Until about a year ago, a twenty five year old gifted cartoonist named Shihab Aldeen worked as a secretary in a law firm. He knew little of the animation industry but loved drawing cartoons. And then a turning point came that changed everything…
“It all started while I was reading the paper one morning. I saw an article about learning animation at the Cartoon Network Animation Academy and I knew that I had to jump at the opportunity!” said Shihab.
Next thing he knew, he was enrolled and studying animation from some of the best animators in the region, and he did this for an entire year. “It was definitely the best year of my life. I had so much fun learning from the instructors and from my talented classmates.”
Inspiration
Shihab says he is inspired by life and the people around him, including the way they act, move and use facial expressions to express their emotions. “I love being around people and drawing them without them even knowing. I just sit in a bus or cafe and watch the people around me and they give me so many ideas.”
Shihab also likes French artwork because of the unique styles and colours used. But he says his greatest inspiration comes from Japanese animators because of their level of dedication and passion to the craft. “That’s one of the main reasons I wanted to be a part of this industry, and the unique and simple way of telling a story through moving animations appealed to me.”
Artistic process
Every artist has a unique process when creating his or her art. For Shihab it starts with questioning the identity of the character he is creating. He asks himself whether the character is an animal, human or even an alien, and then tries to imagine a personality for that character. Is the character funny or serious? Does he have any quirks? What makes the character unique? Next, he draws a rough sketch based on an idea that he has in his mind that gives the character its general shape. Shihab says that the drawing at this point may be rough but it is the most important step as it determines the final outcome of the character. Once he is satisfied with the rough sketch, he cleans up the lines to finalise the outline and prepare it for colour. He starts with the base colours and then works his way to the details. The final step is rendering the drawing and adding highlights and shading to polish it up.
Future plans
Shihab now works at the Cartoon Network Studios Arabia and has big dreams to work as an animator or character designer for feature films in big animation studios like Walt Disney and DreamWorks. His advice for young animators is: “Keep drawing, keep practicing and keep learning because there’s no limit when it comes to animation.”
Get in touch with Shihab via twitter on @shihabaldeen or check out his portfolios on http://deenart20.cghub.com/, http://deenart20.deviantart.com/ or http://deenart20.daportfolio.com/
Shihab designed the cover page for the issue of Tempo
By Sharon Carvalho
