actually animated something. It's ALIVE!

I painted a duck.

2010-02-04T18:43:00.001-08:00

I just wanted to paint something today so, naturally, I duck-ed.

First Art of the Semester

2010-01-19T21:57:00.001-08:00

This is a character design I did. It is based off of my friend Becky. It was the least I could do after she named a character after me in a script she wrote.

The Puppy Returns

2009-12-17T20:38:00.000-08:00

This was my final for my digital painting class. There are still some things I would like to work on but overall I think it turned out a'ight. This was painted entirely in Photoshop.

Some sketchbook things

2009-12-09T11:18:00.000-08:00

Creeeeeepy

2009-12-09T11:16:00.000-08:00

A creepy drawing for a creepy class. Sorry Joe.

LRC Peeps

2009-11-23T12:04:00.000-08:00

Some Photo-graphies

2009-11-21T07:45:00.001-08:00

This is my cousin Emily and her fiance Bryce. They asked me to take their engagement pictures and this was one of the more artsier ones.

"Perfect little dew droplets

suspended by chance

like baubles on a Christmas tree

await their turn to dance"

*This cheesy poetry moment brought to you by the number 12*

Some flaurs.

Amber, queen of the butterflies.

No caption necessary.

The Illustrated Life

2009-11-16T16:15:00.001-08:00

This is a collection of random drawings from my sketchbook along with a quote from Milton Glaser, a rather talented fellow. If you don't know who he is then I dare you to do a google image search on him. I dare you.

Environment painting

2009-11-10T22:44:00.001-08:00

You may recognize the drawing from before, but NOW it's a painting! How exciting! This one followed the 20-80 rule pretty well: I spent 20% of my time blocking in 80% of the color and value, then I spent 80% of my time finessing the last 20%.

Caravan of Awesome Through the Desert

2009-11-10T22:38:00.000-08:00

The drawing was done by me in ink and marker. The theme for the image was all Joe Olson. I have no idea where he gets these themes of his, but I think he should publish a book: "Joe Olson's '500 Random Phrases That He Thought Up That You Could Maybe Do a Drawing Of (And Don't Forget Food Shapes)'" I'd buy it.

Popcorn Cart

2009-10-29T22:37:00.001-07:00

Mike Mercer did the design for this and I modeled it in Maya AND UV mapped it...in one night! Well, one eight-hour night and then some fixes later, but pretty much one night!

2009-10-28T06:50:00.000-07:00

This design was done covering the time-honored theme of precambrian-animal-toy-with-vegetable-shapes-and-steam-punk-influences. In our class critique everyone pointed a bajillion things that were less effective and confusing and now that I see what they were talking about I can't look on this without feeling queasy. I'm posting this up so that I will be motivated to do a redraw. The sooner the redraw goes up the sooner this one comes down!!!

Superhero Montser- final painting

2009-10-21T17:17:00.000-07:00

Bush Model

2009-10-21T17:15:00.001-07:00

Bushes! I designed and modeled these for our student film. No, they're not rocks with flowers on them. The design of the film called for clean, simple, cartoony shapes. The leaf texture will be applied later.

Markers!

2009-10-14T17:53:00.000-07:00

A series of value assignments done for Joe's class. I did the shading with Prismacolor markers and then did some touch up in Photoshop.

Puppy-doo

2009-10-14T17:51:00.000-07:00

Precambrian design

2009-09-23T13:46:00.001-07:00

Color keys for Izzy

2009-09-23T13:41:00.000-07:00

These are color keys for our senior film, Izzy. The director wanted to see some monochromatic schemes for the "imagination" sequence.

Textures

2009-09-15T22:47:00.000-07:00

Mongolian Doors

2009-09-11T19:58:00.000-07:00

I was always fascinated by the variety of color, design, texture, and materials of Mongolian doors out in the ger districts. This past summer when I went back I took a bunch of photos of doors with the intent to put them together in some sort of collage. I don't know if this is the final final product or if there's a more interesting way I can present them. Either way here they are for your viewing enjoyment.

Sketchbook scans

2009-09-11T19:50:00.000-07:00

These are some drawings scanned in from my sketchbook and colored in Photoshop. The figures were originally done in pencil.

Pictures from Mongolia- Summer 09

2009-09-09T16:26:00.001-07:00

Ger-rific!

2009-09-06T18:12:00.001-07:00

I did this in my sketchbook early in the morning while sitting outside Bayarmaa, my former companion's, ger in northen Ulaanbaatar. Later I brought it into Photoshop and adjusted the colors.

Buggy

2009-08-13T12:44:00.001-07:00

Plane sketches

2009-07-24T09:41:00.001-07:00

I did these sketches on the 12 hour flight from L.A. to Korea. They were sketched in pencil and then I added color in Photoshop later.

Ode to a Brother

2009-05-08T14:28:00.001-07:00

Brad foolishly agrees to be my photo monkey for the afternoon. Hilarity ensues...

Curious George?

Brad Johnson: Action CEO!

whupah!

Happy? Curious? Or getting squished?

Goo.

I told him to go do something weird on the stairs:

Yep. Uh huh.

Une ladybug.

Boy cornered.

Arsty Photography Stuff

2009-05-08T13:45:00.000-07:00

Something about springtime makes me want to take pictures. Lots of them. With a film camera. Here are some of the fruits of my recent labors. All of the photos were digitized and edited after the initial developing, so what you see may not reflect reality, at least, not the one you're used to.

Ducks.

A lone duck, possibly on the run.

Ye olden duckes.

Due to the ghetto-ness of my camera sometimes the batteries start to fall out mid-exposure and I have to jam them back in before it will finish taking the shot. It results in this blurry almost double-vision effect that sometimes looks like tar and sometimes looks cool. I'll let you decide which description best fits this picture.

Popcorn popping anyone?

Spaghetti tree.

Kyung Fu!

I had done made these. They're supposed to look like little bird's nests for Audrey's "Early Bird" themed baby shower that Becky, Lindsey and I did.

Progression of a digital painting

2009-04-20T23:52:00.000-07:00

How many differences can you find between each panel? This was my final project for Sam's digital painting class. In case you couldn't tell it's a take on the Wizard of Oz, with a slightly modern animated twist.

Eh?

2009-04-02T19:08:00.001-07:00

I scanned in one of my conte gesture drawings from before and photoshopped it up. Which one's your fave?

Finished..at least for class

2009-03-26T22:23:00.000-07:00

NOT at all happy with where this is right now, but I had to turn it in tonight. I would say I'm going to go back and fix it but...semester ending...research project to prepare...work...

Life experience tells me that it's probably not going to happen. So, enjoy this for now.

Storyboarding!!!

2009-03-25T10:26:00.000-07:00

This is an assignment I did for my advanced storyboarding class. Our teacher gave us a script for this little show-down in a subway station and then we had to board it out. Hopefully it reads well. Of course after I'm finished I see all the mistakes I made and where I would have done things differently, but that's life.

Can't...stop...the Mongol

2009-03-19T20:21:00.001-07:00

This is an environment sketch I did of a Mongolian traditional dwelling, also known as a ger. I drew it in Photoshop on a Cintiq using some photo reference but mostly drawing from memory.

Sketches and figure drawings from last semester

2009-03-19T14:01:00.000-07:00

Emo Library Clerk

2009-03-18T21:31:00.001-07:00

The design for this character was based on a co-worker of mine but the final coloring departed a little from the original idea.

LOVE Sunday afternoon photo shoots...

2009-03-18T21:20:00.000-07:00