North, Central, and South Ao Dai

Two trips I took in the past year that I felt inspired, influence, and shape me as an artist were CTN 2012 and my Vietnam trip earlier this year.

When I was at CTN, I was obsess with artist artbooks. I spent a couple of hundred on artbooks alone and you know what...YOLO lol. Not sure when will be the next time I will return to CTN so might as well. Among the artbook I also got a Chris Sander's Aloha Figurine because I admire the style of figurine.

 

Chris Sander's Aloha Figurine

 

Earlier this year, when I was in Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City I was at the marketplace went I run across three figurine set that I was really interested in getting for myself. The figurine illustrated the three different Ao Dai (Vietnamese cultural dress) in the three region of Vietnam which are North, Central, and South. I wanted a solid wood type texture to the figurine and my Aunt and I had a hard time finding it. Most of the booth that we went to had alot of the figurine ready painted. We finally found a store that sell it in a solid color, but it was smaller than the other that I saw. I still end up getting that. All the hard work looking for the figurine with the right price was kinda ruin unfortunately during my trip back to USA. We bubble wrap the figurines, but when I unwrap the figurines when I was back one figurine was beheaded, the hands was falling apart @_@...it was just sad. I was able to fix it with glues, but it wasn't strong enough so it still kept falling apart.

(The order in this photo is actually South, Central, and North) 

Anyway, the reason why I bought those stories up is because those figurines been sitting on top of my desk at home where I usually do alot of my drawing so to me it's always a reminder of what's my root and what is my passion in case I lose track. However, it's also a bumper for me to look at broken figurine, so I been working on a new project to replace my broken figurine. I illustrated female Ao Dai from the three region with the inspiration of the figurine of Chris Sander (which is also close to my artistic drawing style). I plan to print it out and add some more personal touch before framing it.