How to Capture Moods and Emotions

How do you paint pictures that capture a certain mood or an emotional state? This is something that Hoang Nguyen wants to achieve in his painting.  Here is a some beautiful paintings that was created by this artist, who currently works as a character modeller at Electronic Arts.

The dream of becoming a comic artist: A fervent believer in daydreaming, Hoang has a story about the power of persistence. “When I was in high school, all I wanted was to become a comic book artist. Every summer, I’d spend most of my time creating my own comics.” Nothing else mattered: “I didn’t care about money; all I wanted was to do what I loved the most. So in my senior year of high school, I told my dad I wanted to go to New York and work for Marvel.” Mr Nguyen realised that resistance was futile. “My poor dad probably didn’t have the heart to say no, so he took me up to the Big Apple.” Big brother came along for moral support.

On arrival, the Nguyen men headed straight for Marvel HQ: “I told the receptionist that I wanted to see Jim Shooters.” The then editor-in-chief was unavailable. “What a dumbass!” laughs Hoang. “I had no clue; I thought you could just drop in and ask to see whomever.” Fortunately, the receptionist was kind-hearted, so she checked with the submissions editor who suggested Hoang leave his portfolio. This had all the hallmarks of a brush with a stony and uncaring world.“I was pissed off. It had been a long journey. I told her that I’d come all the way from Virginia, but it didn’t help. I went home and feeling so tired and disappointed I almost gave up.” A week later Hoang called up the editor. “He gave me a nice speech and rejection letter and told me to keep trying.” Moral of the story? “Never give up. Five years later I got my break.”

The face on this painting is full of live!

Job prospect for an artist: After graduating as an illustration major, Hoang went to work at a design shop, doing advertising work. He stayed there a full five years. “Must have been the free beer every Friday! I can’t believe I stayed so long.” After that came comics. “I sent out tons of submissions and got a lot of rejection letters. But persistence ruled the day. I got my first gig with Dark Horse working on a RoboCop movie adaptation.”

Next up was DC comics. “They were trying to bring back those old characters from the past. A gallant attempt, but it fell by the wayside.” Then Marvel came calling and Hoang got to work on Carl Potts’s Alien Legion. “That series was so much fun.” And while he was at the Marvel office, it made sense to show a few people his portfolio: “That’s how I got in touch with the Punisher editors. It didn’t take long to convince them to let me have a stab at it.”

Hoang is proud of this latest work for Marvel. “Granted the anatomy is horrible, but there were some really dynamic and fore-shortened camera shots.” Malibu came next, but after just nine months the company went belly up and Hoang left comics behind. It’s just as well, he muses, because: “If I was working on a comic today it would take me forever to finish. I over-analyse everything.”

“I love his drawings of anime style women, because I feel that his work has a quality that is visually captivating and enticing. The eyes of the women in Nguyen’s art draw me in instantly and intensely, and I find myself wanting to peel back the layers to look further inside.”

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