I had the pleasure of illustrating this year’s Young Muslim Writers Awards anthology. It was a quick, last minute project but I enjoyed every minute of it. Such an honour to have been a part of something so inspiring. There are some really amazing writers in the making - I really hope they all continue to hone their craft (whatever that might be). I am excited about seeing more Muslim creatives in the future! You can read extracts from all of this year's shortlisted writers here.
Celebrating Diversity
2020: We are only half way through, but a lot has already happened! What it has proven so far is how powerful we can be when we come together - when we try to understand, support, and respect each other.
This month, I am drawing faces (again)! As many as I can! I want to show how diversity is a truly beautiful thing. We should all be proud of what makes us unique and shine in all of our differences! We are not the same, but we are all held together by the same gravity and we share the same air that keeps us all alive. So, it is important that we look out for each other!
Ramadan Moments
For many Muslims, Ramadan this year was a little unique. We observed it for the first time ever under quarantine due to Covid-19. I had spent it completely alone too. But to keep myself productive I decided to recall some of my favourite/memorable Ramadan moments in a little sketch series. Below are the sketches that I drew during the month and you can head over to my Instagram to read the stories! ✨
#PRAYFORCHRISTCHURCH
All my love to the families and friends impacted by yesterday's senseless act of violence in Christchurch, New Zealand. It hurts me. I cannot even begin to think about the pain that the mothers are going through whose children have been brutally murdered and taken away from them.
My thoughts are also with the kids (Muslim and non-Muslim) all over the world who know about Christchurch. Remember that you are kind. You are smart. And you are important. We really have to recognise our similarities rather than our differences between communities and stand together against hatred.
Sketch My Face
This year I decided to do a fundraising project for the UNHCR in celebration of my 23rd birthday. Over the month of August I sketched out portraits for people in exchange for donations through my JustGiving page.
This was my first solo fundraising project and overall it has been an incredible and actually an eye opening experience. I am so grateful for everybody's support, especially to those silent donators who did not even ask for a sketch in return - you guys are superstars! It’s been so much fun getting to know each and every one who have gotten involved with my UNHCR refugees project - not just those who donated but also those who helped to spread the word of my project.
I’m still so amazed at how such a small thing can unite people from all over the world to help those in need. It shows just how powerful we could be when we come together. After a month I am finally closing this project and although it has come to an end, it will definitely not be the last time I do this! I loved hearing the excitement in everyone's messages once they've received their portraits - They brought me so much joy and each time they reminded me of why I do what I do!
In the end, we raised a total of £389.12 which is well over my target amount of £200 - That's almost double! SO AMAZING! Below are some of the faces that helped to make a change!
Special shoutout to the UNHCR London team, Amina, Leanza, Suzanne, Julie, Salma, Rahma, Rachmawati, Dimple, Rumanna, Maggie, Kate, Karen, Rupert, Kayle, Maria, AyasoBoutique, Martine, Ahmad, Nabeel, Dylan, Mary, Katherine, Marco & Soma. Thank you all again so much for getting involved! xoxo
Process!
Around 6 years ago I dabbled in digital art and I have improved so much over the years - I can feel and see it! BUT I'm still learning and will forever be finding ways to improve my process to allow me to churn out work quicker without jeopardising the quality of it - which I personally think is an important and useful skill to have in the fast-paced creative industry.
Trying out other people's processes can lead you to finding your own, so I thought I would share my current one (it'll probably change in the future) to help you guys find yours :)
I've included a screenshot of my Photoshop layers so that you all can see how I work. Refer to this when you read through the steps that I'm going to take you through!
- Preliminary Sketch - Above is a warm up piece I did this morning based on beauty, life and travel blogger, Maria. I always start every piece loose and messy. At this stage, don't worry too much about how accurate your sketch is to your reference - just try to get the general shapes and placement of facial features down.
- Lines / Inks - Once the sketch is done, I make a new layer and clean up the sketch! This time I make more of an effort to capture the likeness of the person I'm drawing. For me, it's useful to draw different parts of the face/head on different layers so that I can easily change and adjust things later on if needed.
- Tonal fills - make a new layer below the inks and using the lasso tool, draw around the outline of your drawing, then use the paint bucket tool to fill it in with white. For this piece I added a subtle grey gradient at the top, where I know the value would be darker. Similar to the previous step, I painted each bits (hair, shadows on face, etc.) on their own layer! Tip: use cmd+G to clip the layer to the one below - this will keep you painting inside the lines/base fill!
4. Adjust values - this step isn't always necessary, but it helps to enhance the values just a tiny bit and will make it pop and read a bit better. Note: all adjustments layers can be found at the bottom of your layers channel.
5. Colour Overlay - Identify the main colour you want to use in your piece and use the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer to colourise your inks and fills. In this case I used orange.
6. Colour Balance - I wanted a more rosey-orange so I used the colour balance adjustment layer to give the orange overlay another colour tint.
7. Layer modes - Here the pink of Maria's lips and blush (and bits in hair) were painted on a separate layer. Turn the mode to 'Colour' and you're ready to roll!
8. Details - shiny hair always look better! Paint with light grey and change layer mode to 'Overlay'.
9. You're almost there - I decided later on that I wanted to use a contrasting colour for the background. Here I simply created a gradient with the colour I want and used a clipping mask to 'remove' the area where the drawing is. Note: yes you can use the eraser tool too but if you use a clipping mask you can always adjust it way easier later on if needed!
10. Final touches - Again, not always necessary, but here I decided to increase the saturation because I like my work colour poppin'!
