A little self-portrait doodle on a busy day...

I love working, especially when my work is related to my best interest at heart - art and animation :)

But you have to admit that at some point during the day when you're working, you gotta feel very tired and extremely sleepy somehow, especially when you are a very busy person who does not get more than 8 hours of sleep everyday. Sooo I am that person and in order to avoid that, I doodle. And this is the result:

Alright this may not be the best doodle I've done but I kinda like it, and I did have fun~
At least it kept me up for a little while~~~

Zzzzzzzz...

P.S. By the way, the doodle was inspired by the (AWESOME) animated series BLACK DYNAMITE, which I'm currently working for as a Production Assistant. I totally admire the style and get hooked with the story. You can check it out on Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, at 11:30 pm. Make sure all the kids have already been put to bed before you can watch it~

When I become an accomplished artist...

... My mole shall have already grown a lot of very long hair.

Right after I posted my very "precious" self-artist-portrait - how I look when I'm drawing, my boyfriend asked me "So whenever you're drawing, your mole grows hair." Well, not exactly but... it is possible due to the excitement level in me when I'm drawing. And because of that, I was dreaming of how I would look when I am an accomplished artist. The more I draw, the better I become, the more experience I get, and the longer my mole hair grows. Well~ at least I have my own signature that proves that I am a successful artist. 

Please behold Tina N.'s sign of talent~ very precious indeed~ :)

 

Thank you for your supports~ Cheers~ :D

 

How I look when I'm drawing...

... and it could be very shocking...

Behold, the rare beauty emerging from the deep of comic and jokes:

BOOM!!!

And that's all folks~!!!

P.S. This is truthfully how I look when I am drawing. It's just so addicting, like drug, but a lot more fun and less dangerous~ Thank God for awarding me such beauty, I would like to cheer~ CHEERS~~~ ♥

The Bride (Girl with a Flower 3)

Do you remember my ongoing series "Girl with a Flower"? Of course it has been a while since the last time I drew the latest series drawing, but don't worry I have never forgotten about it so this time, I finally created a brand new drawing for the series (yes brand new because I have just finished it like 5 minutes ago before I started typing this~).

At first my intention was not to create another "Girl with a Flower" drawing (Awww~!). I have been doing a lot of drawings for my portfolio as well as to improve my skill. I was doing another constructional pose sketch when suddenly I felt like drawing a profile picture of my character. And without any hesitation, I went ahead and started sketching out a big profile head. I had no idea what to do with her head but I did not want to leave it with just the hair, either down or tied up. I was thinking "Aaaah what to do? What to do?". Then pop, I thought of flowers. I began to doodle different flowers on her head including lilies, daisies, some weird spiral flowers I made up etc. But it did not look right. I then thought of roses. So I drew a bunch of roses on her head. I really had a lot of fun.

Well okay, roses are fun but a bunch of roses on the head, what's the point? Is she supposed to be the princess of roses? Then I thought of bridal veil. Oh boy, it would go beautifully with the roses. As I was drawing the veil, I suddenly remembered about my "Girl with a Flower" series, so I thought "Why don't I make this the 3rd piece for the series?" And voila, it is now the 3rd artwork of "Girl with a Flower" series. It is called "The Bride". I'm not sure if there has been a bride wearing a bunch of roses (perhaps just one rose) on her head, but this is my idea.

The girl in the drawing does not look happy and she is looking down, as some of the rose petals are falling off along the veil. The message simply is: Being a Bride is one of the most important and happiest events in a woman's life, but at the same time, it is also depressing somewhat when it is also a huge turning point bringing more responsibilities and less freedom to the woman. The wedding alone is already a disaster. The roses on her head symbolize happiness and love, and it is up to her to keep them fresh without all the petals falling down.

I am not excellent at coloring, but I really enjoyed painting this piece. It was fun playing with the shades and light values~ 

Wow, that was a long post. Anyway, behold the beauty of "The Bride", the 3rd "Girl with a Flower" (or rather flowers/roses):

 

And the sketch:

Here are my previous "Girl with a Flower" 1st and 2nd versions:

 

Click for more information of "Two Faces"

Click for more information of "Crusher"

All Night Drawing: Painting Girl

Oh yes I did. I just sacrificed my sleep to finish this little drawing. I have been working on poses and facial expressions along with a lot of different concepts of my own characters only to add more to my portfolio. I did not intend to color at all but only do line-works or sketches. The main purpose is the solid construction of the drawings. But since I adored this specific drawing so much I figured I just had to color it as well. And this is the result of an all-nighter!

