Creating art can be akin to solving a puzzle.
This is how the artist Hieu Nguyen, akakelogsloops, approaches his gorgeous watercolor paintings.
Nguyens paintings feel both intimate and grand.
We spoke to Nguyen about his work, including how he generates ideas for his incredible pieces.
Scroll to read My Modern Mets exclusive interview.
Your work has a beautiful illustrative quality to it.
What are some of the inspirations behind your recent paintings?
Thank you very much!
My paintings in the recent few years have definitely been inspired by storytelling and narrative art.
To name a few specific examples, Ive been enjoying a lot of Yoshitaka Amano and Shaun Tan.
Ive also found a lot of inspiration in artworks from the Romanticism era.
Elegantly posed subjects in intimate, graceful, and serene compositions with soft movements.
More recently experimenting and exploring with incorporating art-nouveau details and design language has been really fun.
What is your favorite part of your artistic process?
Its the problem-solving that becomes so exciting, rewarding, and fun!
How do you generate ideas for your pieces?
Ideas for my work come from various sources of inspiration or thoughts throughout my days!
Its here that I then plug in (always with music) and begin to scribble and draw.
Ill refine it further into a sketch or thumbnail, and continue until the idea comes to life.
This is generally the workflow, but its never the same and it changes with each piece.
Its something I try not to think about too much!
is something that I think is truly a blessing.
Theyve been very intense moments that Ive been able to share with my audience.
To have people who listen and care, Im very fortunate.
Do you find that your social media audience influences your work?
To an extent, yes!
For example, I recently started creating fan art of anime and games that I enjoy personally.
What’s one of your favorite pieces you’ve created lately?
I was commissioned last year to create four paintings forMagic: The Gathering.
It was one of the most incredible opportunities for obvious reasons (its MAGIC!
), so that probably contributes to why it was so special and exciting.
Im still pinching myself at the thought and realization of that.
What are you working on next?
Anything exciting you could tell us about?
Currently, Im juggling two projects which Im extremely excited about, but unfortunately cannot discuss just yet!
One exciting thing that I am working on is creating an art book.
