Mixed media illustrator based in Hanoi
One of the perks of being an illustrator working with small authors is that I get to read many interesting stories and visualize it with my ideas. Every illustration has a story behind, but below are some of the most significant projects of mine in terms of storytelling.
A series for a personal story from childhood to adulthood.
A story of two teenagers with Sherlock Holmes inspiration
A classroom story
Two illustrations in a poetry book about a female growth after relationships
Over the past few years, I have received numerous requests for couple illustrations for a variety of purposes—weddings, anniversaries, personal gifts, and even editorial use. The style preferences vary widely, from cartoony and humorous to deeply emotional, as well as partially colored sketches to fully painted pieces.
Here are some illustrations are allowed to publish for my personal promotions.
Above are a few monochrome drawings in a series of illustrations for a poetry book about love.
Here are some illustrations that I’m allowed to share for personal promotion. One of the biggest challenges in depicting love and affection is avoiding clichés. The most common pose—standing close with hands around each other’s waists—is often requested, so I strive to add a unique touch to each piece. Personalization is key: incorporating meaningful details from a couple’s memories, such as a special place, a significant object, or a shared symbol, can add layers of meaning that only they can truly appreciate.
Couple illustrations are one of the most challenging commissions I take on. They require not only technical skills but also strong communication and an in-depth creative process—analyzing details, categorizing ideas, and translating emotions into visual elements.
Despite the challenges, creating couple illustrations is always a special experience. It’s rewarding to see how these artworks hold special meaning for each couple. I hope these illustrations bring joy and lasting memories to those who receive them.
It’s the time of the year when you look back over the past twelve months to see what you have accomplished. In retrospect, 2024 to me was struggle after struggle, from arts to personal life.
Overall this year I worked more on series rather than individual commissions, especially since the introduction of generative images in the first few months of the year. The new exciting AI interests people with an illusion of getting good artworks for free. However, the flow of personal commissions starts again from October, which is not so surprising to me at all. The basic brick of generative image is data, not creativity or emotion. Personal commissions do not only need likeness, but also personal touches and modifications from both the artist and the ones being portrayed.
Series illustrations does provide a better and more stable income than personal commissions. However, to prove that you are able to complete a large amount of work with consistency in quality, it takes much more efforts. Truthfully, I failed in a few significant chances that stays in my mind longer than I expect.
I also failed in my learning goals this year. It feels like I have arrived at the stagnant part of the learning curve. My self-set up curriculum started falling part in June, I felt stuck in learning Storyboard. After procrastinating for a month, I decided to drop this subject and maybe come back to it again. Other studying goals felt frozen, and I couldn’t see any improvements except from sketchbooks piling over in the corner of my room. I must have passed the exciting beginner phase of learning arts now, no subject seems completely new now. It’s now the phase of repetition and patience.
My whole system of working and studying became too much for me to handle at certain points. I set up a complex Notion dashboard in January, and after a period of complex projects requiring quick turnarounds, the whole system started crumbling. The daily to do list of Notion was unlimited, which gave me a false idea of my capability. Furthermore, I missed using papers, the idea of ticking done to a task and how my pen moved across the papers. I’m still using it as store some lists and resources for blogging, and happy to be back with my handmade A6 notebooks.
I forced myself to learn things I don’t really like, hoping to cultivate a new aspect in my arts. In the first few months, I learned animal anatomy and started reviewing human anatomy in the later part of the year. These new knowledge doesn’t show up right away in my paintings, even the personal pieces. It only came to the surface after a long time brewing, it started with my realization that my artworks lack spirits or liveliness. I’m starting with small animals and human silhouettes.
I started to feel the urge to add more details, every now and then when I looked back some old pieces, I felt I could have added more characters to the scene instead of going the easy way. Of course, this led to less paintings done and a major portion of each need to be done at home instead of at the place. Being a quantity person, I can’t help thinking “I’m doing less this year”.
