Reflections

A creative director at a mega-corporation landed on my portfolio as he was hunting for freelance artists to participate in an upcoming project. Two of my artworks captivated him as I learned a week later, particularly: Open Heart and Hello, World!. He also admired The Cloud Maker and UD-47. (Check them all here.) He liked the way I used lights and shadows in the scenes and how the colors of those paintings contributed to the overall narrative. He sent my portfolio to a partner agency and I was shortlisted. On Monday I got an email titled: 'Alhyari.Art Contact Form - New Submission', and the content was beyond my wildest dreams.

The company, a top player in the energy industry, is working on an initiative to help businesses flourish, train people and strengthen the values of citizenship and biodiversity through visual storytelling. To begin, they curated 3 engaging stories which they want to put into a graphic context before mid-April, and one of these stories is assigned to me. The artworks will not be animated due to the short deadline but will be displayed in an interactive manner.

The stories (those I heard at least) are powerful, poetic and very well-written. They're simple yet profound, and their metaphoric signs and references were to me a reminder of the infinite possibilities each of us has in this life. Creating a visual narrative to accompany the outstanding text will be my biggest challenge.

The most interesting part is the company will arrange a meeting between me and the person behind the story. I'll have the chance to discover the background, navigate the place and find my way through the memories. A crew will film that meeting in addition to parts of my behind-the-scenes digital painting process and the videos will be published along with the campaign.

In the weekend, I revised the notes I took and went through most of the courses I acquired through my digital art years which cover visual storytelling through color, light and shadow, and I still have 50% more to go.

Send me positive energy ????.

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Reflections

The end of February is approaching and it's had me thinking about how fast the time flies and how far I’ve reached in my journey as freelance digital artist and illustrator.

In 2020, I'm targeting to normalize this situation with a shift in my career to one of the creative teams inside the Nokia family.

Have you heard of Nokia Garage?