Hi everyone!


2017 will be the Year of the Rooster in the Chinese zodiac. This is the third year running where I've designed and printed giftcards to sell online. It started as a side-project, where I intended to send them to friends and family as 'thank you' cards. After the surplus sold-out on eBay, I tried to be more purposeful last year and ordered more.

Click here to buy on eBay!

I'm selling on Etsy as well as eBay, though the latter is far more popular/accessible, so I've moved most of the stock there.

This year's rooster has a fire element attached to it, though I misread this before and thought it was the year of the metal rooster....so the ornamental piece it's standing on was originally meant to be made of bronze. Oops! I quite liked the design as it was, so instead of changing it, I painted the gladiola flowers red and an orange background to indicate fire instead. Overall, the suggestion is more subtle this year and, quite rarely, I'm actually happy with it!

Limited stock on Etsy!

Many thanks to those of you who have purchased a card (or a few!) already. :) These are available at Ha Long Mini Mart and will be on sale at Midlands Buddhist Association next week. As you can see, I've snuck in some advertising for my business, NAOHOA, too. :P


These are a LIMITED EDITION print (only 80 available for sale) that come with signed notes when ordered online. Chinese New Year is on Saturday 28th January. To ensure you get your card in time (via Royal Mail 2nd Class), please purchase by Tuesday 24th.

Thanks again and Happy New Year!

Naomi xxx

Hi all!

My brother will be getting married soon and I was asked to paint the bride a caricature for her hen do. :D



She's a fan of Wonderwoman and so, the organiser suggested having a pic of her carrying my bro out of the church they'll be getting hitched at.

Chúc Mừng Năm Mới!  Chinese New Year will be on Monday 8th February, marking the Year of the (fire) Monkey. To celebrate, I designed this card, which has since been selling well on eBay: 

Artwork by Naomi Hoang. On sale now: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/161952738554

Last weekend I saw the highly acclaimed exhibition, 'Savage Beauty' at the V&A by Alexander McQueen  (R.I.P). It was fantastic and I'm really glad to have seen it just before it ended. My partner treated me to a Samsung Galaxy Note Pro a while back and I've been using it for sketching (which is fab, btw), but I was struggling to adjust to painting with it. Here's a study based on a photo from the McQueen book I bought after seeing the exhibition. Hopefully, with more practice I'll be able to paint quickly and freely with this device!

Naomi

P.S. A lot has happened over the past few months.....I'll  write a proper post about it another time. Although if you follow me on social media then you'll  already know of NAOHOA!

Hey guys,

If you follow me on Instagram/Twitter/Facebook then you'll have seen the stuff I've been working on lately. If not, then I've compiled it all here anyway with some commentary.  Hope you like. :)

Going Solo

Due to unfortunate circumstances, I'm essentially learning to tattoo by myself. It's been working out fine so far and I bought machinery, ink etc. to practice at home.

It had been a while since I last used a machine before this move, so I used a pomelo* to begin with:

Thought I'd start off with some freehand script.

After disliking the wobbliness of the first one, I decided to take it a little more seriously and made a stencil. Stereotypical stuff, just for practice.

Started to get the hang of it. :) None of the stencils would stick so I had to freehand all of the script in the end.

Hello Kitty is deceptively tricky to get right. More often than not, the simpler the shape, the harder it is to reproduce effectively. I figured she would be a good subject to practice such things.

Everyone seems to get Chinese characters done at some point, so here is 'love'. I'm not bilingual, so I had to rely on Google for this translation. :P

* pomelos are like a giant grapefruit that is milder in flavour. They're really tasty; I recommend it!

Back on the Arm

It didn't take too long to feel comfortable with using the tattoo machine, so I went back to the A Pound of Flesh arm to finish up the Buddha and complete some other pieces:

My first tattoo design! Still need to finish the lotus petals.

My second attempt at tattooing something realistic. I simply had to ink a lion after seeing this gem.

Roses are another popular item, so I crammed in five. Also added some more script, which isn't very good. Must improve.

Switched to something more Maori-inspired to see how I faired with line work. All original designs.

I wanna squeeze in a portrait or two if possible....and saving the white highlights for when the whole arm is finished.

Japanese Sleeve: 'Four Seasons'

After focusing on realistic, black&white designs, I wanted to do something that was the complete opposite. Japanese tattoos are hugely popular, despite their dark roots in the Yakuza. To stem away from this, I focused on making it look like a woodblock print. This is reminiscent to my work on Fall of the Samurai, which was pretty fun.

Here are sneaky previews of my progress so far.....I don't want to post the whole design until after it's done. :)

Matsumoto Castle and The Great Wave.