 

Right, I never shaded the drawing. Why? Simply I am not an expert at shading with colors and I kinda figured I might mess it up. I suppose flat colors are not bad and it shows more of the cartoon's side of the drawing, of course it is cartoon style. Although shading might just add more depth and detail to it~ Ah well, I'm pretty happy with this and I will move on with the next drawing.

By the way, good morning Thursday! :)

Update: Well I forgot to put up the construction sketch for this drawing so... here it is! Cheers~ :)

 

Launching: Tina N.'s Online Portfolio

Finally, it is here!!! Although I really still do need to put more good stuff on my portfolio for it is currently a bit too simple, simply I just wanted to give an idea on what I can do and like to do and my skill level, I will update it regularly.

Behold, the Online Portfolio of "Mademoiselle" Tina Nguyen!!!

http://tina-n-portfolio.blogspot.com/

Thank you very much for your lovely time~ :)

Modeling Reel 2012 by Matthew Medina

Matthew Medina is also a graduate from CSU Northridge and his focus is 3D modeling. I simply adore his talent and skill, since I am not very good at 3D modeling although I do love 3D animated movies. Matthew has also helped me a lot with my 3D skill when we were still both in school and I was completely impressed by his knowledge of Maya. Just thought I should share his talent to the world! Although it is not much for now, but he has been working a lot on his freelance and his own projects, so as soon as there is an update, I will have it shown here!

Enjoy! :)

GRADUATION 2012

Finally I did it! I graduated on the 22nd of May, 2012. I actually already drew my self portrait as a gift for myself on this special occasion and I put it on the side of this blog. But I have not posted the bigger version of it so you can see it better. After the little trip, my vacation with my family, my parents came all the way from Vietnam to visit me (Yoohoo!), I totally forgot about the portrait until now. Hopefully you like it!

Behold! The beauty of a new University Graduate from the Art, specifically Animation, Department!

Tada!

 

Tina N. Graduation 2012

Black Rose Concept Updated

So remember my dear sweet sweet character that I have developed like forever? Alright, so I was never happy with it. Never ever! And I just keep updating the character's image. I'm even thinking of subtracting and adding to the character's characteristics to make her more interesting and mysterious in a way~~~ I wonder when I will come up with the very final design. I really hope it will happen soon since I do need to start the comic.

Here are the sketches:

The 1st one, I drew it a few weeks ago. The idea already sparked on me at that time so I immediately sketched it out. The 2nd and the 3rd one, I just drew them today, more like an update to the 1st one. I temporarily name this character Faceless Prince, who is actually also Black Rose. I'm even wondering about the character's gender lol. Geez~ Ah well, as soon as this comic starts, you'll see~

:)

Cosmo Girl

I drew this like forever ago. Well, okay, not quite, just a few months ago, but still I can't believe I totally forgot to put this up on my blog! Since this is one of my most favorite drawings that I have done lately! And the girl here is just so hot that I can't believe that I forgot about her. Ah well, at least I finally remember and have her introduced to you, my friends~ Hopefully, you enjoy cosmopolitan? If not, any other cocktail would be just fine. I am not picky. Cheers~! ;)

 

And the process/sketch:

 

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY 2012!!!

At first I planned to make a short animation for Father's Day just all by myself. But then so many things happened so I did not have enough time to do it, so I finally came up with this little drawing specially dedicated to my Dad, my one true hero, the idol of my life.

I love you, Dad.

My Dad is aging... though I can still feel a lot of Youth energy coming from him. His spirit has never aged one bit, and that makes me happy :).
I have grown up. But in my Dad's eyes, I am still his baby little girl. I guess, in my family, there is no such thing as getting old~

Here is the concept for my Father's Day animation idea:

Daily No. 1 - Grandma goes to the Ball

I decided to start my daily sketches/drawings yesterday, so please welcome my first daily sketch: Grandma Nguyen~!!! (Oh yes, she is Vietnamese, a chubby old Vietnamese lady.)

Grandma Nguyen

Last day interning at Titmouse...

