This is my sketchbook and I hope (even a little bit) you feel inspired to keep walking on your own art journey
My art journey has started since I knew how to not-so-probably hold a pen. I was not born an artist but I have always enjoyed drawing my family, my friends and fictional characters. Even though no one understood what I drew unless I explained, I never had intentions to give up. This crazily excitement from me towards art has been there since day one and now demonstrated throughout this sketchbook.
Primary color- red, blue, yellow- is chosen as the key palette for the Shou’s sketchbook for its bold, simplicity yet refreshing vibes and similarity to my childhood.
The ghost is what my friends call me. The shortcut of my name is MA and in Vietnamese it means ghost. Me, MA - a happy, friendly ghost floating around to spread joy.
The narwhal represents magic within me. Called “the unicorn of the sea”, narwhal is the real life unicorn which loves to swim more than fly.
The five-petal flower is the first type of flower I drew ever since I was a child. In fact, I think that was how all children first learnt to draw flowers. I wanted to keep it as a precious relic of childhood.
When my friend and I were discussing spiritual animals in Eastern culture, we found out that “kaeru”, or frog in Japanese, means good luck.
We ended up choosing this as the mascot for our fundraising campaign since we want to spread good luck to children.
This robot design was my first attempt for the spring’s festival. Our class theme was “Sakura” - a popular flower from Japan so I wanted to create something similar to Gundam robots.
"His hair was flying in the wind, his face was reaching for the sky, the poet, dressed in shiny white, was sitting on the Moon floating on a gentle river"
Using only color from the given palette, I was challenged to create weekly commercial Facebook posts for Euphoria Insider- a project established to help Vietnamese high school students with careers orientation. These challenges help me so much in developing my creative thinking skills as I can turn a few elements into several designs.
Lunch has always felt so lonely until I got to hang out with these friends. Our favorite food is hu tieu mi- a Vietnamese noodle that is sold next to our school. It became less of a type of food but more of a symbol of friendship to us.
Who wants the boiled quail eggs?
Baobab tree is the checkpoint to enter the enchanted forest of Kids Lab. At the entrance, magical creatures greet with enthusiasm towards the visitors- us.
Facebook posts for the fundraising campaign
LHP Debate Club commercial post
I don't see skin tone as just yellow, black and white. We are humans and our skin tone is a mixture of magical rainbow color.
Being lead designer for an important annual event was both nerve-wrecking and exciting. I imagined everyone would have a celebration in a tropical forest because of its lushness and endless promise of adventure, like our upcoming event.
"I spy with my little eyes" game inspired commercial post.
The best thing at a birthday party must be the food! To catch the viewers eyes, I tried to combine tasty food and the tropical theme to introduce the projects run by project SUGAR. The food can be related to the trait of the project or it can be a pun! My favourite one would be Bingsu Cam (Orange Bingsu) and Sugar Camp.
To promote our Keto diet campaign, I wanted to illustrate my team into a profile picture. I added the veggies and our slogan “Yes, we KAN”.
Fun fact from the video: Bananas may not be Keto on their own, but banana pancake or banana bread is still a low-carb meal.
Given a task to make a promotional video for DomDom Studio’s animation event, I decided to direct a stop motion video to make it more appealing to the public. The pastel palette creates a relaxing, happy summer vibe so I chose that along with some tropical fruit like watermelon, dragon fruit,...
After taking hundreds of photos, I edited the color and drew on each photo. Finally, my friends put everything into a clip with music.
Happy Holiday 2019 animation for project SUGAR
Inner thoughts
Moments of self-doubt as an artist help me connect with others
Humans are one my biggest inspirations on Earth
I would never be here without the supports from these amazing people. So, thank you a lot!
