Kazuhiko Sano was my instructor for the Narrative Illustration class and some other directed study classes at the Academy of Art University/San Francisco.
I honestly loved his classes as he was very encouraging and his works were very inspiring. On the other hand, I am one of many others who used to pose for him. You can see above some of the paintings where he used my figure as a reference. I can't be more delighted having been part of his work and talent.
However, Kazu passed away a while ago and we all miss him dearly. Lois Wang decided to launch an art project to honor his memory. You can check out some of the work that was done by his friends and students as a dedication for him at www.tributetokazu.blogspot.com.
As we were hanging out in New York City that day (ano tgul bil 7ara), Shereen pulled out a paper from her bag and showed me a little note that she once wrote and wondered if we could put it into a short video. And I said "No"... Just kidding... We started taking the shots right away. Enjoy :)
I discovered that my true joy comes by working traditionally. However, I also try to keep my digital work fresh by practicing. The work above represents two pictures that were redrawn and painted digitally using Photoshop. As you may have noticed, each of them has a totally different flavor reflecting certain characteristics and feeling...
I finally got the chance to throw out a bunch of watercolor pieces I've been working on. I'm quite happy with the outcome... I didn't have to spend much time worrying about any details this time, instead, I was freely letting out some negative energy.
An experimental sketch showing one half of my face at an early age and another at the age of 25 incorporated into one photo. Whenever I look at it I always wonder if we were born with certain personalities that develop but don't change...
I'm thinking I must try this once again when I'm 50, since my head will be more rounded and it'll be a better match with little me!
"Design Your City" is a graduate thesis project by Denisa Trenkle. She's a graphic designer whom I helped to create a 2D/3D style map for downtown Oakland. In her project she aimed at promoting this region by an efficient use of space and adaptive reuse and rehabilitation of existing structures and improving public facilities.
I have learnt to block any kind of human related emotions… the titles are nothing but fake to me… I don’t believe in friends forever, because there’s no such thing as forever… I don’t believe in love either… love doesn’t last… those beliefs save me tons of future disappointments and they help me enjoy the moment…friends of the moment…love of the moment… You can’t keep a candle burning…the spark and the thrill are always in the new experiences that we encounter… everything else lies in the common comfortable used up zone that we get used to after the fire burns out…
The moment can be tricky though…I should know that…I’ve been trusting people blindly…coz if the future doesn’t exist they won’t betray me…but the future happened and it is now the past…and everything I told them in secrecy has been coming back to me in the strangest loops…sometimes in the exact words…other times, a hint behind a twisted truth…the moment was supposed to be simple, but whether we want it or not, we always seem to be getting ourselves in the midst of it all… A knot in an empty space creates tension and attracts us like silly particles having no control upon ourselves… we seek drama…and none of us can keep their mouth shut…we add more tangles to the knot…until it’s a world of weaved up connections and dead ends… we either spend the rest of our lives trying to untangle and break free… or we simply escape but soon enough run into a brand new knot…
The dark side of the moment is that the moment always passes… and in every moment we are born, we live and then we die… in every moment we create the first knot…our belly button and then we grow into a huge entanglement…and we burn out and the blood drains out of our earthly flesh and to the earth we go back…we die… in every moment there is a box… in every person a box… and a million possibilities… We can decide to open or close or seal it up…we decide whether we want to lock it and swallow the key or keep an extra key in an extra pocket… we decide what we put inside…what we take out… we decide to keep it or discard it…drown it…give it to another pair of hands…or burry it… The box is trust…and it’s betrayal… the box is the secret… or the gossip…the box is the moment we lived and it’s what died inside of us… the box is a box… but what’s inside is… is the inside…
This watercolor portrait of my Dad was done before christmas 2010. I also meant to finish it before my visit to Amman to give it as a present to him. What I really liked about the original picture were the highlights, shadows and cast shadows along with this particular look on his face that reflects his diligent character.
I called it Akram 6 tp place emphasis on the six drops at the bottom that represent his children, who he constantly keeps fighting for.
These watercolor paintings are samples of the visuals that represent an editorial piece written by Shereen Amarin. The article is a self expression -from a personal point of view- concerning the material fast-paced world we're living in nowadays and how its affecting most of us. Besides the verbal voice, my visual exploration shows humans as bulky helpless robots, who lack all sense of control... lost in a world that doesn't care anymore...
Few weeks ago I watched an old video of the band KoRn doing a live performance. The originality of their sound, lyrics and style in that video couldn't be better... Music is their way of expression, it's their only way out... It's Their lives...
