* 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.

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

I gave the client notes to explain the logic behind the design/decision-making, but felt it might give away too much to post here.

Some quick expression variations.

I didn't realise until I'd submitted it that the flute is backwards. D'oh! It's okay, she's a left-handed panda...

Cheers,
Naomi

This took under 2 hours after my boyfriend suggested I draw something other than girly-looking men and women in costumes. xD; It's a little wonky but it was only intended as a rough sketch. Will pay more attention next time....

Sliiiightly unfinished but....



Here's my rendition of the starry-eyed, tomboy teen princess that is Marle (or rather, Princess Nadia). She definitely needs some bling but I haven't finalised her costume design yet so I'll add it on later.

I'm trying to make each portrait reflect their base element (her's being ice, hence the cool lighting).

Here's how Ayla turned out:



I later learned that she's referenced from another fictional character who's meant to be fair-skinned but I didn't like how it looked compared to my original vision of her, so I used Vanessa Williams as a reference in terms of skin tone, since she has naturally blue eyes.
The painting overall has gone through a few changes but I'm leaving it like this for now and will move on to a different one for a break. Been messing about with this one for long enough!

For those who don't know her character: She is a chief of a tribe and is from the prehistoric age. Statistically, she's the strongest human character and fights bare-fisted, so I wanted her to look tough and well-built. There's a rough sketch of her costume a couple of posts down but I wanna focus on mug shots first. :)

This is how the portrait turned out after some crits from a friend:


He suggested playing around with overlays to add more tones so I gave it a go. Here's a link to his blog. :) Cheers, Chris!

Lately, I've been feeling the need to take a step back and do some studies and test out some brushes. This is a study of my friend Alena - I liked the way her hair fell in the photo and wanted to paint it. Also, she's actually wearing a hoody but I like to think of it as a medieval cloak. xD Gives it a different feel.

It's a little stylised and I managed to stop myself in time so not to over-work it....which is a minor achievement for me! It's always tricky to know when to stop painting until it's too late, usually - but I guess that's the beauty of painting digitally (not too painful to fix!). ;)

Here's some stuff I've been working on. It started off with a simple biro sketch of a merman which I later developed in attempt to design one that's more anatomically viable than typical interpretations.

He's a soldier merman so I tried to make him strong with practical features such as starfish-like hands so he has better grip on weapons etc. I haven't explored many pattern designs yet but have the face down so far (settled for a hammerhead shape as it would be more practical for fighting).


These will be on my site when I finish the whole lot. Feel free to leave crits! :)

These were for an art test. Unfortunately, I didn't get the job. ;( So I guess it's cool to post here:

I also designed an extra page describing the layout and gameplay possibilities and another one of reference material but don't see much point of putting them online.

Re-organising my portfolio took a lot longer than expected but it's pretty much done now so I can get back on track. New concepts coming soon. :)

I've recently designed a logo which is derivative of my initials (albeit the 'H' is a bit obscure!):


Ultimately, I wanted a shape that's distinctive and would read well from a distance, as all good logos should be capable of. I also designed a new dragon motif for my website 'cause it's my Chinese zodiac and I'm Asian. Yup, I'm all sorts of cool~ ;P

Here are the WIPs for it:


Check out my new website to see it in action. If you've bookmarked my old site (CheeB.co.uk) then it should redirect to the new domain, otherwise best replace it as I'm not sure how long it'll keep doing that.

Cheers!

~~Naomi

Here's my current portfolio - I thought I'd upload it here on the off-chance that someone wants to see it right away (since the .PDF file is over 6MB!).

I am looking for work as a concept designer in the video games and/or film industry. :)

EDIT: Minor updates on 13/06/10.