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Design Information Kuwait

OwaikeO

A reader yesterday emailed me a link to a website of a Kuwaiti illustrator called Ahmed Al-Refaie. I checked out his work and was blown away so I emailed Ahmed and asking him if he could tell us a bit about himself and his illustrations and this is what he had to say:

Currently, Im about to graduate from Kuwait University “English Literature”. I don’t like it, but certain circumstances forced me to since there was no Graphic Design in KU. My name is Ahmed Al-Refaie (22) (Kuwaiti, although that does not matter, an artist is an artist no matter the origin ), my art is called vector art. I’m self-taught, never attended any art related classes. When I was 10, I started sketching, beginning of high-school I began graphic design, but this current style you see all around my website started in early 2006. Usually my art was varied in style and that is what I think of as a corrupted aspect of an artist. So I made and refined my own style. My website does not include my old works. For more technical details, I use a mouse, keyboard and Photoshop CS3 ( I always get the question “do you use a tablet?” ), just a good ol’ Apple mighty mouse. I was a bit into 3D using 3D Max but quickly lost interest as there are many giants in that field, its just not for me. That said, my work is completely raw, no pictures, filters, I do however reference body gestures (sometimes) but the image used is removed and I recreate the whole thing.

I think the guy is extremely talented and I think its about time KU setup a design department. There are a lot of talented young people and it would be sad to see them all taking random majors like English Literature or cooking just because they don’t have design.

Here is a link to his deviantART gallery [Link]
Here is a link to his personal website [Link]

52 replies on “OwaikeO”

Hi,

There is a design department in KU, But just for girls, its in college for women in odaileya. it includes interior and graphic design.

It would be nice if he used less photographs of famous actors etc and just photos in general, but the styling is there and it’s definitely unique. Great stuff esp for a Kuwaiti 😉

A talented, well spoken and down to earth guy, now that is a rarity in Kuwait.

From his work its evident he is prodigy and not savant. This guy needs more exposure, acclaim and further reputation which he very much deserves.

Good luck to you dude.

Ahmed is very, highly talented I told him that ,,, but his problem is he is in the wrong place
he should immediately go for a job that suits his massive talent
p.s: u should see his car(mini) very artistic indeed

talented but the faces are of famous people kati holmes, angelina jolie, courtney cox, just a question does he adapt pictures?

I have a mini tooo! I want him to make a design for me 🙁

He’s awesome.. I’m in love 😀

they have graphic design at AUK maybe he should go there

wooooooooooooow
fantastic work, your designs are really awesome and astonishing.
I seriously look forward to buy some of your designs.
I’d like to put them in my bedroom & in my office 🙂

thanx for the post 😉

I think he should do more of the sci-fi illustrations and less of decaying beautiful women. Other than that, great job.

He should move away from Deviantart. Personally I dislike the fact that he references photos, reminds me of a Lebanese artist that I dislike a lot. The website is pretty to look at though, his character art though needs to be refined, style over substance.

conceptart.org ftw!

“Kuwaiti, although that does not matter, an artist is an artist no matter the origin”…sounds like he’s almost ashamed to be a Kuwaiti. How sad…

Thank all for ur kind comments, I really appreciate it.

ambivert – Im a proud Kuwaiti, I said that sentence in order to eliminate the usual EXTRA boost of interest just because I am from the same country as you are. It really depends how u interpret it. I get interpretations as “good for a kuwaiti” and so on as so forth, I in my opinion refuse categorizing art by origin. Art varies, an artist should not be dedicated within one audience. As you may also can see, my art barely contains anything Kuwaiti, just like for instance, A British artist doesn’t necessarily have to have big ben in every artwork for the sake of his origin. Art is flexible, and yes I say it out loud, “I am Kuwaiti”

Patrick – I respect your opinion, although u do think I reference a lot, the actual reference I put in an artwork holds the facial and body gesture only, but that too is overall different because I dont reference ROBOTS or BUTTERFLIES or HOUSES, I make them, besides the environments are entirely reference-free and I plan and execute all my ideas. The actual reference of any artwork does not exceed 1% of usage. To be fair, u are judging the 1% and ignoring all the creative time I put into 99%. Keeping that in mind, referencing does not make stuff easier, I spend over 3 months on each artwork.

Kataku – I have a specific style, I keep changing and refining it, but you have to keep in mind that each artist has his own style of art, An artist whom draws nature, doesn’t necessarily want/can draw something else. That is basically what I like, those artworks express various things, looking at them as character-based is not what I intend, each has messages in-between, even some humor.

jo – As mentioned in the post, I do reference gestures and some faces to aid in creating a realistic character, those images are later removed. That said, the image aid or usage does not exceed 1% of the overall artwork. I used to create celebrity-based artworks but that used to be part of an old style which I dislike and stopped creating.

OwaikeO:

Referencing your characters facial and body gestures isn’t just 1%, thats a big percentage of your artworks focus, since your images concentrate on a “character”. “Where’s Fishy”, “A Bright Idea” and “Artistic Mechanism” are probably your most effective pieces of art because they don’t feature a female model. Don’t take my criticism in the wrong light, I think you have talent, but you should move away from referencing and start to sketch out your own original poses.

