Her Birthday

I didn't really know where this was going when i started, but as the sketch progressed i started getting a better idea of what I wanted. Unlike many watercolors that i do i wanted to keep the pencil lines and shades in order to give the painting a little more depth once I applied the paint.

And most importantly she really liked it.

TOTÒ

I was commissioned by a friend and owner of the Italian eatery to do a series of murals on the upper level which was a new addition to the restaurant.

Initially there was no real idea to what exactly the murals were going to be. After some brainstorming we decided to go with a big portrait of Totò himself, for those not familiar with who this is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tot%C3%B2

My idea was to keep the graphics simple, to go with the over all mood of the upper floor and having a fairly small space to dine in, I did not want to paint something that was too overbearing. For the triangular pattern in the suit I was inspired by a piece of furniture found in the restaurant and thought that using the pattern would be a great way to tie everything together.

For the 2 other walls, I depicted silhouetted and abstracted scenes from Puglia, Italy, the home region ofthe restaurants signature pizzas.

Night Friends

I have grown up with two loves: video games and comics. 

Although I have been playing videos games since the 90's I never really thought about actually creating or doing any sort of art for videos games. That all changed when I discovered a gem in the indie video gaming world called: Machinarium (I suggest you look it up if you are not familiar with it).

The simplicity of the gameplay was so beautifully crafted and the fix camera angle, jaw droopingly gorgeous scenes made me think to myself, wow I want to make something like this one day (ONE day). I felt this same way about comics when a friend introduced me to the world of Hellboy. 

I immediately fell in love with the art of the great Mike Mignola and I again found myself saying, wow I want to make something like this.

My earliest work was influenced but the artistic style used by Mignola, using large amounts of blacks for shading and just drawing lots of creepy little things (such as skulls which I have had a unhealthy obsession with for years).

These were part of a postcard series I did as a project while I was a student at the American University of Beirut. Colors were written down on pieces of paper which were placed in a hate, each student had to pick a paper and draw a series based on the color they got, and as if by fate I got the color black.

Originally penciled and inked using a Uniball pen, they were later scanned and color using photoshop.

This series was published in the last issue of Rusty Radishes.

Goat Head

This is a drawing I neglected for a few weeks due to more important projects...or so I tell myself. The truth is that I did not know how to continue once i had finished the inking stage. I eventually started to add color with watercolors, my preferred medium, and just kind of improvised as i went along. No real concept here, this started off a sketch out of boredom.

Just Being A Panda

Hmm...

Yup just being a panda.
A personal illustration for a close someone. Penciled then Watercolored

Phoenix

This was originally drawn as an idea for a tattoo. Original sketch was penciled then inked using rotring isograph pens and cleaned up on photoshop. It stayed uncolored for some time until I was bored one day and decided to  practice some watercolor painting.

An Exercise in Drawing

I regard the illustration classes I took while I was a student as the basis for the passion and knowledge I now have to draw. I have always been drawing but I acquired and learnt a lot during my university years, and that is mainly due to one of the greatest professors an illustration student could have, Daniel Drennan.

One of the first things he taught was that illustration should begin with what we see around us. We must observe and study the elements we choose to draw by looking at every detail they offer. Once having considered all the information given by a piece, the illustrator can then decide what they what to depict with their drawing. Every sketch should begin with a realistic rendering of the chosen item. 

This multi-view study of a bamboo stick was done using pencil.

Mad Science

These are a series of illustrations I did for my final year project while in university. They were part of a fictional world I created that revolved around a scientist and his work.

Knowledge Above All

I was asked to do this as a t-shirt design which would be given out at a rap/hip-hop event. It targeted youths with the message of knowledge versus violence.

المعرفة هي سلاح

Knowledge is a weapon

A Capoeirista's Mark

I will use this post as an opportunity to write about something I love other than Illustration: Capoeira.

Capoeira is an Afro-Brazilian martial art, and like any martial art it teaches you to attack and defend yourself.
But the physical abilities you learn by practicing Capoeira are just half of it. Through it you are introduced to a whole culture that is filled with rich traditions characterized by song, dance, colors and joy.
Unlike other martial arts, Capoeira uses music to set the rhythm of the game. Different instruments are used to do so but none are more important than the berimbau, which has become sort of a universal symbol for Capoeira. It is so characteristic of the sport that some who want to declare their passion for Capoeira have used it in tattoo designs as a capoeirista's mark. The tattoos capoeirista's get range from lyrics from part of a song, berimbaus, scenes of 2 people playing...basically anything related to the art. In some cases the capoeirista decides to get a tattoo based on their capoeira name. Now what is a capoeira name you ask? Well one of the traditions in this martial art is getting your capoeira name a few months after you have been practicing, it is a way to identify you by something that stands out in you. This element could be anything from a physical trait, a personality trait or the way you play or fight.
I myself have a name and a tattoo based on my name.

Now to get to this illustration. It was done for a fellow capoeirista that goes by the name Gladiador, which means gladiator in portuguese (hard to guess right?). He basically asked me to draw a torn up gladiator holding a berimbau as if it were his sword.
Just good old fashioned pencil for this one.

A Creepy Tree

Don't Climb Trees Because You Could Fall Out

For this I had to illustrated part of a children's story. I choose a part of the story that involved a tree of course (I like trees). Straight forward illustration depicting what is going on in the scene basically.
Pencilled, inked and watercolored.

  

R.K.O.D

The Alchemist

This character was drawn up as concept art for a student film. I based the skeleton of the character on a previous sketch I had done as a study of human proportions. Drawing was penciled then inked while color and additional textures were added in photoshop.

Character featured in award winning student film ‘Tajali’ by Shady Abi Shakra.

American Psycho

Linoleum printing was a technique I became familiar with in illustration class during my first year as a graphic design student. It is something I immediately enjoyed and loved doing, one of the reasons being that you really become part of the piece you are creating. You have to carve, sweat and sometimes bleed (by accidentally stabbing yourself, which can happen fairly often) into the block in order to expose your illustration.

  

The cover of this book jacket was done using multi colored linoleum printing. Once I had penciled and colored the initial sketch using coloring penciled, I transferred each color onto a different linoleum block. The blocks were then carved, inked and printed in layers onto the same piece of paper.

Down The Rabbit Hole

For this book jacket I penciled the different elements alone. Unibal and rotring isograph pens were used for inking. The sprayed effect was achieved but using ink filled syringes and carefully applying the ink in the desired area. Once scanned and cleaned up all the elements were put together in photoshop.

Skulls, Skulls and More Skulls

I really enjoy drawing skulls..

These three illustration are a variation of just one skull I drew back in 2009. 

Originally a pencil sketch, I scanned it and forgot about it. About a year later I found it in some forgotten file, I was bored so I colored it on photoshop, added some texture and threw in a good old fashioned Mignola crown to finish it off.
About a year after that I entered a RedBull doodling contest and had about one hour to doodle something before the deadline. I sketched something up based on this skull and I actually won first place. 

 

Octo-Doodle

This started off as a classroom doodle during animation class. The initial sketch is about 10 x 7 cm done with a uniball pen. It was scanned and digitally reproduced in Photoshop using a Wacom tablet.

This might have been done when whole hype for the Kraken in the remake of Clash of the Titans and was going around..