And there you have it - hope that was somewhat helpful! I'll continue to blog and document changes to my process and any new discoveries on this blog. I think it's quite useful for me too!
'Til next time!
MERMAY 2018
Wow It's been 7 months since I last posted on here! Now it's May, which is one of my favourite months because of the mermaid drawing challenge! These are always so fun to do and a really great way to practice my character designs.
I've been preoccupied with what feels like 100 different things all in one go - so not able to complete a mermaid a day. BUT I still somehow managed to spew out a couple in my down time:
Sweetest Kitty
Let me introduce you to the most adorable, super friendly, chubby kitty who seems to have taken a liking to me, meows and follows me around. It's been over a week now and I still see it hanging around outside the house and greets me every time I leave and come home from work. The strange thing is that I have never fed it anything before or given it any reason to like me - I've decided that this must be one special kitty to just be so open and sweet to a total stranger. I've been on a mission to find out who this kitty belongs to, but I have yet to find its owner and I'm getting worried - for it and myself! I am getting terribly attached!! For now, enjoy some sketches of the cutest kitty!
Of Mermaids and Patience
Wow I can't believe it's June already - this year is totally flying by! I haven't really been doing a very good job of keeping this blog updated, so now I'm going to do a recap of what has happened in May and what's going on in June with me right now in this one blog post :)
During the month of May I participated in Mermay; a month-long challenge, created by Tom Bancroft (who I met in person at this year's MEFCC), where you basically draw a mermaid everyday! I've never drawn a single mermaid in my whole life before so I thought it'd be a good break (but still challenging) after doing the larger pieces of illustrations in January and February - I find that it's a good idea to change what I draw every now and then to keep me interested and motivated (and avoid me becoming stale!).
Although I didn't manage to draw 31 mermaids, due to work, being ill etc., I thought I still did pretty good! I felt it was a really good exercise for me as it helped to push the poses and expressions of my characters a little bit more! View all my MerMays below or on my Instagram!
By the end of May I had over 1K more following on my IG, which I'm still really surprised about! I think the main reason for this is that my first mermaid was reposted by Tom on his Instagram (which I'm forever grateful about!). Thanks Tom for hosting such a fun challenge!
This year the month of Ramadan began on the 27th May. I want to say Happy Ramadan, but we're already half-way into it now haha! For those who don't know, during this month many Muslims, including myself endure a period of daily fasting - from dawn till sunset. I live in the UK and the sun doesn't set until past 9pm here so we are going without food or water for more than 18 hours! Yes, it's totally doable (if ya wanna give it a try ;)) but you have to be mindful of what you do as to not waste whatever energy you have - patience is also key. If you follow my Instagram, you've probably noticed that I haven't been posting as regularly as before - the reason for this is that I've been taking naps or just a lie down everyday after I come home from work, which leaves no time for personal drawings. But don't worry! It won't be forever. Hopefully I'll feel more refreshed and inspired after Ramadan! :)
Global Village, Dubai 2017
DUBAI / MEFCC 2017
Hi guys! It's been more than a month since my last blog post - eeek, how time flies! If you've been following me on Instagram then you'll know that I have been away taking part in this year's Middle East Film and Comic Con! Honestly, Dubai is beginning to feel like a 3rd home to me now with how comfortable I feel there every time I visit. So I was super, super grateful that I was able to come back for this year's Comic Con to exhibit and sell my work.
I arrived in Dubai on the 31st of March - a week before Comic Con, which gave me time to just chill and explore bits of the city that I didn't get to see in previous years. My fourth year now and you'd think that I've done the desert safari but nope! I have yet to do any sand boarding or dune bashing or see silhouettes of a caravan of camels in the desert against a sunset sky!! *facepalm* Next time I come back, someone please take me!
Back to topic, MEFCC was held on the 6th-8th April and this being my 3rd time exhibiting, I felt I was more prepared and at ease. My favourite thing about MEFCC in particular is seeing everyone, no matter where you're from or what you look like, come together to enjoy the things we all have in common - a love for film, comics, games and art! It's an inspiring atmosphere!
Through MEFCC I have also made a bunch of new friends - students, professionals and even those from the industry! I am SO grateful for each and everyone of you who have given me and my work a lot of love and support. I feel incredibly lucky and humbled to be able to do what I love as a career.
This year, to give back to those who have stood by me from the very beginning and as a way of saying thank you, I decided to raise money with a selection of my art for our Syrian brothers and sisters who are struggling without even the necessity to survive and build better lives. Because everybody deserves a chance!
By the end of the con we raised an amazing 650AED + 50Riyal (£150) which I donated to Hand in Hand for Syria. I was so touched that a number of you donated even without taking anything from the box!
Overall, a very fun and productive vacation. Every year, I leave feeling more confident of my work and ability and this is all thanks to those who took their time to talk to me! You guys keep me motivated - thank you for helping me get this far!!
New Year, New Website!
HELLO EVERYONE!
A lot has happened after completing my Illustration degree last year; from travelling around my beloved Indonesia, to moving down to Kent and getting a job as an Illustrator at Cognitive! Now that I'm pretty much settled into my new routine, I've decided to update my website and get back into blogging!
The purpose of this blog is mainly to document my thoughts and experiences so that I could look back on them and see how far I've come. But I think it's also a great way for you guys to get to know me a little better, what I'm up to, my influences and processes!
I'll try to keep each entry short and sweet, but I wouldn't count on it! ;) Awesome, I'm excited to share my journey with you guys!
Thanks for reading, until next time!