Fire

Mudawamat

2012-02-19T10:19:00.000+02:00

Mudawamat مداومة is perseverance but also persistence, constancy through circumstances that may be less than easy. It is the persistence through disappointment, hurt, social pressure, exhaustion and so on, hence the bloody color.

Fuqr

2012-02-19T10:17:00.000+02:00

“Last night my teacher taught me the lesson of Poverty:
Having nothing and wanting nothing.”
~ Rumi

To clarify, this doesn't refer to external poverty, i.e. lacking the basic needs for a decent life. It is to our shame that we allow this to exist by preventing the planet's resources to be distributed evenly. The Poverty of the Heart represented here is a state of complete selflessness, having no desires for oneself and so being entirely in the service of the whole. This doesn't even mean living in poverty (unless by choice), but one certainly finds oneself keeping only what is needed as the desire to own things vanishes entirely.

Khawf

2012-02-19T10:12:00.000+02:00

Khawf خوف is the generic Arabic word for fear.

Khayal

2012-02-19T10:11:00.000+02:00

"One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious." ~ C.G. Jung

The Shadow (خيال) is a psychological concept that Jung defined in the simplest possible way as "the thing a person has no wish to be." It's a subject too vast and important to really describe here, so I'll just say that, as the quote above suggests, the first step towards achieving wholeness is to face and integrate one's shadow. This is true both in analysis and in spiritual traditions. For instance, in Sufism the initiation of this process is called Tawba, whereas the Christian tradition of confession harks back to such a practice (no longer really understood). Alchemists referred to the shadow as the prima materia, "vile and glorious", as it doesn't only contain our worst aspects, but also our unrealized potentials and natural gifts we have repressed due to familial or social pressure – as indicated by the gold in this composition.

Arabic has more than one word for "shadow", but as I couldn't find the one that was used to translate the Jungian concept (if any exist), I chose Khayal because it also means "imagination", "ghost" and even "essence (of a person)" – adequately evoking the multifaceted aspect of the Shadow.

Raghbat

2012-02-19T10:10:00.000+02:00

A notch above Shawq, Raghbat رغبة is yearning, desire, ardent longing.

"The seeds of yearning for the world are threefold:
excessive desires, little knowledge, and deadness of heart.
And the seeds of yearning for the hereafter are threefold as well:
few desires, illuminated knowledge, and living heart.
And the seeds of the yearning for God are threefold:
accepting the eternal summons, suffering a broken heart, and spiritual conscientiousness."
-- Ansari

Nafas

2012-01-10T12:43:00.001+02:00

Available as: Prints | Cards | Clothing

Nafas نفس is the Breath, which in many traditions is synonymous with Life itself.

Fitra

2012-01-10T12:40:00.000+02:00

Available as: Print

Fitra فطرة is the primordial nature (or natural disposition) of a thing or being when it is first created or born; it is the state of the newborn baby and "the natural human," completely unspoiled. The choice of white and silver was to underline the purity of that stage which is very much like a blank page.

Sukun

2011-12-28T08:10:00.002+02:00

Available as: Print | Clothing

A piece was requested for a TaijiQuan center, and I chose the word سكون,"stillness", which is literally at the core of this Chinese art.
The design was constructed around a single dot for the four ن , acting as still core.

Hayat

2011-12-09T16:38:00.002+02:00

Available as: Prints | Clothing

Hayat حياة is Life. The design is fractal in nature and suggests that Life ranges from infinitely small to infinitely large, and that it will always elude attempts to define where it begins and ends.

Ghayrat

2011-12-09T16:36:00.000+02:00

Available as: Print

Ghayrat غيرة, Jealousy, is listed as a station in Ansâri's Sad Maydan: "Jealousy is being envious of something you want but do not have, and nothing else can replace it."

Adab

2011-12-09T16:34:00.002+02:00

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Adab أدب, taken in its external meaning, refers to an art of courtesy and etiquette that is inexistent in the West and fast fading from the Middle East. Here, however, it refers to inner Adab, which is essentially the contrary of angst: it consists in bearing one's troubles with dignity and accepting them as belonging to Life.

I chose to leave the design colorless because part of this attitude is not to attract attention to it. You don't show that you're nursing your bleeding soul bravely, you just do.

Jalal

2011-12-09T16:30:00.000+02:00

Available as: Print

Jalal جلال, "majesty", is the complement to Jamal: together they refer to the two aspects of the divine, feminine and masculine, Divine Beauty and Divine Majesty.

Jamal

2011-12-09T16:27:00.002+02:00

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Jamal جمال means "beauty", and is a commonly used word as well as a first name, but my interest in it in this context is due to the pair it forms with Jalal, "majesty": together they refer to the two aspects of God, feminine and masculine, Divine Beauty and Divine Majesty.

Ne3mat

2011-11-09T16:28:00.004+02:00

Available as: Print | Cards | Calendar | T-shirt

Ne3mat نعمة is Grace, and a traditional blessing that calligraphers have been playing with on various objects for hundreds of years.

Calligraphy calendars

2011-11-09T16:14:00.002+02:00

By popular request, many of my designs are available collected in calendars. Each is offered both on RedBubble and on Cafepress as their layouts are different. The images included, however, are the same on both. Click the images to go to the calendars, where you can preview all the pages.

Path of the Heart:

12 designs relating to Sufism, in a natural progression (13 with the cover):
Allah, Ishq, Khidr, Sheikh, Rabita, Tawba, Shawq, Sabr, Wajd, Wujud, Fanaa', Baqaa'

RedBubble

Cafepress

Sacred Words:

12 designs touching on the sacred:
Grace, Patience, Dread, Witness, She, Shams, Einfall, Spirit, Mystery, Heart, Thanks, Passion

RedBubble

Cafepress

Sirr

2011-11-06T19:13:00.003+02:00

Available as: Print | Calendar | Clothing

Sirr سرّ is the "mystery", although it also translates as "secret", the third chamber of the heart after Qalb and Ruh. Its color is white, two shades of which are achieved by opposing Titanium and Pearlescent whites.

Qalb

2011-11-06T19:09:00.003+02:00

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Qalb قلب is the heart. It is the first of the lataif that are sometimes referred to as "chambers of the heart", though in some systems it is preceded by Nafs, the ego which is the lowest dimension of man. Qalb precedes Ruh and its color is yellow.

Khatrat

2011-11-06T19:06:00.001+02:00

Available as: Print | Calendar

To translate the notion of Khatrat خطرة, I use the German word Einfall which literally means "in-fall." Jungian psychologist Marie-Louise von Franz explains it thus: "It is something which drops into one's head; it falls in.... It is a beautiful word for something that suddenly pops up in consciousness, comes in a flash from the unconscious." The shortest English approximation would be a "passing or sudden thought". In Lebanese we say "Khatar 3a balo" meaning "It dropped on his mind."

Rahbat

2011-11-06T19:02:00.001+02:00

Available as: Print | Calendar

Rahbat رهبة is translated as "fright", but "dread" gives a better feel of the word. It is one of 5 maqamât listed by Ansari in Sad Maydan that correspond to different qualities of (sacred) fear: "For gazing towards Pre-eternity makes the heart unsettled and utterly overwhelms a man."

The other fears, to be treated in time, are Khawf (fear), Wajal (deep fear), Ishfaq (apprehension), Khushu' (humbleness).

Shukr

2011-11-06T18:56:00.003+02:00

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Shukr شكر means "thanks" (as in daily life "shukran" meaning "with thanks"). Gold mica pigments were mixed into the paint to give the color a shimmer.

Sheikh

2011-10-19T15:05:00.000+03:00

Available as: Print | Calendar

The Sheikh شيخ is the "elder", a leader or teacher. Traditionally, a Sufi Sheikh wears white (black if it's a woman).

Materials: Acrylics and gilding on 360g Murillo paper. The total paper size is 50x50cm.

Rabita

2011-10-19T15:04:00.000+03:00

Available as: Print | Calendar

The Rabita رابطة is the “tie”, the bond between teacher and disciple.
I was hoping for a design that would express the closeness of that relationship and was amazed when the letters lent themselves to such geometric intimacy.

Materials: Gilding and acrylics on 300g Cotman paper. The total paper size is 50x50cm.

Here's a glimpse of the pencils:

Baqaa'

2011-10-19T15:03:00.000+03:00

Available as: Print | Calendar

Baqaa' بقاء means "abiding" or "permanency", and is described by Ibn Arabi as "life with God, through God, in God, for God.... the summit of the mystical Abodes in the waiting for the Beloved." From Sad Maydan:

"... [over time] attachments will end, means will vanish, customs will be voided, limits will be broken, understandings will be eliminated, history will fade away, allusions are transient, expressions are negated, information will be wiped out, but God eternally exists, and He exists in His eternal Unity."

Materials: Gold and copper gilding and ink pens on Canson paper. The total paper size is 50x50cm.

Tawba

2011-10-02T09:28:00.001+03:00

Available as: Print | Calendar

The dictionary meaning of Tawba توبة is "repentance," but the meaning understood here is "the turning of the heart [to God or Truth]," the very first maqâm and the starting point of any spiritual path.

"Repentance is the signpost on the path, the leader of the kingdom, the key to the treasure, the intermediary that assists you to become united with God, the condition for being accepted to the divine presence, and the secret of all happiness."
-- Sad Maydân translated by Nahid Angha

'Ishq

2011-09-23T09:14:00.005+03:00

Available as: Prints | Cards | Clothing | Calendar (Sufism) | Calendar (sacred words) | Other products

'Ishq عشق means "passion", but in this context refers more properly to Agapé, divine love.
This is the most complex design I've tackled so far, as you can see from the pencils below. It has a rather special story, as I had tried several directions and could not find a good way of composing this word until, while sitting in a lecture with my sketchbook, the Speaker said in passing that "the rose had become the symbol of divine love." The composition came there and then.