The videos above are two sketchy jokes that I did for fun. One of them is a nice drum solo fixed into a video of my Dad; playing around in Guitar Center "Reno". The other one is a KoRn Flakes pack!
An Écorché is a figure drawn, painted or sculpted showing the muscles of the body without skin. I signed up for this class with my friend Mo on Spring 2010. We both were interested in learning more about the human anatomy, knowing how important and essential this would be for our majors. The image with the full figure front and back shows my work. The detail shot shows part of Mo's work with its absolutely nice finishing. I recommend this class to every artist willing to improve his skills.
It has never been easy to be far away from the people you love the most. "I miss my family" has become my permanent status. Thanks to Skype that made this a bit easier... I talk with whoever is available on the other side almost every week... I also get to see their cheerful faces, and they get to see mine. Topless brothers, balloon face dad, my sister's sweet little babies and much more. But something always bothered me when it's time to say goodbye and hit the hang up button... I can't feel them anymore... They're not around... and their image doesn't leave my head... Even when I'm asleep!
I couldn't bare the thought of leaving school without taking at least one animation class... So I decided to take the traditional animation class, which is considered to be the classic way of dealing with frames. Everything is drawn by hand on a light table, using a special kind of paper (An expensive one). A really simple action could require up to 40 frames to make it look natural and smooth. What shocked me the most is that the procedure of doing the trick is almost the same as the one I did 10 years ago... But I must say I've learned a lot... This short clip was an exercise of someone drinking something and reacting to it. It was shot on a program called flipbook. It took me about 70 frames to create the whole thing. My brothers helped with creating the sound effects.
This is one of the works that I submitted for the AAU Annual Spring Show 2010. It was done for the Graphic Novel class that I had in Spring 2010. Originally, it's a 3 page short story, but I'm only showing the first page. As you can see above, this is the process that I went through to get this done; pencil sketch, Inking and then digital painting. I also looked into some old pictures of my parents, as this story was inspired by them...
I finally managed to work on some modifications concerning the Amarin's Family Tree 2010. I started working on this project a year ago... Ammo Balsam asked me to create a nice and clear tree for the family that has the names of all the males and females in the family. He did a great job contacting some people and getting all the needed information to make it accurate. This image is the finished version that was printed on Easter 2010.
I've always found animal head mounts interesting, and I wanted to have one in my future farmhouse. On Christmas break 2009, I was walking around in down town San Francisco. I found an amazing cardboard deer head hung on a wall in a jeans store. I kept looking at it for almost 10 minutes. Well... I memorized the number of all parts, sizes and shapes. I wanted to do one myself so bad! So that night, I got some reference images and drew all the shapes on a digital software and printed them out. The next day I bought a huge cardboard and started working. I had to finish it in 2 nights, because I was leaving to Florida after, and I wanted to take it as a present for my sister there. And this is how it came out... Pretty accurate :p
Zein is a beautiful girl whose smile reflects her joyful character. Not that I'm a wizard, but I saw more behind that smile. I then thought that if her insides were meant to reflect her outer figure, then this is how she would look like. I believe in letting imagination enhance my art. Decorated with wreckage and decay, this insect-like figure is flying in the garden of life helpless but hopeful. Pointillism is a technique that I always wanted to examine, and working with this style was a rewarding experience.
I've seen this in a book when I used to work in advertising. And since then, I kept seeing my father's face depicted by the same concept... So I did this a while ago, and this is how it came out. You can also see the lovely picture that I used, to copy the face from.
"This was my concept (read between the lines). Being someone's doll is like having your hair brushed like silk, having a new unseen color be named after you... it's like dancing in a blanket of stars... ... it doesn't take long until you realize you're being locked behind a rainbow of bars... the sparkling stars are nothing but a camouflage... the dress were knit to fool you, the jewels were cut to fascinate you... everything in the set invites you in... you went for the trap of an exhilarating melody of notes but you missed out on the sound of the huge golden gate shutting down right behind you... you went for the mouthwatering smell of poisonous mushrooms... you gave up to your heroine of greed... you can still break free... it's only a matter of choice." By Shereen A. Amarin.
Many thanks to Omar Amarin, Rawan Zreikat, Dunia Ghasib and Ala'a Amarin for all the support and the good times...
Kazuhiko Sano was my instructor for the Narrative Illustration class and some other directed study classes at the Academy of Art University/San Francisco.
