Lara’s Faces - Phương [English]
Check out the first interview of our 25th Anniversary Tomb Raider Special!
My name is Phương, i’m from Vietnam and my native language is Vietnamese. I’m a freelance artist from a studio name “Cloud Pillow Studio”
1-What is your favorite Tomb Raider?
A: I didn’t play every Tomb Raider game like Classic or LAU , so all i can say it’s Reboot Trilogy (Shadow is my belove one) and TR anniversary. damn sometime i wish i played all TR game when i was still in highschool.
2-Which scene or scenes in Tomb Raider marked your life?
A: i think the scene in Shadow of the Tomb Raider : after Lara Croft killed all the Trinity and destroyed the oil field, thinking Jonah was dead but fortunately not, Lara at that time was very desperate because all her plans failed, Trinity keep over her head, but a little idea to decipher the sentence. Lopez’s quiz helped Lara regain her self-belief, she rise back and a bit happy, I found that scene really emotional and ít’s move me. “trust your instinct”.
3- When you thought about drawing Lara Croft did you feel in a creative challenge?
A: The creative challenge i deal I had to draw this character so that Tomb Raider fans would recognize this as Lara Croft who is strong, beautiful and deadly woman.
4- When did you start playing Tomb Raider? What was your first game?
A: My first Tomb Raider game i played it’s Tomb Raider 2013, i played in 2018, it’s funny that i knew who Lara Croft from Adam Hughes’s drawing but never played her game before.
5-What did you think of the unified Lara Croft proposal?
A: It’s awesome, i really want to look how the team Crystal Dynamic gonna doing with the Unified Timeline ,It is like a work for comic writting. How they gonna create new universe of Tomb raider world, Natla would be a God among us, magic shit happen to modern world an people can’t use logic to explain why etc… many idea. haha
6- What bothers you most about Tomb Raider and what do you do to avoid being exposed?
A: A gerne like Indiana Jones, Tomb Raider, Uncharted always stick around with adventure in different country, unfamiliar land, it will stick a problem like stereotype, wrong potrait, midunderstood culture and history stuff like that… i mean look at Tomb Raider 2 with an Eastern the dragon from China,he’s breath fire, being asshole and a knife in a heart that is not an Eastern Dragon at all, and that’s un-doing homework and many hard subject i will not bring here haha. but i’m glad modern game now gain more popular all around the world, people from different country, culture can playing, and creative team did their research, work with real historian and archeologist to serve player with mature writting. like Himiko in Tomb Raider 2013 that was soo cool and fit with real life lore, Japanese army in pacific islands. Paititi city look beautyful like the legend tell, a golden city with beautiful waterfalls, temple with gold, rituals offering gold to the gods from Paititian. so yeah just do some research before u writting a specific location, you gonna doing fine to avoid controversy mistake.
7- Have you taken any courses to draw like this? Or was it just practical?~
A: - Mostly all for fun, you know what miss Croft said “i’m sorry, i only play for sport <3”, but if i don’t love anything so much i wouldn’t take time drawing like this <3. so it’s because I Love Tomb Raider.
Thank you very much for the opportunity to interview one of the artists that most marks the Tomb Raider community in recent times :)