Ruh

2011-09-23T09:04:00.004+03:00

Available as: Prints | Cards | Calendar | Clothing | Other products

Ruh روح is the spirit or soul (they're the same word in Arabic). Tradition calls it the "second chamber of the heart", the color of which is red.

The soul walks not upon a line, neither does it grow like a reed.
The soul unfolds itself like a lotus of countless petals.
~ Gibran Khalil Gibran

Shaheed

2011-09-20T11:30:00.001+03:00

Available as: Print | Calendar

The Shaheed شهيد is the Witness, where witnessing is defined as "observing consciously and without judgement", an activity emphasized by many spiritual traditions.
This word also means Martyr, originally specifically designating those who die in a state of witnessing. Sadly, today, only a degenerate understanding of the meaning "martyr" remains, while the form Shâhed only is used for "witness" (in the sense of court witness and such).

Shams

2011-09-20T11:22:00.002+03:00

Available as: Print | T-shirts | Calendar

"Shams" شمس means "sun" in Arabic, and that image directed my thinking, but this design is actually a homage to Shams Tabrizi, teacher and friend of Jalaluddin Rumi. Tradition says that Rumi was transformed by their meeting, and spent every moment of his waking life with him, so that his sons ended up killing Shams in jealousy*. It was his grief over this loss that moved Rumi to write an outpour of what would become the world's most loved poetry.

* The reality may have been different, but that's irrelevant.

This is one of the most abstract designs I've done. The word شمس is present 8 times, with the central mîm م shared by them all, working as a pivot. Below, a different angle makes the shine of the gold more evident.

Hadith

2011-09-16T11:14:00.001+03:00

Available as: Print

From Wikipedia: "In Arabic the word ḥadīth حديث‎ means 'a piece of information conveyed either in a small quantity or large'.... [The term] is used to denote a saying, act or tacit approval, validly or invalidly, ascribed to the Islamic prophet Muhammad." This word would also be used to mean aphorisms in general.
The composition hints at the fact they have a hidden esoteric meaning that is more precious than the exoteric one.

Materials: Acrylics and gilding on 300g Cotman paper. The total paper size is 50x50cm.

Sabr

2011-09-15T10:00:00.005+03:00

Available as: Print | Cards | Calendar (Sufism) | Calendar (sacred words) | T-shirt | Other products

Sabr صبر means Patience, and is said to be a maqâm (station) of the Sufi path.

Materials: Watercolor and gilding on 300g Cotman paper. The total paper size is 50x50cm.

Licenses for Cedarseed icons

2011-08-17T22:19:00.003+03:00

Based on the many requests I've been receiving to use my icons, I have set up 4 license types described below. Please look up the one that fits your need and contact me for an agreement.
(For use in a logo or as app icon go straight to Exclusive license)

Standard License

This is the default license you agree to when you download a free icon set from Cedarseed.com. This license allows you to use the icons on your desktop and to install the icons on all the computers of your household.

Restrictions:
- For any other use, see the other licenses below. (I may give permission for limited, non-profit use such as a school presentation; please inquire.)
- Icons may not be converted to PNGs without permission, let alone distributed as such.
- Icons may not be redistributed. To share, just post a link to http://cedarseed.com/fire/icons.html
- Icons remain the property of Cedarseed.

Indie License

This license is required to use the icons on a personal or non-profit website or in a creator-owned app.
- A fee of $10 per 5 icons applies (number of icons will be rounded up to the nearest 5)
- The chosen icons will be provided in the format and size requested for that specific use.
- Credit in the form of "[title] icons licensed from Cedarseed.com" is required.

Restrictions:
- Icons may not be redistributed, resold or applied on merchandise to be sold.
- No icon set will be licensed in its entirety.
- Icons remain the property of Cedarseed.

Commercial license

This license is required for any business that wishes to use the icons, whether digitally or in print (this includes promotional giveaways but excludes merchandise.)
- A fee of $40 per 5 icons applies (number of icons will be rounded up to the nearest 5)
- The chosen icons will be provided as .icos, .icns, .png and high-res, icon-size .pngs suitable for printing.
- Note that this license is non-exclusive.

Restrictions:
- Icons may not be redistributed, resold or applied on merchandise to be sold.
- No icon set will be licensed in its entirety.
- Icons remain the property of Cedarseed.

Exclusive license

This is to order personal, custom icons. Exclusive use of the icon is granted to you and Cedarseed will not license the icon to anyone else nor display it as a download, or showcase it without a hallmark.

If you need an icon to use as part of a logo or as an app logo, this license is compulsory as I do not allow my pre-existing, freely distributed icons to be used for branding (nor should you want a brand image to which you have no rights and that is used all over the place).

To proceed with this, please send me a brief for a cost estimate.

Fanaa'

2011-08-16T23:11:00.002+03:00

Available as: Print | Digital print | Calendar

Fanaa' فناء is the Sufi concept of extinction or self-annihilation, equivalent to Buddhist nirvana, that is also known as "death before dying".
The photo renders the original as well as possible, given the unusual materials it is made of: silver leaf in the center, then progressively more transparent degrees of silver, a logically impossible feat achieved by the use of metallic rub-ons.

While sketching to find the essence of the word, I realized that if I stripped the letters down to their simplest possible square expression, each was exactly half the preceding one, so that the word acted out what it spelled out. This is demonstrated in the animation below:

This discovery became the basis of my design, which both rotates like a vortex and is "extinguished" into black.

Hiya

2011-08-03T16:36:00.004+03:00

Available as: Print | Cards | Calendar | Clothing | Other products

Hiya هي means She or Her. This piece is packed with symbolism:
The base number of 5 used here is number of the Feminine, and it permeates the design. The paper size is 55cm, and the whole composition is built on three circles of, respectively, 40 cm (5x8, the number of completion), 25cm (5x5) and 15cm (5x3, which is also strongly associated with women). Three significant shapes are used: the circle, the vesica piscis and the lunar crescent, while the whole arrangement looks like a flower. Finally, the crescents are "pregnant" with golden "seeds" of potential.

Completed construction lines

Outlines completed in silver, which had to be done both before and after coloring.

Allah

2011-08-03T16:25:00.001+03:00

Available as: Print | Calendar

Contrary to misconceptions, Allah الّله is the Arabic word for God, and therefore used by Arab Christians and Jews as well as Muslims. Though as this design is also a mandala, its reach goes beyond the "people of the Book".

Materials: Ecoline and gilding on 300g Cotman paper. The total paper size is 50x50cm.

A glimpse of the pencils:

Gilded and inked, awaiting the ultramarine fills.

Wujud

2011-08-03T16:24:00.004+03:00

Available as: Prints | Cards | Clothing | Calendar | Other products

Wujūd وجود is usually translated as "existence, presence, being" but its original meaning is "being found" (implying "found by God", a state where one is "annihilated by immersion in the Creator.")

Materials: Acrylics and gilding on 300g Cotman paper. The total paper size is 50x50cm.

Glimpse of the lineart before filling:

Al-Khidr

2011-08-03T16:09:00.003+03:00

Available as: Print | Calendar

Materials: watercolor, silver leaf and gel pen on 300g Cotman paper. Paper size is 50x50cm.

Al-Khidr الخضر, "the green one" is a mythical figure of Islam loosely situated as contemporary of Moses. In Lebanese folklore he's sometimes identified with St George, the patron of Beirut. Two points about Khidr, the fact he lives "where the two seas meet" and he is referred to as the wisest man, indicate that as a mythological figure he descends straight from the Canaanite god El, and beyond him to the Mesopotamian Ea, both of which lived at the meeting of the two seas in the Underworld and were called wisest of the wise.

Khidr's role as initiator of prophets and archetypical wali (Sufi saint) is best known from this story told in the Qur'an:

At the place where the two seas meet, Moses met Khidr, one whom Allâh had given knowledge of Himself. Moses asked Khidr, “May I follow you so that you may guide me by that which you have been taught?”
“You will not be able to bear with me,” Khidr replied. “For how can you bear with that which is beyond your knowledge?”
Moses said, “If Allâh wills you will find me patient; I shall not disobey you in anything.”
Khidr said, “If you want to follow me, you must not ask any questions about anything, until I myself speak to you about it.”
The two set out. They embarked on a ship and immediately Khidr bored a hole in the
bottom of the ship.
“What a strange thing you have done!” exclaimed Moses. “Have you bored a hole in order
to drown the ship’s passengers?”
“Did I not tell you,” he replied, “that you would not bear with me?”
“Pardon my forgetfulness,” said Moses. “Do not be angry with me because of this.”
They continued on their journey until they met a young man. Moses’ companion killed this young man, and Moses said: “You have killed an innocent man who has done nothing wrong. You have committed a wicked crime.”
“Did I not tell you,” Khidr replied, “that you would not bear with me?”
Moses said: “If I ever question you again, abandon me; for then I would have deserved it.”
They journeyed on until they came to a certain city. They asked the people for some
food, but these people would not receive them as guests. Finding a wall on the point of falling down, Moses’ companion repaired it. Moses said to his companion, “If you had wanted, you could have asked payment for your work.”
“The time has now come when we must separate,” said Khidr. “But first I will explain to
you the meaning of those acts which you could not bear to watch with patience.
“The ship belonged to some poor fishermen. I damaged it because if it had gone to sea it
would have been captured by a king who was seizing every boat by force.
“The young man was a criminal, who would have committed many crimes that would have brought sorrow to many people, including his parents.
“As for the wall, it belonged to two orphaned boys in the city whose father was an honest
man. Beneath the wall their treasure is buried. Allâh decreed in his mercy that they should dig out this treasure when they grew to manhood. What I did was not by my own will.
“That is the meaning of my acts which you could not bear to watch with patience."