I don't know if I should be happy or sad today. Happy, it's because this means I have completed my internship successfully, had a wonderful time there, met and made a lot of friends, learned a lot from everyone, and gained more experience. This is a newer me, a better me, a more mature and experienced me. This is another important turning point in my life, also another reason for my success in the future. Sad, it's because it is the last day, I don't know when I will be back. Although we think and would like to know that we will see each other again, but the problem is... when? I had such a great time there, it's become one of the best memories in my life. Well, perhaps it is just a temporary goodbye, let's be positive and know that we will see again! I will do my best! Always~!

Thank you Titmouse Inc. :)

Life Drawings hidden from the deep

"Hidden from the deep", why? It is simply because I have left it in my big portfolio bag which was placed there in the corner behind the bed for many centuries. Okay, not centuries but about 2 years straight, I completely forgot about these due to my constant focus on animation just right after I transferred. I had fun speed-sketching~ it was a great experience and it was one big step higher on my skill development.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY 2012!!!

Today is Sunday May 13th, 2012. It's Mother's Day! :)

My friends and I have created an Animation group called KOLOR KLASH and we have worked on this music video for the song "Mamá te quiero mucho" written and composed by Sara Quintanar, also especially made for this wonderful occasion - Mother's Day!

The basic concept for the video is simplicity and cuteness. There might be some flaws in it but we have worked very hard and finally completed it in less than 3 months among other loads of work from school, internship, and jobs etc. This was an incredibly fun experience that we all will never forget. It is a start for us with our career and the group's future.My main job was designing the Mom concepts so you can see that all of the mothers/grandmothers in this video were completely designed by me. I designed them based on the original Kid designs by my friend Raquel Martinez, the producer/director of this short. I also did the animation of the bedtime scene and rocking chair with baby scene, cleaned up and rigged all of the characters in Flash to be ready for animation (except the first scene with the shoes and the butterfly). All backgrounds were designed by Raquel Martinez. Storyboards and concepts were also by her, supervised by Sara Quintanar, and other members also gave our little suggestions. Jessica Bauer did a wonderful job animating the first and the second scene with the butterfly, the feet walking in, the little girl giving her mother the flower, and the cute sweet hug. Each of us actually helped each other with the animation. Stephanie Pecina is so talented with the special effects, without her, this video would never be completed. And last but not least, the creator behind this video, the talented kids' musician - Sara Quintanar, wrote such beautiful, cute, simple but extremely sweet lyrics with helps from the little children from her music class, going perfectly with the happy, cheerful tune. The video has lyrics shown on it (edited by Stephanie Pecina) so you, your kids, and the whole family can sing along! :)

We dedicate this video to all Mothers out there and hope that you will enjoy this as much as we did working on it.

So here you go! Have fun and feel the love! :)

For Vemeo link: http://vimeo.com/41700783

For more information about the musician Sara Quintanar and Kolor Klash please visit these links:

http://www.musicwithsara.com 

http://kolorklash.blogspot.com 

KOLOR KLASH team consisting of 4 lovely and talented ladies (please click on names to go straight to their websites/blogs): 

Jessica Bauer

Raquel Martinez

Stephanie Pecina

Tina Nguyen (me :D)

Memoirs of the highschool time in Vietnam

As you see I originally came from Vietnam. I spent half of my highschool year in Vietnam, then half of it in the US. I did not completely enjoy highschool in Vietnam but surely I did like some elements of it. Two of them would be "cá viên chiên" and the traditional Vietnamese "áo dài" (although it is incredibly hot in Vietnam and this dress could kill me in that weather). So I suddenly doodled out this little sketch with a not-so-typical Vietnamese highschool girl (usually people, especially Western people, like to think of highschool Vietnamese girls with a nice long black hair in a white dress) when I was at Titmouse at a very late hour of the day. The idea just came and my hand just doodled it out so although it is very sketchy, I had a lot of fun and am very happy with it. Perhaps, this is one of the most beautiful wonders in Vietnam - young school girls in pretty and pure white dresses going to school, which you can find in nowhere else in this world. In this sketch, however, instead of appearing as a sweet innocent school girl in a white dress, I gave her the "true" side of Vietnamese highschool girls, the one that I and many of my friends used to be - playful, cheerful, love snacks and vendors food, and carefree. Enjoy!

