In this year’s Inktober we are keen to collaborate with the top artists in illustration, animation, and design, allowing the participants to have a constructive experience, coming from the leading artists in the local scene. It was also important to host fully-fledged workshops, starting from the opening talk to the hands-on exercise, followed by feedback.
Hefnawy and Shenawy
“Your positioning is what you aspire for, then create, and later achieve.” – Hefnawy
A lifetime friendship built on their passion for comic books and crafting their mystical world of
stories. They individually and collectively succeeded to bring their dream to life through many endeavors, in which each found his passion in a certain stage of the process, creating a harmonious dynamic between the duo.
Both the character of Tintin and its creator Hergé laid out the foundation and spark for their inspiration to create their versions of the same model but with their context and experience.
The exercise was mostly focusing on developing two things, a character from the participants’ perspective on Saad Zaghoul as a public figure, and the second part was drawing an animal, which is the cat, to have a better understanding of its physical structure and proportions.
Maalouf and Fawaz
“Regardless of how much a job will pay, as long as your name is on it, it’s the most important job until this point.” – Maalouf and Fawaz.
With Fawaz and Maalouf’s prolonged experience in comics and children’s graphic novels; collectively and independently, Bomba, Bassem, Bolbol, Khamees Wel Shella, Kimo (Earlier created by the great Hani Al-Masry then later Maalouf) among others.
They succeeded to pave the way for the new generation and overwhelmingly molded our childhoods with distinctive characters and comic books. They conversed their life long creative process and career development, generously giving out the keystone of their experience in their field, adding, “The key to success is being genuine in what you create.”
Some of Maalouf and Fawaz greatest inspiration was extended from artists like Hermen, Asterix and JJ. The participants were later asked to put their reflection on the talk into a drawing/sketch, and explore what would that lead to. A selection of the outcome is featured below.
Ahmed Saad
“It’s inevitable to get inspired without enriching your subconscious without constantly looking into others' work.” – Ahmed Saad.
From failing the acceptance test in the Faculty of Fine Arts to building a well-established career in Illustration and Scriptwriting. Saad has a solid experience in self-education, and during the workshop, he succeeded to pass on his acquired experience to every participant.
Saad funneled down his experience to four stages, searching for inspiration, observing, adapting and not copying, and finally, time for reflection.
Additionally, Saad explained the legitimacy of being inspired by someone’s work, saying that it’s part of the process and finding yourself through your work, and it doesn’t mean you’re copying the style, you’re rather utilizing this style to deliver another objective, and by time this style will shape into something that looks more like you. What is more, the importance of giving yourself the time to reflect on your ideas, and make the insights your compass.
Some of Saad’s inspiration comes from artists like Bryan Lee O’Malley and Tanner Wilso.
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