Wajd

2011-08-03T16:00:00.003+03:00

Available as: Print | Cards | Calendar | Clothing

Wajd وجد can be translated as "ecstasy". The design provides a swirl of patterns that appear and transforms as you contemplate it, with the dots seeming to dance over the paper from which they are separated by their metallic sheen.

Materials are acrylic and gouache paints, ink pens and gold/silver leaf on 300g Cotman paper. The total paper size is 50x50cm.

A glimpse of the lineart before coloring:

Shawq

2011-06-17T17:15:00.005+03:00

Available as: Prints | Cards | White on red | Clothing | Calendar

شوق or shawq means "longing". The final ق qaf was stylized into an egg shape, evoking the potentiality/pregnancy symbolism that goes with this concept. With the head of the qaf a circle neatly arranged with the other two letters as equal circles, mirrored by the 3 dots of the ش, an elegant flower shape was obtained. The "potentiality" within the qaf is gold (leaf), completing the symbolism. The number 3 dominates the design.

Several pages of development sketches led to this final concept.

Photos: Sacred Places

2011-05-15T20:42:00.003+03:00

Ascension. Mihintale, Sri Lanka
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Dagoba in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka
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Debre Birhan Silassie, Gondar, Ethiopia
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Fox shrine, Fushimi-inari, Japan

Church of Hallgrímskirkja, Reykjavik, Iceland
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Wat door in Luang Prabang, Laos
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Devotional oil pouring, Doi Suthep, Thailand
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Gaudí's Sagrada Familia, Barcelona, Spain
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Bet Maryam in Lalibela, Ethiopia
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Edjmiadzin, spiritual center of Armenia
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Jizô Bosatsu, guardian of the souls of children
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Geghard monastery, Armenia
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Gates of Dên Ngoc Son, Ha Noi, Viêt Nam
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Daibutsu, Great Buddha of Kamakura, Japan
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Daibutsu close-up
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Hall of Initiates: Geghard, Armenia
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Khor Virap monastery, Armenia
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Sleeping Buddha, Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka

Bet Medhane Alem with circumbulating nun, Lalibela, Ethiopia
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Zazendo in Take-in temple, Japan

A wat in Luang Prabang, Laos
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Canterbury cathedral, UK
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Uspenski Sobor, Moscow, Russia
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Meiji-Jingû, Tokyo
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Photos: Portraits

2011-05-15T20:00:00.002+03:00

Vibrant: Flowery Hmong of Bac Ha, Viêt Nam
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Girl with the Silver Earring
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A girl and her toy... Nara, Japan
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Flower baby, Bac Ha, Viêt Nam
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Fisherman preparing bait, Tyre, Lebanon

Chinese chess game in Ha Noi, Viêt Nam
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Keeper of the Word: Priest of Debre Maryam, Lake Tana,
Ethiopia, with the church's illuminated 13th-c. Bible

Star of the day at the Shichi-go-san festival, Japan

Pride: portrait within a portrait on the ferry to Cat Ba, Viêt Nam
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Hmong New Year festivities near Luang Prabang, Laos

Serenity: young monk in Luang Prabang, Laos

Spontaneity: aspiring artists expressing themselves
in my travel diary in Luang Prabang, Laos

Uncertainty: Padaung refugees in Thailand

Photos: Patterns & Textures

2011-05-15T19:39:00.000+03:00

Beauty in decay: old van on a Beirut street, Lebanon
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Wooden frieze on a house in Ambalavao, Madagascar

Grande Poste, Algiers

One of many passages through the rock, Lalibela, Ethiopia

Temple ema, Kyoto, Japan

Temple ema in Fushimi-inari, Kyoto, Japan

Ornamental detail in Nikkô, Japan

Umbrellas drying in Bo Sang, Thailand
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Sake offerings in Meiji-jingû, Tokyo, Japan

Aftermath of the Easter mass in the Vatican

Photos: Nature

2011-05-15T19:26:00.002+03:00

Land of the Bone Trees: Cobdogla, Australia
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Mushroom population on a fence at St Fagan, Wales, UK
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Gardens Below: Finger coral while snorkeling in the Seychelles
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Pyrochloros: Blazing leaf in Kew Gardens, London

Majestic columnar basalt at the Symphony of Stones, Armenia
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The splendid hues of the Indian Ocean, Mahé island, Seychelles

Rocks of Anja, gate to the South in Madagascar
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Forgotten Land: northern Laos
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Momijigari (leaf viewing time) in Japan

Momiji in Crimson...
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Momiji in Saffron...

Momijigari in gold...
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Maple Red, Takao-san, Japan
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Autumn in Nikko
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Three tones of Autumn
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Siam Scarlet: Orchids at the Thai-Myanmar border

Terrace of the Méridien Barbarons, Seychelles
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In Madagascar, the poinsettia shares the island's name: Madagasikara (red).
See Print

Photos: (Extra)ordinary Life

2011-05-15T19:06:00.002+03:00

Floating market in Ha Long bay, Viêt Nam
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Impatience... A deer keeping a close eye on transactions in Nara, Japan

Sequential Beach: Beauvallon, Seychelles
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We're Listening: Berlin, Germany
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Dress shop in the souks of Tripoli, Lebanon
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Shinto handmaiden in Nikko, Japan
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The Falaj near Nizwa, Oman

Wood bearers running home to Faliarivo
in Zafimaniry country, Madagascar

In my Shop: Luang Prabang povince, Laos
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Mequamiat or prayer stick at a lake monastery
in Bahar Dar, Ethiopia
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More colors! At the Bac Ha market, Viêt Nam
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Potential... Tripoli souks, Lebanon
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The Heart is a Bloom. Deir el Kamar, Lebanon
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Photos: Dawn & Dusk

2011-05-15T18:42:00.001+03:00

Sunset on the harbor in the island of Cat Ba, Viêt Nam
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Amber Dawn on Tissawewa lake, Sri Lanka
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Sunset over Lebanon seen from Harissa

Algerian sunrise 1: Powder
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Algerian sunrise 2: Blush
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Algerian sunrise 3: Gold
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Stormy sunrise in Algiers

One more Algerian sunrise...

Photos: Architecture

2011-05-15T18:28:00.001+03:00

A house in Ambalavao, Madagascar
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A Tomb for the Tombless: Tzitzernakaberd Genocide memorial, Yerevan, Armenia

Kinkakujin, "the golden pavilion", Kyoto, Japan

Vestiges of Amberd fortress, Armenia

The Princess's sitting room, Beiteddine palace, Lebanon
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Dale Chihuly's art at the Atlantis hotel, Dubai
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At the top of the fortress of Sigiriya, Sri Lanka

Nizwa, Oman

La Pedrera by Gaudí, Barcelona, Spain

Art Deco period building in Beirut, Lebanon

Broken grid, Beirut, Lebanon

Potsdam, Germany

Wink: temple windows in Chiang Mai, Thailand
See Print (diptych): print 1, print 2

Photos: Animals

2011-05-15T10:13:00.004+03:00

My window, our cat, gel gems... no photomanip!
See Print

A toy and the real thing in Nara, Japan
See Print

Lemur captured in Ramonafane park, Madagascar

Lengur taking it easy in Sigiriya, Sri Lanka

Imperturbable young lion in Ngorongoro, Tanzania
See Print

A rare sighting: 17 lionesses and cubs looking for shade in Serengeti, Tanzania

Enormous affection: two young (male) elephants cuddling. Serengeti, Tanzania
See Print

Autumn koi, Nikko, Japan

Dry-docked (and dangerous!) hippo in Serengeti, Tanzania

Perfection on legs: young leopard and prey (a dik-dik) in Serengeti, Tanzania
See Print

A lucky catch: a striped mongoose in Ramonafane, Madagascar
See Print

Moral support before getting wet; Ngorongoro, Tanzania

Zebra family in Ngorongoro, Tanzania

Autumn-masked tortoises in Barbados

A sculptural cormorant in Muthurajawela reserve, Sri Lanka

Huddled against the tide, Barbarons, Seychelles

The day millions of snails took over Tyre, Lebanon

65 Classic Cocktails

2011-03-31T22:49:00.003+03:00

Available as: Print | Recipe magnets | Shirts
Download: Icon set (Mac & PC)
See also: More food-related sets

While the originals should only be consumed with great moderation, here's a collection of drinks that can be enjoyed at will! The International Bartender Association lists 65 official cocktails and they are all here.

(Note only that the champagne drinks are not included in the icon set because they're too tall and thin to make good icons.)

Driving in Lebanon

2011-03-25T11:04:00.004+02:00

Volume 1 is completely out of print! As of February 2012 I'm finalizing an e-book version that combines volume 1 (revised) and volume 2 in a single book. If funds allow, I may print it later in the year. In the meanwhile, if you'd like to be notified when the e-book is available, please drop me a line. Thank you!

Extracts

Dragi & Me

2011-03-25T10:31:00.001+02:00

For a little while I lived with an outrageously cheeky African grey timneh parrot. He inspired a number of popular comic strips and many, many tweets, which are collected in a 56-page book that is also available as an ebook for all devices. Below is a sample selection.

Stories of my Life

2011-03-25T09:55:00.004+02:00

(Posted in order of making, most recent at the top, not chronologically)

Resume

2011-03-02T08:30:00.006+02:00

Name: Joumana Medlej
Location: Beirut, Lebanon
Birth date: 1979
Services: Illustration and graphic design: corporate, layout, interactive & web, packaging, retail, print, animation, character design...
Prefers/specializes in: Illustration, custom icons, storyboards, calligraphy (Kufi styles), character design, infographics.
Note: I no longer take jobs from advertising agencies (and I recommend you get out of there while you still have a soul).
Contact.