A few sentences I often tell myself this year is “hang in a bit more”, “I can tolerate this a bit more” and “be resilient”. These reminders come from a podcast story I hold close to my heart—the story of Abigail May Alcott Nieriker. She was the inspiration for the character Amy in Little Women, but her real-life journey is even more inspiring. Abigail didn’t give up her dream of becoming an artist to marry a wealthy man; instead, she achieved recognition by exhibiting her work (of a black female!) at the prestigious Salon in France. She did marry eventually, but it was for love and much later in her life. (Interestingly, Laurie was entirely fictional and not based on any real person.) Her story is a true testament to perseverance and determination. She is a hard-working artist, passionate painter and devoted educator -I deeply relate to her journey—I sympathize with her struggles, feel inspired by her resilience, and see her as a role model.
Another source of strength and motivation for me is literature. I read many novels by Kazuo Ishiguro this year: An Artist of the Floating World, Klara and the Sun, Never let me go (a re-read), and Annie Ernaux: A girl’s story, Shame, A Woman’s story. The most interesting novel is The Bathroom by Jean-Philippe Toussaint, weirdly writing about almost the same thing I wrote in my journal but in a more beautiful way. Here are a few passages that I love:
70) But when I thought more deeply, and after I hadfound the cause for all our distress, I wanted to discover its reason. I found out there was a valid one, which consists in the natural distress of our weakand mortal condition, and so miserable that nothing can console us, when we think it over (Pascal, Pensees).
49) Seated on the edge of the bathtub, I explained to Edmondsson that perhaps it was not very healthy, at age twenty-seven going on twenty-nine, to live more or less shut up in a bathtub. I ought to take some risk, I said, looking down and stroking the enamel of the bathtub, the risk of compromising the quietude of my abstract life for
… I did not finish my sentence.
50) The next day, I left the bathroom.
Literature consoles me differently from social media or modern psychology. Instead of labelling, it just describes. It tells a story of thoughts, emotions and imaginations. How do I feel this year? I feel like a caterpillar slowly breaking my cocoon to realize that I’m still a caterpillar. At least, I’m still crawling forwards.
This is a personal challenge to design a set for the book The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie.
From 2019, I started my career on Fiverr by taking small and medium commissions. Most of my requests are for business articles, comic gifts and small-sized ebooks.
Most of these drawings below are taken out of its context and re-drawn to a certain degree.
Business comics are in high demand, they helps lighten a difficult concept or idea. I enjoy drawing annoyed and surprised emotions, experimenting with moving the eyebrows and mouths to exaggerate the expression.
Comics are also great gifts for friends and lovers, even colleagues. The below characters are from gift commissions or small-scaled books. They are to illustrate moments of awkwardness, relatable accidents and funny moments.
Here is a simple progress image. I often sketch lightly, then reline with ink and add gray shades using a watercolor brush.
Animals are often used when the topic gets too sensitive. They have metaphoric meanings themselves, based on the bias and symbolism we attach to them for a long time. For example, cows are often thought to be silly and rabbits are pure and cute. Sometimes I reuse the bias, sometimes I just draw against them.
Below is the collection of character designs from my 2023 projects. Some are commercial and some are personal. 2023 is the year I challenged myself to get out of my comfort zone and stop caring about styles.
I focus on using the characters as tools for the story, the story will decide the level of exaggeration, use of colors (strong/ soft), level of facial details, etc.
I decided to re draw the characters from past projects to see how far I’ve gone and add a new vibe to the character. I like to add a touch of comic and fun to my characters, no matter they are human, animals or objects.
In 2023, I had the chances to work on many small children’s book and kid-friendly illustrations.
The ones below are not the original designs, but rather an updated version. I chose this particular coloring style recalling gouache paintings, which are my favorite medium.
The whole series has 20 drawings showing jokes between aliens and cows.
The author’s Instagram can be found here. The author, who is a taxidermist, wants to share a story about her profession. The background design features a Victorian home setting, with taxidermy tools and portraits.
Jeanne Lolness 