The Breast Labyrinth

Here is a piece I did for the Cincinnati Magazine about the new and improving technologies in breast imaging and cancer detection.

"I love radiology because it¹s like an investigation: the patient presents

with certain symptoms, and imaging is a big piece of the puzzle." writes the author Mary Mahoney, MD.

Big thanks to AD Megan Scherer for this fun and challenging assignment!

Last post of 2011, First illo of 2012

This piece for the New York Times book review will be in tomorrow aka New Year's day 's paper! Not a bad way to start the year, eh?

The review is for "How it all began" by Penelope Lively. (Read online here) A retired schoolteacher, Charlotte Rainsford, has been mugged on a London street. Her hip has been broken and her bag stolen by someone who, Penelope Lively briskly informs us in her 20th work of fiction, will disappear from the rest of Charlotte’s story. This casual nastiness sends Charlotte to her daughter’s house while she recuperates, thus disrupting many of the characters’ routines — to trace the relationships among an assortment of relatives, employers, students and illicit lovers.

Big thanks to AD Nicholas Blechman!

2011 has been a great year, thanks to all of you! Happy New Year!

NYTimes illo-Apps to Keep Children Happy

This illo is for the NYTimes practical travel page, it's online now and will be in print onX'mas day! The story is about the top picked apps for iphone/ ipad to keep children entertained during long holiday travels.

I have never thought I would draw angry birds or elmo for a job, this is a milestone of my career. Big thanks to AD Corinne Myller, always a pleasure to work with.

Happy Holidays everyone and safe trips if you are travelling! I can't believe 2011 is almost over...

A modern kung fu fairy tale

These illos are for this month's Utne Reader magazine. The title of the story is " The Master and Mike DiMeglio". It's a true story about the Chinese White-Crane kung fu legacy and the master-apprentice relationship between Dr. Yang and his favorite pupil Mike DiMeglio, who betrayed the master and got kicked out of the training.

It was a very fun project as I could fully unleash my Chinese-ness and incorporateSumie in the pieces. The project also got me a little nostalgic that I went so far to dug out this sumie painting I did back in high school. I remember being pretty proud of it but now it's almost embarrassing...still cool to see how my work has evolved though!

Big thanks to AD Stephanie Glaros.

Be prepared!

Here is another fun project for AD SooJin. It's a great honor to be part of the amazing PLANSPONSOR November issue with super star artist lineup: Jillian Tamaki, Meg Hunt, JooHee Yoon, Jing Wei, Jonathan Barlett, Charles Immer, A Richard Allen, Greg Mably, Katherine Streeter, Kyle T. Webster...

The article is about "getting prepared for the future" and here is my take-

(Really glad SooJin let the perky butts run...)

FF vs RE

This illo is still warm!! I just finished it yesterday and it's going to be in tomorrow's New York Times paper (Sunday Nov 6). You can read the article here online. This is my first color illustration for the CRAZY PACE letter page and it's a very fun (and no sleep) challenge.

The topic is about the tension and debates between fossil fuel and renewal energies.

I gave up going to Conan O'Brien 's for this...but it's worth it, right?

Big thanks to AD Alexandra and Aviva! Always a pleasure to work with.

Run moneyhorse run!

This is a recent piece for the New York Times travel section, it's online now and was published in the past Sunday (Oct 30) paper.

I had tons of fun with this piece but the story isn't necessarily a good news for most people including myself. Major airlines continue to cut flights this holiday season while the number of passengers increase. So traveling will be quite hectic -expensive tickets, packed planes and long lines will be expected.

Many airlines also launched some new policies- basically if you pay more, you can skip the security check line, check in more languages, board the plane before others and even enjoy more legroom....Unless you are one of those who can afford the moneyhorse, this kinda sucks.

Great thanks to AD Corinne and the editors at the Times for letting me run wild with such a practical story.

Cover for Diplomat magazine

This is a cover I did for the latest UK Diplomat mag Ukraine issue cover.

It's quite an interesting story how I get under the radar of AD Jeannie Saba. I participated in the Pick Me Up show in London earlier this year and Jeannie's boyfriend bought one of my prints for her as a gift. She really liked it and decided to hire me to do a cover! I guess one can never predict how fate unfolds.

The theme of the cover is Ukraine's growth and her blooming agriculture. I want to celebrate Ukraine's fertile black soil which provides for and nourishes everything in the country. To me, growth is energetic and festive, then the idea of integrating the famous Ukrainian ballet came to mind: why not humanize the black soil into ballerinasdancing around the blooming sunflower? I chose sunflower to symbolize Ukraine as it's a very popular flower in the country and it's the flower that always grow upward facing the sun. The large anther of the flower also allows me to be playful and sneak in a few unique Ukrainian architecture there!