Bio

Joumana started drawing in middle school and has not been able to stop since. Self-taught in figure drawing and comic theory, she graduated in 2001 with a Bachelor's in Graphic Design from the American University of Beirut. She worked as an animator for Future TV then decided to freelance in order to be exposed to different jobs and creative hobbies. She was involved in mail art, learned bookbinding and other crafts, experimented with mixed media and watercolor, which gave rise to several exhibits, as did her travel photography. Eventually she came around full circle to her first love: graphic novels and illustration. She is currently most focusing on her comic book, Malaak: Angel of Peace, and on co-authoring of a series of children's books about Lebanon. She also works as assistant to prof. Samir Sayegh, as art director/concept artist of Quirkat Digital Entertainment Solutions, and still writes travel articles.

The wide array of techniques Joumana experimented with, combined with her practical design training, led her to a creative approach where the boundaries between traditional and digital mediums, photography, and crafts are dismissed. Not feeling bound to any one medium, she puts her entire arsenal of skills to use, going back and forth between physical and virtual work desks to achieve the desired result. This can mean anchoring illustrations in reality by introducing photos, or turning digital creations into handmade objects. Joumana's subject matter revolves largely around what her life is most involved with: Lebanon, martial arts and ethnography.

Professional Experience

Long term:

In collaboration with prof. Samir Sayegh, art and design work for the Royal Hashemite Court since '09.
Author, illustrator and publisher of Malaak: Angel of Peace, first Lebanese action/superhero graphic novel in Lebanon, since '07 (Full list of clippings here)
Co-author and illustrator for the Lebanese Heritage series of educational books, numbering 11 titles as of June '10 (previews and more info here)
Art director & Concept artist, Quirkat Digital Entertainment Solutions, since Aug. '07
Assistant to prof. Samir Sayegh, calligrapher, since May '07
Storyboards and misc. work for H&C Leo Burnett since '01, for Saatchi & Saatchi since '09
Travel photography appears in local (Noun, Femme Magazine, Joseph) and international magazines (Vogue Germany, al Buraq) since '00
Freelance writer for Noun, Femme Magazine and l'Orient-le-Jour des Copains (articles, photos and illustrations) since March '00, for Joseph biyearly magazine since Nov. '05

Selected projects:

Visual concept and graphics for Basha Card Game Collection for Playstation, Jan '11
Visual concept and graphics for Quirkat Fantasy Football, June '10
Co-author and illustrator of Verre et Verriers, Apr. '10
Gallery Moderator for the Comics & Cartoons gallery, deviantART, Jan '09 - May '10
Co-author and illustrator of Tyr et son Histoire, Nov. '09
Visual concept and graphics for Al-Moosiqar, '09.
Co-author and illustrator of Au Temps de la Mouné, Apr. '09
Co-author and illustrator of Jeita: histoires de Grottes, May '08
Logo upgrade and website design for the Permanent Peace Movement, '08
Graphics and animations for the mobile game Tariq's Treasure, '07
Co-author and illustrator of Maisons du Liban, Dec. '07 (clipping: La Revue de l'ATCL)
Art direction, graphics and animations for Tariq's Treasure, '07
Co-author and illustrator of Tortues de Mer, Apr. '07
Visual for the Zahle International Marathon, Apr. '07
Design, illustration and layout of Running ME (magazine), Nov. '06
Co-author and illustrator of Gubla, Byblos, Jbeil, Nov. '06.
Storyboards for DDBLevant, July '06
Co-author and illustrator of De l'Olive au Hammam, published by Dar-en-Nahar, May '06
Website design and programming for ex nihilo, Nov. '05
Co-author and illustrator of Le Cèdre du Liban, published by Dar-en-Nahar, Oct. '05. (clipping: Noun)
Print and web design for Youssef al-Gosaibi & Partners Co. for Trading and Contracting, '05-'06
Animation of Tarteeb el-Aradi documentary for the Council of Development and Reconstruction, July '05
Co-author and illustrator of La Pourpre et la Soie, published by Dar-en-Nahar, June '05
Copywriting for ex nihilo design house since March '05
Animated clips and DVD cover for Litani Project documentary, May '05
Illustrations, billboards for Howtowow Beauty Salon, May '05
Co-author and illustrator of Les Fouilles de Beyrouth, published by Dar-en-Nahar, October '04. (clippings: Noun, L'Orient-le-Jour des Copains)
Character design and illustrations for Channel Design, July '04
Website design and programming for SilverDeco, March'04
Brochures for DT and affiliated restaurants/boutiques, March '04
Interior and exterior architectural concept art and illustrations for Fluid, February '04
Corporate identity for DoraFarm, February '04
Give-away item for Reuters' ACI conference (as part of a team), August '03
Freelance writer for the Daily Star July '03 - April '04
Storyboards for Pimo Lintas, '03
Storyboard and animatics for Horizons L.T.D. January '03
Assistant professor, Computer Animation, AUB fall '02-03
Judge on the panel of the Nike Competition for Young Filmmakers, London, July '02
Professional experience at Britshorts (short films distribution company), London, June-July '02
Website design for Indigo Red travel agency, April '02
Series of animated documentaries for the Ministry of Social Affairs, '01-'02
Illustration and layout of schoolbooks for Sabis International Charter School, '01-'03
Zen TV Public Awareness Campaign, Spring '02
Future TV/Zen TV Animation Department April '01 - November '02
Print and animated ads, storyboards, illustrations for Vertigo ad agency, '00-'04
Layout and illustration for the AUB Museum Newsletter, July '00 - February '02
Workshop with Wolfgang Weingart February '00
Workshop with Paul Mijksenaar April '99
Professional experience at Leogravure colour separation house, July-August '99

Education

BGD (Bachelors of Graphic Design),
American University of Beirut
Department of Architecture and Design
Graphic Design Program
A four year program studying experimental methodologies in graphic and communication design. Areas of emphasis: graphic and communication design, publications, packaging, corporate identity, retail design, illustration, animation, typography (Latin/Arabic), interactive and web design.
French Baccalaureate II, Collège Louise Wegmann, June 97 (mention Bien)

Features, Achievements, Exhibitions

RAGMAG, Jan '11
LBC, Helwe w Murra, Sept '10
Absolute Beirut, May '10 (page 1, page 2)
Medi1Sat, May '10 (French, Arabic)
Noun, Dec. '08
El Watan (Algiers) for the Festival de la BD, Oct. '08
Libano em Revista (Brazil), June '08
babelMed.net, Liban: 3 visages de la création au féminin, June '08 (French, English)
Nox, May '08.
Featured on LBC as part of Banque Libano-Française's Eich Toumouhatak (season 1), since May '08
NOW Lebanon, Apr. '08
Guest on Orbit's Uyoun Beirut, 17 Mar '08
Work appeared in Designers' Desktop 3, Japan, Mar '08
deviantART, Feb. '08
The World (U.S. National Public Radio, click to listen), Feb. '08
Academix (spread 1, spread 2), Jan. '08
Noun, Jan. '08
Sayidaty, Jan. '08 (extended version on the journalist, Melissa Sabin's blog)
Elle Oriental, Jan. '08
Featured on LBC's Naharkom Sa3eed, Jan. '08
El Mundo (Spain), Dec. '07
Alinea, la newsletter de la Librairie Antoine Dec. 07
L'Orient-Le Jour, Dec. '07
Lebrecord.com, May '07 (feature and interview)
Art exhibit at the Ceramic Lounge, March-April '07 (featured in Al-Anwar)
Idées de Cadres, France, December '06
Photography exhibit in Art Lounge, Oct-Nov '06 (featured in L'Orient-Le Jour, The Daily Star, Noun)
Aishti Magazine, Apr '06
Kul al 'Usra, U.A.E., Nov '05
Art exhibit in ADG, Gemmayze, Oct '05. (clippings: L'Orient-le-Jour)
Featured in Cedarwings, in-flight magazine of Middle East Airlines, issue #89 Oct-Nov '05. (p1, p2, p3)
Featured on LBC's Naharkom Sa3eed, Oct '05.
MacLife, Germany, August '05 (p1, p2)
Femme Magazine, April '05.
Art exhibit in Salon-de-Provence, France, December '04.
Art exhibit in the Jounieh Municipality, November '04.
Art exhibit in JABAL, Musée Paul Guiragossian, November '04.
Guest on LBC's Tea Time, June '04.
Art exhibit in ADG, Gemmayze, June '04. (clippings: L'Orient-le-Jour, Al Balad)
Noun, May '04.
Art exhibit in Tokyo, April '04.
Work appeared in Websites 100% loaded (Feierabend, May '04).
Work appeared in Web Design Index '04.
Work appeared in MacPeople Japan vol. 7.1, June '03 and in Mac Fan, Oct '03.
Festival de la Bande Dessinée, May '03, animations.
Guest on Zen TV's Dardashat, October '01.
Honorable mention in the 2001 Motor Trend International Design Contest; entry exhibited at the 2002-Model California International Auto Show in Anaheim, California.
Featured in L'Orient-Le Jour, August 10, '99. (clipping) (clipping)
AUB Dean's Honor List Spring '97-'98, Fall '97-'98 and Fall '00-'01.

Skills

Graphic novels (scenario, story sequencing, execution), creative Arabic calligraphy (Kufi styles), photography, HTML, CSS, gilding, mixed media, bookbinding, French and English copywriting.

Interests

Martial arts: WuShu and Taiji Quan (learning, teaching, judging; medalled in competitions 2003-2010), globetrotting, maintaining a personal website since '97, character design, car design, jewelry design, essay and fiction writing, language and linguistics, Advanced Open Water Diver; member of the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and of Children International.

Languages

	Reading/Writing	Speaking/Listening
French	Native tongue	Native tongue
English	Fluent	Fluent
Arabic	Good	Fluent
Italian	Good/basic	Fair/good
Armenian	-	Basic

Earthlings

2011-03-01T09:34:00.002+02:00

Earthlings is a range of young characters from various cultures, blending splendid traditional dress with fashionable graphics and enough cuteness to melt the polar caps.

