Plastic Mirrors

Death By Vermillion

I have three main excuses for slacking off on my “War” series of paintings.

(1) MEFCC/Dubai Comiccon

(2) this guy

(3) Illustration commissions (for a client). For a while I felt like I was doing covers for Precious Hearts Romances.

Anyway Im back in the saddle, and thinking about Loki/Tom does not have the same impact on my ovaries as it did around three weeks ago, and so I was able to complete a new painting.

Yes, that is Mr. Rowan Atkinson on the tv. We went on a Black Adder marathon the weekend I finished the painting. It is such a brilliant comedy series. I am going to start using the colorful insults from the show as facebook status messages .

My work gets stolen

Let me start off by telling you about New Era Introducing.

 According to the blurb on their website, “New Era Introducing is a global creative project showcasing unique talent from across the world. The project gives creative minds of tomorrow an opportunity to make their own statement using a blank New Era 59FIFTY as their canvas. Those judged to show the most unique display of self- expression will go on to form a touring gallery exhibition and be published in a limited edition New Era Introducing book.”

Back to September of 2011. I made this.

It was pink, it was pretty, and it was mine. However, since it was for a competition, I packaged it back to London, and kept my fingers crossed, that if it didn’t win, at least it would make it as a finalist and travel around the world.

Which it did. My cap together with 50+ other caps, travelled around Europe, stopping at London, Paris, Sweden, Barcelona, South Africa, etc. The last scheduled stop was for Dubai, and I looked forward eagerly to the day that I would be reunited with the cap again.

 On the day of the exhibit in Dubai, a lady emails me to tell me that they had “misplaced” the cap.

 Or rather it had been stolen.

 According to the New Era people, my cap went missing around February, during the Barcelona stop of the travelling exhibition. Apparently, somebody put it on his head, and walked out of the gallery with nobody the wiser.

 Heartbreaking, since I had put a lot of effort into the artwork; it rather felt like somebody had kidnapped one of my kids.

On the eve of the exhibit, they were considerate enough to place a note on a pedestal where my cap artwork was supposed to be. Basically, it just says my cap was taken and never found again.

Here are other hats from the exhibit that I particularly like. Anyway, I just feel sad that the artwork I had most wanted to see had been stolen away from me.

Lina Al-Amoudi’s beautiful and well-crafted artwork. It was the winner of the competition.

Typewriter hat. It was another piece that caught my eye.

Art Bank

If you’re sick of staring at the generic Ikea picture on your wall that you (and probably 5,000 other people) bought, make a beeline for Artbank Dubai’s online shop where you can order limited edition fine art prints of my illustrations and paintings. They ship anywhere around the world. Needless to say, the quality is stellar and they have my official stamp of approval!

“Art Bank is a passion project, founded by Prolab digital and quint. Art Bank offers a vast online “bank” of artwork and affordable limited edition prints from an international source of up-and-coming talented artists, photographers, and illustrators.  The limited edition art can be exclusively purchased in our online store.”

I was lucky to be invited as one of 5 artists involved in the Launch Party and Auction for Art Bank held at JamBase, Madinat Jumeirah last April 16, 2012. Among the other artists involed were illustrator Aliz Buzas, painter Luca Rozsa, designer Karoly Kiralyfalvi, and photographer Aya Atoui.

The highlight of the launch party was the auction of the artworks, and the auctioneer was none other than Dubai-based standup comic Mr. Hisham Wyne, looking very dapper in his bowtie and cane. The auction was something else, as I have never been to any auctions, so I was a bit blown away by the prices that people were bidding on the art. Honestly I was floored when the last auctioned piece (mine, titled “Ladder to Oblivion”) sold for AED 2,500.

I had a few beers and that made mingling with other people go down a little easier. Haha! Anyhow, cheers go out to the good people a Quint and Prolab who made this amazing night possible.

The Borrower Arrietty

Of all the Studio Ghibli movies I’ve seen so far, The Secret World of Arrietty remains my favorite. Look it up! —> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vp2nb9Vq0yY

My newest watercolor painting to date, is a homage to this excellent piece of animation. I based the painting on one of the movie’s famous scenes, wherein Arrietty is shown amongst the flowers.

A little background on why Im doing fanart this time around: I used to be a BIG fan of anime fifteen years ago, even making my own geocities website where I used to upload gouache drawing of favorite characters from various anime series. Anime is partly the reason why I am drawing and painting now; it is also responsible for teaching me how to use photoshop and illustrator and all that.

Although my illustration style now is worlds away from what I used back then, I am not averse to making fanart from time to time for a movie that is really inspires me.

I drew the character of Arrietty in my own style, but in the composition of the famous scene. I also replaced the toon flowers with references from actual flowers.

Getting her hair right was a little tricky. I am still not sure whether I should have made her hair brown red rather than orangey brown.

Here it is, with an original framed Studio Ghibli print that I bought from Cartoon Gallery around 3 months ago.

Of course, the guys over at Studio Ghibli are the best, and I can only humbly hope that I did a bit of justice to Arrietty’s character.

I am going to try and make this available as prints for the upcoming MEFCC (Dubai’s first comicon), where I’ll be showing my art-based accessories alongside with fellow Brownmonkeys (www.brownmonkeys.com)

My paintings in miniature

I am making my paintings available in accessory form in limited quantities of 30 pieces. Each one is unique and hand-assembled by myself. They come in pendants and rings. I will be launching them at Middle East Film and Comics Convention (Comicon) on April 20th to 21st.

Alice and the Cat

Alice in W-land is my 8th watercolor painting to date. I was able to compete it in three days, on and off.

When I need to relax and not worry so much about a painting, i use watercolors as a medium. Also, one more reason was that I had noticed that fumes from oil paint were probably aggravating the (mild) bronchitis that’s been annoying me lately.

I also felt like having drawing and painting just for the sheer fun of it so I picked Alice in Wonderland as a theme. I’ll reserve the drama and political agenda for the oil and acrylic paintings :)

I dont know why I bother to put so much detail in the sketch. Maybe its just the detail obsessed geek inside me that always needs to visualize the end result.

Alice in Wonderland was a favorite tale of mine while growing up. The thing is, when you really think about it, its more of a story for adults.

On almost all depictions of Alice, I’ve noted that she’s always shown blond. Why not make a redhead this time?

I have a very messy desk. I hardly ever clean it. Do you guys bother to clean your working area? I sure dont. haha!

As always, a print is available on Society6 if you like it!