This was lifted from Hasui Kawase's Autumn print. Normally, I wouldn't agree to using other artists' work without their permission, but Hasui's work is well out of copyright law.

A snippet of The Great Wave by Hokusai.

To those of you who are wondering, I'm using a rotary machine by Wayne Taylor and ink by Kuro Sumi.

If you're interested in getting a tattoo from me (I'm based in Wales, UK), contact me at info [at] naomihoang.com

Thanks for visiting!
Naomi xxx

* Link to Amazon *

Top left image was animated for the opening sequence.

Bottom image was animated for the opening sequence.

Top right image by Roland MacDonald.

Top right image by Roland MacDonald.

.....I'd completely forgotten about so many of these! I worked in-house during my contract and blitzed through quite a few illos to meet the deadline. The brief was to create Japanese block-printing-style images with a modern twist and the AD was really pleased with the results (phew~).

I had a blast working there and was pretty sad to leave, but I'd been offered a permanent job at NaturalMotion Games Ltd. a month before my contract ended, so I left (2011). Breaking into the industry was super tough, but I couldn't have asked for a cooler first job. :) Many thanks to Kevin McDowell for giving me that chance, and to all the staff at the time for being so lovely.

Queeny in my brand colours.

I drew this glam, stylised version of the queen recently for a postcard design (it features in the spot where you place the stamp):

The details side of my postcard design.

 ....after seeing the Chinese New Year cards sell well on eBay, I thought it would be nice to get some of these printed and sell too. However, I'm not sure what text style to go for, or what backdrop colours would be worth getting printed.

So! If you wouldn't mind sparing a few seconds, please pick your preferred text style and colour variation(s) and I'll get the most popular ones printed and ready to sell on eBay. :)

Please vote by March 16th 2015!

What Text Style Do You Prefer?

Please vote by March 16th 2015!

What Colour Variations Do You Prefer? 

Thanks! I'm giving this 'til March 16th so they can be printed and on sale from April onwards.

I thought it would be a good idea to start developing my own style of painting portraits in preparation for my future career in tattooing. Given that I'm a massive fan....here's a portrait of Lady Gaga I started last night:


As you can see from the original photo, I punched up the contrast and stylised the hair so it would work better as a tattoo. Can you spot the nod to music in this piece?


* I'm not completely sure if it's okay to sell on Society6, so if it isn't and Gaga/her people would rather I take it down, I will immediately.

From 19th February it will be the Year of the Goat! Each year has an element assigned to it as well as an animal, and 2015's element is wood. As such, I've combined these factors along with this particular zodiac's flowers.

Finished pieces would typically go on my website but I'm having trouble accessing the webspace atm, so I'll be posting it here first:


I'm currently contacting independent stores to see if they'd be interested in stocking them as gift cards/postcards and will post their locations here if they accept. If you run a business and are interested, or know of anyone who might be, please email me at: info [at] naomihoang.com

Animated WIPs.....because they're fun to look at. :)


Cheers,
Naomi

After attending the S/S show in March and sharing my sketches, I was invited to the Birds of Paradise show last Saturday, where I sketched live during the reception and catwalk.

Illustrations

These were displayed and up for sale during the show.

Livingstone's Turaco Mixed media on A3 Bristol paper.

Red Bird of Paradise Mixed media on A3 Bristol paper.

Mini business cards (courtesy of moo.com) were placed into everyone's goodie bags. I also prepared some Thank You cards for anyone who buys original artwork from me, complete with an authentic wax seal stamp.

Catwalk Sketches

These were really quick! Maybe 10 seconds max, then some more scribbling based on memory before the next model showed up. I'll be working these up like the ones from last year once I get photo reference from the photographers and they will all be available to buy (approx. 9.5x8" white paper).

My grey marker was running low and it really light, so I had to darken the scans. If you'd like to reserve one as it is, please email me the reference number ASAP at info [at] naomihoang.com before I add more to it.

Apologies to those who wanted to see them during the After Party, but my things were packed away in the storage cupboard and the lighting in the club was too dark to see them anyway.

BoPcwIS 0

BoPcwIS 1

BoPcwIS 2

BoPcwIS 3

BoPcwIS 4

BoPcwIS 5

BoPcwIS 6

BoPcwIS 7

BoPcwIS 8

BoPcwIS 9

BoPcwIS 10

BoPcwIS 11

BoPcwIS 12

I'll update this post when they're finished.

Photos

Setting up before guests arrive for the reception.

Photo by fashion designer Julia Chew. Check out her work, it's beautiful: http://xiaolindesign.com/

Live jazz band! There was also a cocktail bar courtesy of The Varsity Club, where we had the After Party.

The models were too busy for me to draw before the show, so I drew the t-rex skeleton instead. xD