Available as: T-shirt | Various

Esiankiki

Available as: T-shirt | Various

A young Maasai lady from Eluwai, Kenya, Esiankiki is crazy about beads and dancing.

Toua

Available as: T-shirt | Various

Toua is a Hmong boy, born near Luang Prabang, Laos. He likes the New Year feasting but dislikes snakes and cameras!

Lilja

Available as: T-shirt | Various

Lilja is from the Sami people, also known as Lapps. She loves taking care of her reindeer foal and listening to her grandpa chanting yoik.

Ilikili

Available as: T-shirt | Various

A Cuna girl from Panama, Ilikili has an immoderate love of the coconuts her family grows!

Noyremu

Available as: T-shirt | Various

Noyremu is a Kayapo, more accurately known as Mebengokre, from the Amazon basin in Brazil. He enjoys hunting and body paint and can't wait to earn his own blowgun.

Tjingee

Available as: T-shirt | Various

Tjingee belongs to the nomadic Himba people in Namibia. Every morning she carefully anoints herself with red otjize paste and wears the jewelry she proudly made herself.

Bleak set

2011-03-01T08:34:00.002+02:00

This (ongoing) series is created on Illustrator. It is strictly black and white with 1 or 2 supporting hues. Ambiguous symbolism is a part of it, so I don't offer up explanations, rather I leave it to personal interpretation.

Dark Angel

The subjective portrait that set the tone for all that followed.

Dilemma

Available as: Print | T-shirt

Ten Devil Woman

Available as: Print | T-shirt | Other

Woke up in a cold sweat For the fourth time tonight
Had a coughing fit, reached for the Marlboro Lights
Probably an idea to get out of bed
Mother phone me up, wish me good morning, say:
"Son you've not been yourself for a day or two
Because the Ten Devil Woman's put a curse on you."

Guitar is out of tune, fingers too sore to play
The less Anton Chekhov, the more Anton LaVey
Delirium tremens or just plain old shakes
Got to get a grip, whatever it takes
The doctor looked at me and said, "Son,nothing I can do
Because the Ten Devil Woman's put a curse on you."

Exit me stage left, pursued by a bear
Get me clean out of the whole affair
No second chances, no sympathy votes
I got a voodoo wishbone stuck n my throat
I think I need a trip to Memphis, Tennessee
Because the Ten Devil Woman's put a curse on me.

She put a curse on me...

Ten Devil Woman © Bleak - listen to it on their MySpace page

Sweet Sorrows

Available as: T-shirt | Other

Khatt in logotypes

2011-02-28T19:52:00.002+02:00

Corporate logos

The logo for Fuzztak, the game distribution platform operated by Quirkat of which I am part. Both companies underwent a rebranding in late 2010 and I needed to design a logo that would be game-related, iconic, convenient for use in print and online, on light and dark backgrounds, and that would somehow express our Middle-Eastern, bilingual identity as that was the way in which we most stand out.
I dearly wanted to avoid attempting to express the Middle-East pictorially, as that would be unavoidably cliché. I thought instead of a typographic treatment using the letter F in both languages, which look like this:

At the same time, an appropriate way to refer to digital gaming was to evoke pixels, by using a grid of squares. This fit perfectly for two reasons: working with grids was one of the ways in which Kufic script is created, and it would complement the grid of circles in the Quirkat logo:

Treated as grids, the two letters merged beautifully in a symmetrical design that had a square ratio and was even heart-shaped.

The "pixels" were spaced out, given rounded corner, and the two logos were further tied together by keeping the same color scheme and font. And voilà:

Personal logos

Enrica (left) and Massimo (right)

The request was for stylistically related logos for these two names. I created the script specifically to suit them.
This falls under Kufi because it's constructed rather than written, but it's not based on any existing style, only on the principles of construction that define the letters. The method here is to contemplate the word and find its own internal dynamics, which dictate their own design options, and then construct it using clear geometric values: angles of 30, 45 or 60º, and constructions units that are related throughout (the line thickness to gap ratio would be 1:1, 2:1, 4:1, etc.) Nothing is "loose", every point has an alignment.
All the "rules" blossomed beautifully here. These so-called "restrictions" make it all the more magical when things fall in place through no doing of yours but because you hit upon the right proportions. It's not so much about creating a design as it is about finding it. The most personal touch here is my choice of using a semicircular tail to tie the names together (after the Maghribi script which I love). Adding the tail to the kaf ending (inside the square) was a flight of fancy, but it allowed me to fill the empty space and complete the overall balance.

Two variants on the name Mona

The final product here was a handmade book bearing the name Mona, for which I created 2 calligraphic designs (left) to be applied as an abstract ornamentation (right.) The recipient loves birds, so one design is geometric, arranged in a frieze, from which the second, more ornamental and wing-shaped, can break out.

Baklawa & Halawa

2011-02-24T19:54:00.007+02:00

Available as: Print (English or Arabic) | T-shirts | Various products
Download: Icon set (Mac & PC)
See also: More food-related sets

A collection of sweet pastries and desserts from Lebanon and the region.

Below is a brief description of each, as far as I could make them because I haven't tasted all of these!

Asabeh: "Fingers", crispy paste rolled over a stuffing.
Atayef: Sweet crepe filled with cheese or nuts, served with 'atr (sugar syrup with orange blossom water), usually during Ramadan.
Baklawa: The generic, layered pastry, with chopped nuts , soaked with 'atr.
Barazek:Flat pistachio and sesame cookies.
Barma: "Roll", shredded wheat rolled around a stuffing.
Basma: "Smile", square semolina pastries stuffed with nuts.
Bellawrieh:Square pastry made of a fibrous wheat paste, stuffed with pistachios and soaked in 'atr.
Faysalieh: A triangle of pastry stuffed with pistachios.
Ghazel banet: "Flirtation of girls", cotton candy
Ghoraybeh: Lebanese shortbread cookie made simply with flour and sugar.
Halawet el jibn: Lebanese dessert made of cheese dough, ashta (a thick clotted cream) and rose jam.
Halawet el rizz: Rice mixed with white cheese and sugar, served with ashta.
Hrisseh: A soft, dense Lebanese cake associated with Christian holidays.
Jazarieh: Despite its "carroty" name, it's made of grated candied pumpkin mixed with nuts.
Kallaj: Fried wheat layer filled with ashta, specially served during Ramadan.
Karabij: Shortbread fingers served with a special white cream made of egg whites, 'atr and soapwort.
Kol wa Shkor: "Eat and give thanks", crunchy half-moon-shaped paste filled with pistachios or nuts.
Maakaron:
Maamoul: Shortbread pastries stuffed with pistachios, nuts or dates, molded in characteristic wooden molds. They're associated with religious holidays – Easter or Ramadan. Easter maamouls are made in two shapes: round (stuffed with dates) to symbolize the crown of thorns, and oval (stuffed with nuts or pistachios) to symbolize the sponge Christ was given to quench his thirst.
Maamoul madd: Maamoul prepared in a "spread" and cut up rather than individually molded.
Mafroukeh: A festive dessert recipe, made of layers of semolina, ashta cream and roasted nuts.
Mloukieh: ?
Nabolsieh: Cheese dessert topped with crushed pistachios and 'atr.
Nammoura: Square pieces of golden semolina cake topped with almonds.
Osh el bolbol: "The nightingale's nest".
Osmalieh: Fibrous wheat paste sandwiching ashta cream
Salwa: ?
Sanyoura: A sugar cookie.
Sfouf: A Lebanese cake from almond-semolina flour flavored with turmeric (hence the bright yellow), sugar, and pine nuts.
Sheaibiyat: Triangles of crispy pastry layers filled with ashta.
Taj el malek: "The king's crown", shredded wheat crowns filled with pistachios.
Taj ashta: A "crown" with ashta, a thick clotted cream.
Tamara: ?
Ward el Sham: "The Rose of Damascus", ashta between two layers of crispy phyllo dough.
Znoud el sitt: "The lady's arms"

Recurring ingredients:
Fostoq: pistachio
Snobar: pine nut
Tamar: date
Joz: Walnut

Basha

2011-01-19T16:37:00.009+02:00

From Quirkat's website: "The first ever Arabic title developed for the PlayStation minis platform, compatible with both the PSP and PS3 consoles. It includes three of the most popular card games in the Middle East: Basha Trix, Basha Tarneeb and Basha Baloot."

Player close-ups

Quirkat Classics

2010-12-22T11:06:00.001+02:00

From Quirkat's website: "Quirkat’s line of classics is inspired from ancient Middle Eastern and international board and puzzle games."

Quirkat the game is a two-player paying homage to our company namesake.

Quirkat pegs, for a single player, harks back to when this ancient game was played with pebbles on sand.

Euroscorers

2010-12-01T16:17:00.005+02:00

From Quirkat's website: "Fully customizable, visually rich Facebook apps which appeal to the international market, available in four languages (Arabic, English, French and traditional Chinese). The game allows users to create their own leagues in which they can compete head to head against selected friends. They can increase their team budgets by sending and receiving virtual currency among friends, and can top up the player transfer quota as the real life matches progress; all through in-game micro-transactions."

My own "MiniFu style" was my choice of look for this type of game that has be updated constantly, allowing us to represent the players figuratively in a genre that usually cannot afford such detail.

