Mom & I - Illustrations & Animation by me

I know I have neglected my blog for some time, but my mind these days has been fully occupied. So again, I just have a brief post by sharing an old animation that I created in early December, 2014, an animation about some fond memories I had with my Mom in Vietnam.

I built this animation completely from scratch. Everything in the video was drawn, illustrated, and animated by me : I used my own hand-written text, hand-drawn sketches, watercolor wash, acrylic paint, digitally rendered textures, in combination with digital painting to create digital mixed media paintings for different scenes of the movie. The main characters, Mom and I, were digitally sketched in Illustrator. I then animated these and added sound effects. 

Though I once cried during making this animation, I didn't expect that today, after 3 months, when I watch it again while uploading this post, tears inexplicably come to my eyes...  

A trip to Los Angeles & New York (part 2)

New York, Dec 19, 2014

Đã rất lâu không viết blog, cảm giác cứ ngắt ngứ như đưa một cây bút khô mực dắt dứ trên lớp giấy xa lạnh, không bằng phẳng... Cái giá lạnh cuối năm cùng đủ thứ tạp âm xe cộ tấp nập và tiếng người cười nói ồn ào bên ngoài thanh lọc qua lớp cửa kính dày trở nên nhẹ nhàng, dễ chịu hơn, thỉnh thoảng vang vọng trên nền âm thanh trắng đó là những bản nhạc Xmas ấm áp... Càng về đêm, tiếng người càng ồn ã... 

A trip to Los Angeles & New York (part 1)

Life is rosy - My title sequence animation

This is one of the animations I created lately - an opening title sequence for a movie. This time I experimented with camera panning effects and the result is lovely! Background music is a joyful song by Jess Penner - "Life is rosy". Hope this lifts your mood up and that Life is rosier for you, for me, and for all of us. :)

My animated cat

:)

Long time no new post. Let me share with you a short animation I made. Hope this cheers up the page and brings you a smile.

It is lovely to bring life to silent images. This is a walk cycle of my animated cat. I drew the cat, mountains, flowers, river (or road, it's up to viewers' imagination), butterfly... then animated them.

Hái đào

(Tiếp theo  Summer & Sunflower fields)

Tiếp sau những cánh đồng hướng dương mênh mông vàng rực, mình ghé thăm một vườn trái cây mùa hè.

Summer & Sunflower field

... turning back, I find myself surrounded by thousands and thousands of cheerful faces, a sea of sunflowers bobbing and dancing in summer breeze...

Cherry plum?

You remember this ?

One day in April, I spotted some green fruits dripping from a tree in front of our apartment. It took me a while to recognize that was the tree once bursting with white blooms in early spring, the tree that I assumed to be some kind of peach or cherry.

It was a sweet surprise to know this small tree did not only produce lovely flowers but now also yielded fruit. 

My drawings

Late sunlight sneaking through the window when I was drawing...

So I am drawing again. After quite many years.

I remember, when I was young, I once read a question of why bother to draw while we can photograph. 

At that time, I was confused and unsure of an answer.

But now, I have developed more insight.

Let me share with you my drawings and some fun that I have with drawing.
And this part is also fun - to look at my works again and title them ;) 

***

Digital Illustration Project: My sunflower

This is the 3D sunflower that I drew every single details from scratch in Adobe Illustrator.

Have you seen green onion flower?

Photo credit: Me &... my cell phone ^^

Have you seen green onion flower? Me? 

No. 

Not until last week ;) 

Last week, I didn't believe my eyes for some seconds when I noticed a flower on top of the green onion I planted last year. This was such a nice surprise to me.

A little Spring

It's the end of April already. Feeling low today, but let me publish this entry I drafted last week.

Simply speaking, I've been going through a tough time with dermatitis (just use this general word for all of the crazy stages I've been going through over the last 3 months), insomnia, severe hair loss, other personal issues. - If you have been there, you would understand how it tortures people physically, mentally, and psychologically, no matter how you try to make your peace with them... The condition has taken away much of my freedom and convenience, for months.
But once in a blue moon, when it was any better, I immediately took the chance to go out and enjoy spring... even though I knew after exposed to heat, wind, dust..., the condition would be aggravated when back home... It has been a difficult time for me, a long story to tell, but not in this entry - I just mention a little darkness to cast some light on the background of this entry.

I cherish these photos and these moments - some of the beautiful and pure moments that I managed to afford in such a dark time of my life.

***

Photo credit: my husband & I  

Spring here is so inviting when flowers, young buds, green hills, golden meadows, and carpets of wildflowers are accessible to everyone. Flowers giggling with delight along the streets, flowers blooming with glee in every garden, flowers painting picturesque landscapes to anything from a normal freeway shoulder, a winding ramp, a quiet hill, to a deserted plot that is about to be leveled... 