The cover went through a few different stages, you can see the evolution here.

I went with the red palette at first because I like its explosive energy.

Jeannie suggested that it would be nice to use Ukraine's national flag colors instead.

New works!! CIO, Pacifists and Mormon missionaries

Portrait of Roland Lescure for aiCIO magazine. Mr Lescure is the Chief investment Officer for the US$152 billion Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec, he talks about howdiversification as a good way to invest is merely an illusion. I love working with AD SooJin Buzelli, she seems to always pick my favorite idea!

(final art)

(sketch)

(layout)

A piece for the Progressive Magazine Calendar 2012 Cover and March image. The image is to remember the brave pacifists who set sail, intending to cross the restricted US military testing zone, protesting against nuclear weapon on March 24, 1958.

Big thanks to AD Nick Jehlen for the creative freedom and walking me through the duotone process!

(final art) (sketch)

(cover) (interior)

A full page and spot illustration for the Marriot alumni magazine. Former Associate Dean W. Steve Albrecht shares his experience as president of the Tokyo mission during the 2011 earthquake. Big thanks to AD Jon Woidka!

Thanks for reading!

MGI Promo Poster

(final)

(sketch)

Promotional poster I recently did for my art rep Morgan Gaynin. "We solve any illustration problems u have!" Thank you Vicki and Gail for the commission!

Globetrotting food trip with Moby!

A recent piece I did for the Vegetarian Times. The story: “On the Road with Moby – A sampling of this Globetrotting vegan’s restaurant picks”. Big thank to AD Scott Hyers. Enjoy!

Also, I am finally on tumblr- http://victongai.tumblr.com/ and has a facebook page-http://www.facebook.com/pages/Victo-Ngai/191921997526155

Trying to figure out if there's a more effective to update all the social media- tumblr, facebook, twitter, blogspot....it's getting overwhelming. Suggestions?

New work for PLANSPONSOR

Sorry for not posting for a while , I have been travelling and working on an exciting project that I am dying to tell but can't say a word until next year...

In the mean time, here is a piece I did for this month's PLANSPONSOR magazine.

The story is about the difficulties of communication. For the millionth times, big big thanks to AD SooJin Buzelli.

(final)

(layout)

(sketch)

I drew some fishes!

I drew some fishes lately. The first one is for my all-time favorite AD SooJin! I was given the phrase"new and unproven". It's great because despite the article is about retirement fund, I only need to work from the phrase and can pretend it's for a sci-fi story.

(sketch)

(final)

(layout)
The second one is for Rhode Island School of Design's alumni magazine called RISD xyz. In the story, RISD alumnae and Fulbright scholarship winner, Louie Rigano, talks about his experience in Japan during the 311 earthquake. He described how Japanese stood resolute facing the national disaster.

Being an alumnae myself and a former exchange student in Japan, this job has special meaning to me. Big thanks to AD Liisa Silander for allowing me to have fun with the layout.

My first Sci-fi illo for Irene Gallo!

This illustration is for a romantic time travel story titled "Time Considered as Thermite Burns in No Particular Order" on tor.com.

Everything about this project was like a dream-

I got the job e-mail around mid-night; The time machine in the story is disguised as arose-bush; The heroine is a read head...

Most importantly, it's a job for art director Irene Gallo.

I have always had much respect for Irene as she's someone who truly loves illustration and passionate about her job. Thanks to SooJin, I was introduced to Irene back at the 2010 Society of Illustrators NY Student Scholarship show. Very much to my surprise, she had me filed in her mind and thought of me when this job came up 1 year later.

Irene is very generous with her advices and help, be sure to say hi to her if you see her around at the society or AI party next time!

Honolulu mag new illo and first process post!

I was contacted by AD Cody Kawamoto from HONOLULU magazine for a really interesting illustration assignment. The article is about rehabilitating the troublesome wild donkeys roaming Hawaiian land and causing traffic and other problems. How often do one get to drawbad-asses? So of course I said yes.

The Final

I have been asked a lot about my process. So I thought maybe it's time to make a process post, it's actually quite straight forward and nothing magical-

The approved sketch-

I work half traditionally and half digitally. I enjoy this way of working as it allows me to create images with a wide range of media which are"incompatible" in nature. It also allows me to be really experimental with colors/texture and still able to deliver my work by the deadline safe and sound.

Usually after the sketch is approved, I go in and draw the line with pen and ink and the texture with various media like pencil, charcoal, crayon, pastel. etc

After I am done with the drawing board, I have everything scanned, composed and colored in Photoshop.

Ta-da!

The layout-

Thanks for reading!