Euroscorers shortly followed our original fantasy football game that accompanied the 2010 FIFA World Cup:

Creative Kokeshi & Kimono Designs

2010-11-25T19:32:00.010+02:00

Available as: Print (English, Kanji or no text) | T-shirts & stickers | Various products
Download: icon set (Mac & PC)

Kokeshi are a Japanese folk craft and one of several kinds of dolls known to this culture. Their characteristic is that they are made of wood on a lathe. This particular set showcases types of "creative" kokeshi, which have developed after WW2, as opposed to the 11 types of "traditional" kokeshi (which I intend to treat separately). I started penciling the dolls during my third visit to Tokyo, succumbing at last to an overdose of kawaii.
This, however, is not the sole dimension of this set. The 45 dolls illustrate 45 traditional kimono designs, as listed by Katsumi Yumioka in the beautiful Summer Kimonos and the Colors of Japan. So this avalanche of cuteness is also a cultural document, of sorts. My dolls are named after these traditional motifs:

Ajisai 紫陽花: The hydrangea, considered by samurai to represent glory.
Akikusa 秋草: Autumn flowers, which are 7.
Asagao 朝顔: The morning glory, loved for its flamboyant blossoming that is as sudden as it is brief.
Ashi 葦: The reed, often depicted in waterfront paintings.
Azami 薊: The thistle, which signals the coming of summer.
Bara 薔薇: The (Chinese) rose, seen as a lucky flower promising prosperity.
Bashou 芭蕉 The plantain tree, long admired for its rarity and the sound of rain falling on its leaves.
Budou 葡萄: Grapes, a symbol of fertility and fecundity.
Chidori 千鳥: The plover, evoking a medieval poem.
Fune 舟: A boat, representing forward movement despite obstacles.
Fuyou 芙蓉: The confederate rose, appreciated for the gracefulness of its ephemereal flower.
Hanaguruma 花車: A flower cart, considered to be inhabited by a god's spirit.
Himawari 向日葵: The sunflower, of striking appearance.
Ho-odeki ほおでき: The Japanese lantern plant, which has a long history as a toy, as children make whistles out of it fruits.
Hotaru 蛍: Fireflies, an important element of many legends and stories.
Kaede 楓: The maple leaf, associated with powers of recovery and much contemplated during Momiji, the time of year when the leaves turn red.
Kai 貝: Seashells, which due to their hard shell were associated with protection and often depicted on armor.
Kaichuuzu 海中図: The sea, since the 18th century an inspiration for realistic yet magical udnerwater worlds.
Kanran 甘藍: The ornamental kale, essential for the New Year's holidays as there are no flowers that time of year to provide color.
Kaya 茅: Miscanthus, used for roofing.
Keitou 鶏頭: The celosia, seen as a symbol of social status.
Kingyo 金魚: The goldfish, one of the eight lucky signs of Buddhism.
Koi 鯉: The carp, a symbol of advancement, as the fish are said to jump rapids.
Kujaku 孔雀: The peacock, of divine beauty but furious temperament.
Maru 丸: Circles, which have a wide variety of meanings.
Mizudori 水鳥: Waterfowl, long-time favorite subjects for artists.
Nami 浪 : A wave, symbol of Nature's vitality.
Nami no maru 波の丸: Wave circles, representing the ever-changing shape of the waves.
Natsukusabana 夏草花 Summer flowers.
Ougi 扇: The folding fan, regarded as auspicious and aesthetic.
Ryu-usui 流水: Flowing water, reflecting the fact that all things in life are in a state of flux.
Sakana 魚: Fish, inspired from folk tales of undersea princesses and castles.
Seigaiha 青海波: A wave pattern symbolizing eternal peace and happiness.
Susuki 薄: Japanese pampas grass, whose feathery plumes were believed to be inhabited by the spirit of a god.
Tessen 鉄線: The clematis, with its elegant foreign appearance.
Tokusa 木賊: The scouring rush, an ornamental garden plant.
Tonbo 蜻蛉: The dragonfly, a symbol of victory often depicted on armor as it flies forward only.
Tsubame 燕: The swallow, an auspicious bird for a couple, often depicted in betrothal gifts.
Tsuyushiba 露芝: Dew and grass, depicting the day of white dew, Hakuro, which is on or near September 8.
Uchiwa 団扇: The round fan, believed to be inhabited by a god's spirit.
Usagi 兎: The rabbit, a holy animal in China sinc ethe Han period.
Uzumaki 渦巻: Swirls, inspired by the arrival of the Secession style in Japan.
Yatsuhashi 八橋: The eight-plank bridge, associated with an episode of The Tales of Ise, a poetry anthology of the Heian period.
Youbana 洋花: Flowers native to the West, popular since the 1900 Paris exposition.
Yuri 百合:　The lily, symbolizing prayers for the prosperity of one's descendants.

Dhikr

2010-08-31T19:23:00.006+03:00

Available as: Limited-edition silkscreen print | Print, red accents | Print, black on white | Various products

Having attended a Sufi sema3 ceremony, I was fascinated by a dhikr (remembrance) chant that repeated 2 sentences in an endlessly repetitive sequence, like a mantra:

Allahu akbar
Allahu akbar
La ilah ella Allah

Sufism is all that's left of the mystical aspect of Islam and embodies the word islam (surrender) completely, as the practitioner aims to vanish entirely into Love. The circling music, along with the well-known circling dance, is one of the tools used by Sufis to reach a state of ego-less ecstasy.
I had been wanting to experiment with concentric calligraphic designs for a while, but no appropriate theme had come to mind till I heard the dhikr and was struck with the idea of expressing it visually. Thus the two circles spell out the two stanzas, and like the music and the dance, the design circles endlessly on the paper...

Ink and gold leaf on Fabriano Murillo, at least 300g/m2. The outer circle has a diameter of 38cm.

The design is entirely my own and I created the style of the script on the spot. The porportions are not arbitrary but follow certain geomtric proprtions to be harmonious.

A few steps from the work process:

The design was first painstakingly constructed on Adobe Illustrator. Once it worked and I was happy with it, I printed out a small copy to use as a guide while drawing the real thing.

Serendipitously, I found in my stash a piece of high-quality art paper already cut in a square exactly the size I needed. The paper was too thick for tracing and the motif too complex for dot-by-dot transfer. The only method that made sense was also the one that guaranteed most accuracy: just construct it from scratch.

Yes, these are 120 angles of 3º, penciled one by one, and about a dozen concentric circles. The result is a grid that makes penciling in the letters easier than it looks.

Here you can see a portion that's penciled and another that's already gilded. I worked in quarters because pencil smudges and I don't like working over too much pencil.

Now all the gold is in place and I'm inking the contours first with a 0.8 pen. It's the biggest I have but it's still too thin for my purpose, so I have to thicken the lines manually. No tools are used, because the curves are not portions of circles – they're slightly distorted to work with the "perspective" of the radiating lines.

The inner lines are 0.3 and much more of a pain, because pressing too hard on the pen makes it cut clean through the thin gold layer and into the glue. Next thing you know your pen is dead, nicely frozen by a layer of dry glue. At this point I'm working mostly freehand, because my guidelines are hidden behind the gold, so any mistake would be a terminal one.
A layer of varnish to protect the gold is recommended as a last step!

I later had a limited run of this design silkscreened on black, and gilded the gaps by hand:
(for purchasing info see this post)

Arabesque book

2010-08-28T20:26:00.001+03:00

An experiment that turned out to be a lot more work than expected.
The book size is 15x19.5 cm when closed, and it has 20 pages of 2 different kinds of paper in alternation, pamphlet bound (with the binding hidden.) The cover is painted with an arabesque pattern and gilded.
It appears book cloth is a wonderful support for all the above. I was even able to remove some small mistakes using a cotton bud dipped in acetone. It was then varnished, so it should be reasonably resilient despite the delicacy of the design.

Hob

2010-07-31T19:14:00.012+03:00

Available as: Print

This is highly abstracted, but if you look carefully you can read the word حب (Love) repeated 148 times. Watercolor, gold leaf and ink pen on a fibrous paper with inclusions of strings. Full size: 100x70 cm.
The string inclusions create an unusual effect of transparency and relief that you can see in this close-up:

I later played around with the "hob" unit and made this box: the body of the word forms an abstract design on the lid, while the dot is down on the side, differentiated from filler dots by its color.

Kalam-Sukut

2010-07-01T19:07:00.006+03:00

Available as: Print | Handmade original

Gold and silver leaf on wood, 28x28cm. A variant on Square Kufi where the white space is completely eliminated. The word in the center is Kalam, "speech", and around it in gold is Sukut, "silence". Need I explain further?

The idea for this piece was 2 years old when I finally thought of a way of realizing it. The reason I was stumped was that I couldn't think of a nice way to solve it in classical square Kufi. Then one day I suddenly realized there need be no white space at all, and when I tried it to see what the words looked like in compressed form, they only needed minor manipulation to become "architectural" components that could be fit into a perfect square.

9 Blessings

2010-06-27T19:07:00.000+03:00

Available as: Print | T-shirt | Various products

This was a calligraphic challenge to myself: to create a square Kufi composition with a certain number of blessings that are recurrent motifs in traditional ornamental calligraphy. The rule of square Kufi is that the balance of black and white must be absolutely maintained, meaning equal width everywhere. Beyond that, the shape of the letters can be stretched sometimes beyond recognition, and legibility is irrelevant. Still, I wanted to avoid absurd stretching, and to keep them reasonably legible. I also wanted a spiraling movement as opposed to having everything laid out horizontally, and, though it makes things a lot more complicated, I wanted to keep the dots (which are usually omitted) because they add a lot of visual interest.

The 9 blessings are:
Benediction بركة
Good fortune يمن
Pleasure سرور
Grace نعمة
Peace سلام
Exultation غبطة
Health عافية
Happiness سعادة
Light نور

Having completed the design, I reproduced it on gorgeous paper I had been keeping forever – the photo is poor but you can see the white-on-white silkscreen pattern. The dots are gilded, the rest painted in sepia watercolor, through which the paper's pattern peeks. The total piece is 46x46cm. Here is a red variant:

Once the first piece was sold, I got a request for another, but I had no patterned paper left except this red-on-red. Here's a close-up:

The original paper being white and quite see-through, transferring the design had been quite simple, a matter of placing the art paper over the design and tracing it. The red is too dark for that however, so I had to resort to a technique almost as ancient as this art: create the design, prick the key points, then join them in pencil, which was a most blinding affair.
Rather than black, which deadens everything, I used Winsor violet to paint the design. It still looks black on the red, but much more vibrantly so.

