Jun's Archieve
Welcome to my archive. Here you can find a mix of unfinished projects, random stories, and behind-the-scenes bits.
If you have a little time, I’d love to share why I go by Jun. For you who are not familiar with Vietnamese, I assume you would think Trân is pronouced as Jan or John (many have tried but trust me, it's not that). One day I got a little bit fed up with being "Jan" and told my bestfriend (now-husband) to call me Jun, like "run" but with a J! That didn't work. He started to call me [ˈjun] instead and it just stuck. Jun is a cute nickname anyhow, so I've kept and fallen in love with it.
Wondering where bnartle comes from too? I've been asked this. My name is so common in Vietnam that I couldn’t take any version of it online that wouldn't look silly or absurbly long. So I made up bnartle as a blend of parts of my name. It also sounds like “be natural”. Maybe it’s not exactly a “non-silly” name, but I kind of love that about it.
My first ever illustration project
It was a collaboration project where many artists came together to create pieces illustrating the beauty of our country. The project had been successfully held three times before, so I was honored to be invited to join for its fourth round. However, for reasons I’m not fully aware of, the project was discontinued after everything was completed.
These are my assigned pieces for the project, illustrating local landmarks where I live. I took a day trip to visit the actual sites and later had a interview with the publisher for TV, though I assume it was never aired. All that made the whole experience memorable regardless.
Not everything worked out
There have been many works that didn't get selected and never got to see the lights. Here I didn't get to draw any more dinosaurs, or pigs.
Or there are certain things that are meant for only that someone special. Those are kept in a semi-private drawer.
(to be continued)