 

The cartoon version of me

So I was trying to come up with a character concept of myself. Obviously it should not look exactly like me but rather its look somewhat demonstrates my personality. So can you guess what kind of person I am through this drawing? I really hope it is not something too bad :P

The orange bag in the drawing is actually my current favorite bag which I have carried around a lot this year. You might have already noticed that I have posted a sketch/outline of this drawing a while ago. Just want to remind you guys:

 

As you can see I did some changes - the girl's feet~   Do they look better smaller or bigger?

"It's FRIDAY you said?"

Since things have been very crazy for me and many of my friends these days due to the fact that this is our last year in school, I suddenly came up with this little drawing to share the "joy in the misery" being an animation student. If you are a student majoring in animation that works her ass off to create a perfect work, you definitely will feel really related/connected to this:

Or... maybe not. It surely is an exaggeration, but hey! Just keep in mind that you may not look attractive anymore but your character will turn out beyond fabulous. Hopefully, this will give you a good laugh and maybe a little inspiration for your next time sitting down at the desk~~~


Enjoy your Friday animation student fellows~!

The Titmouse RC folks

Nothing like a relaxing (well sorta since I was working at the same time) doodle of the people from my favorite studio~ The accuracy might not be 100% but I keep that in mind for a better development. For now, I'm quite happy with the these little sketches.

Sketches at Titmouse

I love sketching or doodling, and I have the most inspiration whenever I am at Titmouse, surrounded by extremely talented artists and animators. I can't help but just have to draw something, anything! It does not matter as long as it already comes to my mind and I like it. Here are 2 of my most recent sketches. One was an inspiration from the rainy day on Friday the 13th of April, and the other was a spark of idea after I talked to Junpei, the best character designer I have ever met, about how we all Asians love rice so much and are unable to "survive" without it. It was so funny but really, it is true. I can be on a diet of anything but rice. Perhaps this is why it is impossible for me to get an abs. Too much carb, no? :P

Hope you enjoy these silly sketches~~~

 

Recent sketches

These are the most recent sketches that I've done for my portfolio. I have been searching for my own art style and what I can draw best. I love woman's figure so I started to draw different female characters. Of course I will need to draw other characters beside fit-looking girls but this is a start. I think the construction and poses are getting a lot better and I am pretty happy with the result so far.

Self cartoon portrait

A very rough sketch

Outlined

Sketch of a recent made-up villain character

Colored test

Those are only sketches, I will have them all cleaned up and updated on this blog later.

A canceled project

I have made a decision that beside character design,which is my main focus, I also want to do storyboarding, so I started coming up with short story ideas for my storyboard. I came up with a bunch of stories and I thought I had already decided on this one as the final.

I thought it was a funny idea, then I found out it would be funnier if I could add more details on how the short guy would convince the big guy clean his teeth, thus, I would have to make the short longer, which would be impossible since I would not have time. So this idea, sadly, was canceled. I did a bunch of concepts for the characters, especially the big one that does not brush his teeth. I had a lot of fun with him.

First concept for the big guy

Full body concept

Different body designs for the big guy

Concept idea for both characters

The Sketches that I've never shown!

These are random sketches I did during last Fall 2011 when I was taking Ernie Gilbert's Animation Drawing class. Ernie told us that in order to draw better characters, we need to doodle a lot, doodle everyone, doodle as much as possible, and while we are doodling people, make them look extreme, meaning cartoon them, push their features further. If this man has a big nose, make his nose bigger etc. Classic lesson~ I'm a doodler (yes please check my blog top banner) but I am not so much of doodling people to the extreme. I can doodle in a top speed but I am not really good at turning them into goofy cartoon characters like in those Hanna Babara animated features. I am still learning though and it is lots of fun.

From top to bottom, left to right: my friend Stephanie, character designer Ernie Gilbert, doodle girl, and another friend Alicia

From top to bottom, left to right: my friends Eric, Liz, and Cameron

Artist Stephen Silver

2nd sketch of Stephen Silver

Top to bottom: my classmates Ryo and Jose

Top - Vietnamese comedian Dai Nghia; Left - my best friend Susan; Right - my friend Naira; Bottom - an old classmate - Thinh

Celebrities sketches, can you guess who?

Celebrities sketches Part 2, can you guess who?

Me when I was a 2 years old and my good friend Erika

My boyfriend and an old friend from high school Jaclyn

Marilee and Lindsey!

Holley, Derek, some guy, and Kristen

Random people

Steve Jobs and Bill Gates is right at the bottom

And a bonus of Lord Voldemort sketches:

Hand study

Expressions