Please do not copy this design. It is my own original, and not in the public domain. All rights reserved.

Al Moosiqar

2009-11-01T16:17:00.002+02:00

From Quirkat: "Al Moosiqar gives users the chance to reconnect with one of the Oriental music’s greatest instruments: the ‘Oud’ or lute as its more commonly known in the West. The player controls our musician’s movements to play back some of the Middle East’s greatest classic and modern hits. Players can also upload their favorite Arabic hits or even their original musical pieces with the capability of allowing other players to play back the track."

Designing Al Moosiqar made me look into sumptuous, authentic local visuals that set the tone for our main line of games from then on. The script in the logo was drawn around the body of the 'oud and endowed with unusual forms to evoke it.

HTC Touch cruise promo game

2009-05-14T20:39:00.001+03:00

When HTC launched its Touch Cruise in 2009, we developed a Hidden Object advergame for the occasion, where the player had to find gems through 4 levels corresponding to 4 MENA cityscapes. The city graphics are vectors, created entirely in Adobe Illustrator. The interface above shows Morocco; the other 3 are:

Oman

Saudi Arabia

Lebanon

Pixel Pushing

2008-11-28T12:35:00.001+02:00

Pixel pushing: a special kind of masochism where pleasure is derived from building pictures one dot at a time, and even, in extreme cases, animating them.
However, since playing around with these resulted in my becoming a game artist, I unabashedly present you with mine.

Various emoticons:

Bubble burst

Shaolin

Tantrum

Cliché Viking

Oriental dancer

Independence 2005:

Pure tongue-in-cheek nostalgia for early video games, featuring a character of mine:

Sprites of the characters and villains:

Finally, a more serious pixel project: an isometric rendering of a Lebanese house, showing the interior arrangement of the traditional central hall plan.

La Pâtisserie

2008-11-16T13:02:00.021+02:00

Available as: Print | T-shirt | Various products
Download: Icon set (Mac & PC)
See also: More food-related sets

Is there anything quite as lovely and appetizing as a pâtissier's window? Quite titillated by the aesthetics of pastries of all kinds, I researched established desserts and made a nearly exhaustive illustrated list of them. For the moment I've had to leave out viennoiseries (bread products), confiseries (candy), chocolate products, and local/seasonal desserts, not to mention current ones like cheesecake and cupcakes, but I would like to deal with them in their own time...

Tariq's Treasure

2007-11-01T15:24:00.035+02:00

From Quirkat's website: "Tariq’s Treasure is a trilingual mobile Java title developed for HTC, where Tariq the traveler has to be rescued from the mysterious and dangerous tunnels of the desert! The player becomes an agent, archeologist or treasure hunter while collecting valuable jewels, meeting and befriending helpful companions and fighting dangerous creatures in the quest to defeat the ultimate enemy and rescue Tariq."

Made for the small-screened phones of the time, it consisted entirely of pixel sprites and animations, a few of which are demo'ed here (click for full size):

Treasure hunter, one of the player choices

Mindtwister, one of the monsters facing the player

Handmade Books

2007-10-28T20:02:00.003+02:00

For Mona

This sketchbook was commissioned from me for an artist whose first name is Mona. The design on the cover is made up entirely with a Kufi treatment of her name (each column contains 4 instances of the name). She's known for her love of birds, so I created 2 designs: one geometric, arranged in a frieze, from which the second, more ornamental and wing-shaped, breaks out.

The book is 25x15cm and has 40 signature-bound leaves of Ingres paper. The endpapers are Japanese, and I randomly gilded small squares and circles inside the pages, as these are typical of the artist's style. The cover is mounting board painted and then gilded. I designed the Kufi in Illustrator, printed it to size and cut it out of card, which I used as a stencil to redraw it on the cover before brushing in the glue and gilding it.

Kufi Books

Ne3ma (Book of Grace)

Hardcover, 20 x 20 cm, glue-bound, 50 pages (90 g) with 4 spacing papers. Painted cover paper with painted and varnished polymer clay plate.

The plate spells نعمة ne3mat or "Grace" (as in divine grace) in Square Kufi of my composition. This is one of a series of words traditionally used as calligraphic motifs, redesigned everytime to fit a style or medium. Here I made the word form a rectangle which, duplicated with 3 lines of dots (some of which are to be read, others just ornamental), form a perfect square.
The design is such that the book can be used in the Western direction (cover on the left) or rotated and used in an Eastern direction (cover on the right).

Baraka (Book of Blessings)

Hardcover, 20 x 20 cm, white Ingres Vidalon paper (100 g/m2), 42 pages sewn in 4 signatures, Japanese endpapers. Cover paper painted in shimmery green, fibers. The cover plate is painted Daler mounting board.

The plate spells بركة , baraka or "blessing" in Square Kufi of my composition. The design is perfectly symmetrical so the book can be used in the Western direction (cover on the left) or rotated and used in an Eastern direction (cover on the right). The charm on the back will also hang correctly in either case! It can be removed to place the book flat on a surface (you can even hang it on something else.)

It took a lot of work to figure out how to "square" this word, but I really like the musicality of the result. The light green squares are the dots and dashes on the letters, the purple ones are purely decorative.

Cat & Dog books

2007-09-28T20:09:00.008+03:00

Two books inspired by scrapbooking paper I chanced upon, and that ended up as their respective endpapers.

Cat book:

Dog book:

Both books are hardcover, 50 pages plus endpapers, 90 g/m2 off-white Canson, about 15x21cm, stitch bound (5 signatures).
The cover paper is painted with waterproof duotone craft paint (creates a shimmer effect), with stencilled acrylic motif and added fibers. The bookmark charms are glow-in-the-dark polymer clay.

MiniFu

2007-01-13T13:26:00.008+02:00

Available as: Print | T-shirts | Various products
Download: Icon set (Mac & PC)
See also: More martial arts-related art | MiniFu on Facebook

Originally a 60-icon set celebrating the martial arts I practice (Wushu and Taiji Quan), the MiniFu family hasn't stopped growing since to include new styles and weapons. As such the product collections linked above keep changing and expanding to include new characters, and I welcome requests from fellow martial artists.

To date, the arts and styles represented, with their color coding, are:

Red: Changquan (Long Fist aka Northern style)
Black: Nanquan (Southern Style) and GuanDao (the halberd)
Orange: Gunshu (the staff
Purple: Daoshu (the broad sword)
White: Taiji Quan Yang style
Blue: Taiji Quan Chen style
Green: Jianshu (the long sword)
Yellow: Qiangshu (the spear)
Aqua: Taiji Qiang (Taiji spear)

The MiniFu style attained great popularity and started showing up in unexpected places, such as this humorous take on my own comic series:

Some time ago the representative of Skullcandy Levant asked me if I'd like to customize a docking station for a promotional contest. MiniFu were an obvious design choice!

While Mayrig Sleeps

2006-08-28T08:01:00.009+03:00

Available as: Print

The scene is set in Armenia, within sight of Khor Virap: a family stops to rest against khatchkar, and as Mother (Mayrig) falls asleep, the kids pilfer some of those delicious-looking pomegranates...

Khatchkar are "stone-crosses," a uniquely Armenian art form, far older than Christianity, displaying complex knotwork and/or stylised floral motifs. "The most common reason for erecting a khachkar was salvation of the soul, but they were also erected to commemorate a military victory, construction of a church, unfulfilled love, or as a form of protection from natural disasters." The pomegranates themselves, another national Armenian symbol, represent fertility and prosperity – or the blood of Christ when carved on a khatchkar.

Khor Virap, in the background, is a monastery with particular significance for two reasons: St Gregory the Illuminator was imprisoned there for 13 years, up until 301 when he cured the king and Armenia became the first Christian nation as a result; and it is the closest one can get to Ararat on the Armenian side, as the mountain is today in Turkey.

Mount Ararat is, of course, Armenia's sacred mountain, besides being, in Biblical lore, the summit on which Noah landed.

It was difficult to find reference for the dress of that exact area, so I drew upon the nearest I could find: the costumes are from Sassoun for the mother and boy, and from Garabagh for the girl.

Doll of Hope

2006-08-06T20:29:00.003+03:00

Towards the end of the 2006 war, I was evacuated from besieged Beirut on board a French warship. Knowing it would take at least a couple of days of sailing-plus-waiting to reach my final destination (Berlin), I packed in a small box the supplies I needed for the most transportable but most time-consuming craft I could think of: beaded dolls. I had never attempted it, precisely because I just have no time to spare for it, and I might never get to make another doll because it really does take a lot of time! But this one helped me while away the long hours, and kept a few little girls on board entertained as well as we sat on sponge mattresses in the stifling heat of the aviation hangar.

I had meant it to represent hope, hence the dominant white colour and the blossoming rose, but I improvised as I went. It has glass beads, pewter pendants (the one in the back is a hamsa or Fatima's hand, for peace), fibers, a shaped bead for the face and a paper rose.

The Isle

2006-06-01T11:16:00.002+03:00

"The Isle" was a world I started building when I was 15, and despite growing to the point of having its own language, I finally gave up on it a decade later when I started being swept away by more developed projects. The following are random glimpses of finished pieces as well as development sketches.

Hanati character

Górento characters

Hairdos

Dress design for a culture with few resources and no technology (the diadem is an import.)

City banners

Górento talisman

Górento house, with interior sketches below

Plan and elevation for an observatory

Pages from an in-story travel journal. The attention to details is pushed to the point of using only 6 pigment colors for this – the limited palette the character would carry with her while traveling (vermilion, cadmium yellow, bone black, cobalt green, cerulean blue, and zinc white). Anything else is obtained by layering, like in watercolor.