So, dear my journal readers :),  if you do not live here and love to see it, let me share with you some hương đồng cỏ "ngoại" that I captured on this photo journey...

 These flamboyant flowers blooming into immense rivers of magenta. I've seen these many times but still feel lost in its beauty. I don't get any good quality photos now. Anyway, I've got their name : Ice plant or Sea Fig. Save some photos for next year :D.

A beautiful day woven of grass, flowers, sunshine, and more...

This sunny flower looks like a wild sunflower, but the leaf shape is different, so I google it and find out the name: Mule's Ears

Lovely Pink ladies - Pink evening primrose

Flaming California poppies. Love the cute shape and the feathery petals. I had a poppy on my hand and soon its petals started to fall off one after one. I didn't know they are that delicate.

Fields of gold 

Last March,
when on top of a sunny freeway bridge, I caught sight of a vast golden field of flowers from afar. We took an exit to find where it was, then we both gawked with wonder to see this flowery plot of land right in the middle of a city.

What a nice surprise to run into this in a residential area. This is amazing, just like a dream! 
But they are going to level this land for some new building .... :(

As April comes...

Along a busy freeway,

or on many quiet and sunny hills,

....flowers springing up the landscapes...

The thrill and excitement of following golden patches on the hills to have a closer look of these meadows are just as beautiful as the flowers themselves.

Waterfalls of flowers 

Creepers and vines on freeway walls also magically flow into large waterfalls of flowers. 

and more...

There are more to say but I don't know how to put it. Just say that I publish this entry thinking of my faithful readers :)  Hope these photos bring you a little spring ...

KhoaThy's Journal

"Yesterday - Today - Tomorrow 

Each day is as special as you want it to be."

Ông nội ơi

Published on 7/30/2007  4:29 PM PDT ,

Con bước chân lên cầu thang gác nhỏ, 

Từng bậc, 

từng bậc gỗ 

vẫn ọp ẹp như của những ngày xưa… 

Gác nhỏ ngày xưa 

có con cò phấn trắng 

được vẽ hiền hòa trên manh cửa - bảng đơn sơ … 

Gác nhỏ ngày xưa 

có chiếc bàn nâu đọc sách ông ngồi 

bên tách trà tỏa hương còn ấm nóng. 

Con ngồi chơi, miệng thổi nước phù phù 

rồi nhấp nháp nhấp nháp từng hớp nhỏ… 

Gác nhỏ ngày xưa 

có gian sau mắc võng ông nằm 

có gió thổi vi vu, chiều mát mẻ 

con thích ngồi được đẩy võng đong đưa… 

Gác nhỏ ngày xưa có một ô cửa sổ. 

Con thích đòi ông nội ẵm lên xem, 

Ông chỉ cho con con nước đằng xa 

Con không rõ nên cứ trông ra mãi… 

Gác nhỏ ngày xưa, còn ông ở đó. 

Ông cười hiền, mái tóc bạc phơ phơ 

Con nhớ lắm giọng đầm ấm ông cười: 

_“Ờ ờ, bé Thy hả” 

_“Dạ”. 

Con nhớ quá ông ơi! 

Cửa - bảng ngày xưa, nay không còn cò trắng nữa, 

Lớp mi-ca đã phủ kín hết rồi. 

Phần giấy nhựa lắp đi tường gỗ cũ . 

Võng không còn, cửa sổ rỉ khép mi. 

Con bước xuống chiếc cầu thang gác nhỏ 

Từng bậc, từng bậc gỗ vẫn ọp ẹp ...

nhưng đã khác những ngày xưa…

 KhoaThy - 30/7/2007

Blossoms in early spring

Last time, when I was eagerly waiting for Fall, Fall came very hesitantly.

This time, when I do not expect for an early Spring, Spring comes well ahead of time, lovely and pretty with blossoms everywhere I go...

Some of my old "works"

May I wager that we all have some self-produced works in the past (drawings, paintings, writings...) that we love to see again?

When I was a pupil, then a student, I had lot of hobbies & produced quite a lot of works, these ranging from self-published books, illustrated song books, self-produced comics, drawings, paintings, handmade cards, crafty items, handmade toys, hand-writing collections, stamp collections, to a collection of my essays... what a long list! =p I always kept these carefully... as I knew someday I would love to see them again. :)

Snow snow snow

Last time, it was wonderful to see snowflakes from the plane's window. 

(pic from my previous entry )

Now why not a trip to see real snow!!

Breakfast at 5 a.m!

Breakfast at 5 am on Jan 20, 2014.
It was our first marriage anniversary. Not a plan. I just did not sleep well and woke up since 4 a.m. So, we went out for breakfast.