Concept Art

Inspired by the media I grew up watching while living abroad in Vietnam for 13 years, I designed five new original characters and a fictional world I’m called “Heavenly Beasts”. Such media included genres like Vietnamese opera called “cải lương” and Japanese tokusatsu (suit actor) shows such as “Super Sentai” or “Kamen Rider”.

The superhero-like characters were inspired by tokusatsu suits and traditional Vietnamese opera costumes. The four protagonists were each based on one of the Four Holy Beasts: the dragon, qilin, tortoise, and phoenix. These four beasts are astronomical and cultural animals often depicted in Vietnam, China, Korea, and many other Asian cultures, all with their variations. Just like any other story we see, a villain is required. Fighting against the heroes is a super-villain based on owls because in Vietnam, the owl represents death. To push this concept even further, the villain character mainly has a dark color palette, referencing the costumes for villains seen in Vietnamese operas.

To accompany the characters, I also illustrated environmental and action pieces.