The Shalintî Cycle

2006-06-01T10:32:00.002+03:00

This playful project consisted in fictionalizing some people around me.

Asian Encounters

2006-04-28T20:39:00.009+03:00

Flower People

This handmade concertina booklet is a taste of the outburst of colours and ornamentation that was my 2005 trip to South-East Asia. It features 8 of my photos of the Flower Hmong and a selection of sketches I made at the Museum of Ethnology in Ha Noi. The back of the concertina binding is printed with a frieze derived from the photographed costumes.

Size: 10x15 cm, portrait
Paper type: Ingres MBM (cover: Canson)
Paper weight: Around 150g/m2
Photos: lab printed, glossy paper
Sketches: printed, silver and gold highlights added by hand
Edition: 5 copies

Asian Encounters

Another handmade concertina with photos from Viêt Nam, Laos and Thailand, and sketches from my travel diaries. The back of the concertina binding is printed with a frieze derived from Hmong batik motifs.

Prisma

2006-01-28T11:43:00.001+02:00

This was a collective illustration project I initiated, consisting in "incarnating" colours under an evocative form:

A long time ago, before the Human race was born, the Prisma existed in this world's Light, bodiless but revealed in whatever the light touched: they were the colors that dwelt in every thing, eternal and indestructible; only darkness made them flee.

Then Humanity came, and it had a gift: the gift of seeing beauty. Early men and women were filled with wonder at the beauty of the colored world around them and set forth to capture and recreate them. Little did they know that they were dealing with ethereal beings, and that by using and naming colors they were calling forth the Prisma into their world, where the Humans' perceptions of them built for each a body and a personality.

Colors have not disappeared since the Prisma have come forth into our world.

The project consisted in selecting color names and designing a creature to embody it, bearing in mind the Prisma's bodies and personalities are based on people's perception of their color and the associations they draw from it. A Prisma's color scheme would be dominated by their hue, but their eyes in particular had to reflect it exactly. Two kinds of Prisma were particular: Pigments, who must always show a hint of their mineral origin, and Dyes, of vegetal nature. The rest could be freely based on any creature, including people.

I chose paper cut-outs as the medium for my own series:

Chinese White

Chinese White is a mysterious creature that contains all other colours in a latent state and so will pop up with flamboyant features every now and then, as now. Very quiet, very elusive (it doesn't take much to make it vanish), it has a peaceful temper and brings with it serenity. Because its name evokes the exotism of China, it ended up with the aspect of the Quilin.
As a Pigments, it has mineral origins – hence the metallic horn and hooves.

Production notes: I used three kinds of paper for the body. Sadly the photo doesn't render the lovely white-on-white Chinese-clouds motif of the white one or the gold flecks of the others. Metallic sheet was used for the horn, fang and hooves, and the eye is white "stained glass" cast specifically for it.

Amarna

As a colour, Amarna evokes the Nile and the watery creature that dwell there; but its name brings to mind the mysterious city of Akhenaton, of which so little remains. A creature of royal bearing yet shadowy habits, it took on the aspect of the obscure beast known only as Setcha, with the head of a snake and the body of a lion.

Production notes: The body is entirely dark green Canson, shaded with watercolor and given a scaly texture using masking tape and metallic rub-ons. The golden pieces are cardboard with golden rub-on, marked with a burnisher, and acrylics for the "enamel". I used gouache around the eye.

You're Too Little!

2006-01-28T08:31:00.003+02:00

Available as: Print
See also my book Voyages: Zulu.

Scene of daily life in a Zulu village... Dad would like to enjoy his beer, but junior wants some too, to the amusement of big sister.

Generations

2005-10-28T08:32:00.025+03:00

Available as: Print

Nineteenth-century Lebanese dancers (or at least, dancer and apprentice) in a traditional Lebanese reception room setting.

I amused myself by expressing the relationship between mother and daughter through a number of small details. For instance, the woman is wearing gold jewelry but the daughter silver only; the woman's costume is elaborate and patterned, in contrast with the girl whose dress is much simpler and who is barefoot. It's also in the warmth and intensity of the colours, as well as, of course, the awkwardness of the child learning to dance. If you look closely, her headpiece is too big for her and the coins are dangling in her eyes.

Available as: Print

Lebanon, early 19th century: the men of the Mountain, be they Christian or Druze, would never show themselves without their dagger/sword and pistols tucked in their broad belt. This is the picture of a coming of age...

I used elements of both Maronite princes and Druze juhhal costumes in this, so it's not clear which sect the characters belong to; what matters is they're from Mount Lebanon sometime during the Ottoman occupation (to be really specific, before Beshir II's reform of the tarboush that made turbans disappear). For the curious Lebanese: the shape of the sherwal has changed many times during its 2,500-year history but the shape we are familiar with is strictly 20th century.

Wu Xing

2005-10-27T16:21:00.011+03:00

The Wu Xing ("Five Elements") series is inspired from Wushu (Chinese martial arts) and depicts the elemental cycle through the weapons that are traditionally associated with each of them. The costumes are fantasy designs loosely based on various ethnic styles.

Mei Hua (12/04) is based on Jiàn Shu, the art of the Long Sword, which is associated with the Water element. Mei Hua means “beautiful flower”.

Available as: Print | T-shirt

Zhen Ming (01/05) performs Qiang Shu, the art of the spear, representing Fire. Zhen Ming means “Brilliant Pearl”.

Available as: Print | T-shirt

Xue Fang (03/05) stands for Dao Shu, the art of the Broad Sword, representing Metal. Xue Fang means “Fragrant Snow”.

Available as: Print | T-shirt

Jing Wei (05/05) represents the Gùn or Staff, and the Wood element. Jing Wei means “Little Bird”.

Available as: Print | T-shirt
See also: Sketch

Yue Yan (10/05) stands for the bare hand corresponding to the Earth element, so the cycle is complete. Yue Yan means “Pleased and Peaceful”.

Available as: Print | T-shirt

Pheerai

2005-03-01T10:41:00.001+02:00

The Pheerai are a race created by Michelle Hoefener. They are a humanoid people with a long tail, large round ears, no facial hair for men, and any imaginable color of skin and hair. They live in a world called Shaenalonn and exercise a number of professions. Those relevant to my designs are:

Artisan: Can wear any type of clothing. They can be both plain and modest, or edgy and different looking.
Sokinai (warrior): Typically dress in sturdy armor and fight with any type of long curved (Asian inspired) sword.
Maju (mage): They usually wear very ornate clothing that sets them apart from the commoner. Can be any style or color.

Pheerai are named after any kind of naturally occurring element. Various artists were able to choose appropriate names and create characters based on them. I chose Hanami and Momiji: Hanami is, in Japan, the time of year when trees blossom at the very beginning of spring, while Momiji is the Japanese maple and also refers to the time of year, in the fall, when these trees turn stunning shades of deep red.

Hanami and Momiji background story:

Momiji is a former Sokinai who retired to convert to Swordmaking. While his very real passion and talent for the craft were his official reason for becoming an Artisan, his true motivation was his utter devotion to his younger sister Hanami. A Maju of rare talent, her condition is rather unusual: a near-lethal fall as a child halted the growth of her mind, so that she is intelligent but very innocent, and not world-wise. As long as she was safely cloistered for her long Maju training, Momiji embraced the warrior path of the Sokinai, but gave it up to watch over her when she received her insignia. Where Hanami is sent, Momiji follows like a guarding shadow, along with a power-charged sword he and she made together, and his pet and helper Tsaki.
Momiji found Tsaki in a distant jungle through which he was escorting traders. The curious little creature became attached to him, and the young Sokunai brought it back. Momiji soon discovered that unlike other Shaenalonn beasts, Tsaki's sort were quite capable of understanding Pheerai language and of making themselves understood to them – a fact they both decided to conceal in case it came in handy as a secret advantage.

Gems

2005-02-01T10:46:00.004+02:00

The Gymarrianites are a race created by Emily Warren. They are human beings from a future, post-apocalyptic world (known to them as Gymarrah) that has lost all memory of our history. Gymarrianites have their power stones attached to their bodies and are named after them.
Various artists were able to choose gem names and create characters based on them. I chose Wei, the Chinese name for red jade.

Wei's story:

The daughter of a merchant and a dancer, Wei displayed unusual healing gifts at an early age – along with a troublesome temperament. In the hopes that worldly experience would help their daughter grow out of her peculiar mood swings, her parents brought her to the attention of the authorities and after due training she was assigned to a crew. Though she did gain maturity in the process, she is still seen as something of an eccentric living in a world of her own.
What no one, not even her parents, know is that since childhood Wei has had dreams of a lost empire – a place she is sure really existed in Gymarrah's distant past. In those dreams she learned ancient healing arts utilizing the power of the body and the cosmos, thus gaining an edge over other Magilores. However, partly out of fear of not being believed, and partly because she's afraid to lose her dream-connection if she speaks of it, she keeps them carefully to herself. Much of her difficult temper is due to her struggle to understand her place in her world in light of those dreams. Her eagerness to travel stems from the hope of finding a scientist who can shed more light upon what she sees – but deep in her heart she has already resolved to find and question the Morian Quartz if that's what it takes...

Turkana

2005-01-14T08:33:00.017+02:00

Available as: Print

The Turkana are a nomadic group from northern Kenya, in the area of Lake Turkana that gave them the name we use for them. They live in one of the harshest environments mankind has ever attempted to inhabit, and depend heavily on their livestock, their most precious (and virtually only) possession. They are tall and graceful and proudly wear mounds and mounds of beads, women and men alike. During my ongoing research in world cultures I received a book about them and was fascinated. In this illustration I wanted to capture the poise, pride and simple beauty of this very unique people.

Available as: Print

Mixed media on Cotman Water Colour paper, 12x9 in. Watercolor and markers; glass beads, heishi, metal wire and cowry shells.