And all the time you put in your artwork doesn’t matter, if you present your work to a jury in a design school, they wouldn’t care about the amount of time you’ve spent on something, so don’t think of things like “if i spend this much time on this, then it must be good.”

Patrick –
“Where’s Fishy?”, “A bright Idea” and “Artistic Mechanism” have no references at all as well as many others. In some pictures, the model is wearing a dress or whatever, I imagine how legs would look like depending on the artwork. in “Artificial Intelligence” the model was not a robot, she was an actress wearing a dress, i dont reference the coloring, neither do i reference lighting.
I know you mean no harm in ur comment, but I have been in front of and working on those artworks ever since I had a white page on my photoshop. I see every step I take and most importantly I know for sure, reference does not exceed 1% in my case. Regarding ur other point, I never said anything about my work being good, in fact I never praised or even flamed it, I know that design schools care about quality over time spent, so do I, I wont have a note saying “I spend 3+ months” on them, I was referring to support my point in my earlier reply to u. Please do keep in mind that a lot of artists when not using photos they use “POSER” creating a 3D pose and referencing it, and that by all means, the exact same.

OwaikeO:

I know you didn’t have references for those images, that’s what I stated and why I prefer them over your other images. Anyways, I still stand by my point, you’re referencing more than “1%” as you state. All your poses seem to be taken out of Vogue or typing in a name of an actress or model in Google. I’m glad you change certain things, like in A.I., but it would’ve been a lot more powerful and cooler if you had created your own female character instead of referencing a model.

I never said you mentioned that your work is good, I was just referring to the part where you say “Keeping that in mind, referencing does not make stuff easier, I spend over 3 months on each artwork.”, Just because you take 3 months on an image because you’re trying to prove that referencing does not make things easier. And 3 months on one vector image is a lot of time spent, you might want to work on finishing your work quicker and more efficiently.

You should think of joining http://www.conceptart.org/forums, they’ll help you transition from referencing photos to using your own 100% creations.

Oh and those “artists” who use Poser, aren’t good role models. Stay away from Deviantart, you wont learn anything from there.

Patrick-
I appreciate your comments. I however keep trying to eliminate pictures as i dislike them, in fact the new artwork im working on is reference-free and it contains a character of my own creation. There is no average for vectors or any art, an artist completes his/her artwork whenever its done. Saying 3 months is too much isn’t really justified ( take a look https://owaikeo.com/Gallery/Detail_shots/AI_DETAIL.jpg) Every single dot and shade I create is handled by thousand of layers, the pentool is not as smooth as brushes and each shade is created independently having no usage of any graident, the more u zoom the more u see. I aim at both quantity and quality. Deviantart is becoming the next myspace but there are great artists, u just have to look closely. As for role models, this is just a hobby, I like to draw and anyone can view or even buy them, no one if forced to. That said, I am not a professional.

OwaikeO:

Well, when you’re working with a due date or something, there is an average amount of time you can take per image. Most of the artists I know work in the videogames, tv, movie or music industry and work in both digital painting, traditional media and vector art, depending on what they’re aiming for. You don’t need to link me to a “detail” shot of your work, I know what goes into making an image, the pen tool isn’t as complicated to use as you make it seem. I know what you’re getting at though, I understand.

Deviantart is exactly like Myspace, there are good artists on there but there are better artists on other (better) sites. The comment about the role models is that you shouldn’t take those “artists” who use Poser models as reference as a good thing. Its not.

Owaikeo, you’re absolutely right, I can’t disagree with you. Your art is yours, but you can maybe read into our comments and let them steer you in new directions.

OwaikeO, I apologize for misinterpreting your words. Many artists’ works are not culturally relevant anyway, so you hopefully shouldn’t run into much prejudice of people thinking that, as a Kuwaiti artist, you should be restricted to only drawing Abraj Al-Kuwait (or whatever counts for Big Ben here)

Keep up the good work! 🙂

Patrick-
That is the thing patrick, I’m not professional, I don’t create business-related custom work. I like to take my time and try to deliver everything I have, while learning as well. This is why I almost never do anything custom, there are waaaay better people out there for me to fit in. Considering the time issue, I am aware that it’s long compared to others, but I guess this is how my work is, after all its just for fun.
I checked the website u put of sally, and yeah I get what u mean. I appreciate ur opinion.

Kataku –
Indeed, comments are always welcome, I always read and try and refine my work. Thanks 🙂

ambivert –
Thanks and no worries 🙂

brilliant…. this is really good work….you have a brilliant eye for detail.. and i like the fact that you stick to what you like about the work u do..

to tell you the truth guys… i tried to convince ahmed to start working business wise and start to make his work noticeable. he even could work on shops restaurants designs.

you guy should see his room !!

good luck ahmedooo

“Kuwaiti, although that does not matter, an artist is an artist no matter the origin”…

Then why mention it in the first place?

M:
Like i’ve mentioned earlier, I said this to eliminate the extra BOOST of interest just cuz im Kuwaiti. It really depends how you interpret at it.

thanks.

Wise:
Shloonik barhoom?? long time. mithil ma agoolik kel mara, I want to be an artist, not a graphic designer, they are plenty of them out there. I don’t want to be commercial, I create art for the sake of it.

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