Xin chào! Hello! Konnichiwa! 

My name is thuỳ cốm. I was born and raised in Hanoi, Vietnam. Currently, I am living in Tokyo, Japan with my husband. I make picture books and illustrations in gouache & colored pencils, sometimes digital, about modest, beautiful, ridiculous, frustrating things in life. I had my first published book when I was a second-year Art college student; a funny story about a baby giraffe and his mother called A Toast for sunny days! Until now, I have created nearly 20 books and multiple commercial art. Aside from making art, I do editing jobs and journalistic writing. When I am not productive at all, I just drink a lot of tea and watch all kinds of movies. 

My creative style is a mixture of humor, marvelous and loneliness. I find great joy in normal life, with its nonsense & randomness here and there. I draw a lot of food, people I know, and things I see everyday. My strength lies in my ability to find humor in almost anything, under any circumstances then interpret into art. It makes me feel a bit stronger than I actually am. I don’t think humor is a mask to cover sadness and pain, but something to encourage us. One way to defeat what we’re scared of the most is turning it into something ridiculously funny - Riddikulus! 

The “marvelous” element of my work is adding a bit of nonsensical delight. To me, marvelous means a fresh feeling. Most of my stories have a modern setting and ordinary life premise, but then comes the twist. In Greeny’s Green Day, a small girl hated taking noon naps, so she ran away then turned into a tree, since trees don’t sleep. Lastly, I want my works to have some space for readers to enter and fill the gap. The "loneliness" that I bring to my stories is actually more about comfort and connection, I guess. For readers (and myself), books can be great friends who understand them deeply. They are very patient, non-judgmental, and do not complain.

I hope you can find something funny, relatable in my art and writing. Thank you for stopping by.