Last updated on December 21st, 2021
A very idealistic thing said by an artist from South Africa i.e. a creative artist creates anything within their imagination by tapping into flow while engaging and understanding their inner-child. Art is all about your soul, your imagination, and your dreams. Being An Artist encourages such creative souls and believes to present their artistic journeys to the world. In this post, we welcome the artist hailing from South Africa, Junaid Omar.
Junaid, 28 years old from Cape Town, South Africa completed his studies in Creative Brand Communications. He’s a passionate freelance Multi-media designer who calls himself a student of life, an intender to learn forever and grow every day.
When he was 6 years old, he had a fetish for cartoon characters and loved to create new characters duly his imagination. Even today, he prefers to sketch from the rough and drafts his imagination on the piece of paper.
Currently, he is one of the aspiring artists on Printshop where he has been creating, showcasing, and selling his marvelous works to the millions of audiences.
PrintShop is a print-on-demand marketplace where anyone can discover & buy 50+ unique products, gifts & artwork created by 150+ artists from more than 180 countries around the world. It’s an online marketplace where 100+ new artworks are uploaded every minute to provide the new shopping vibes for customers.
Asking About His Artistic Journey And His Love For Art, He Says:
“In 2014 I completed my studies in Creative Brand Communications and specialized in Multi-Media design. I am self-employed as a freelance Multi-Media designer from Cape Town, South Africa. I am an all-round creative with many passions, goals, and dreams. I’m a dog lover and creating doggo characters is one of my favorites. I enjoy starting and collaborating on various creative projects. I consider myself a Creation Artist and believe we all are artists in our own way. My artistic journey began as a child at the age of 6 years old. I used to watch a lot of cartoon shows that eventually inspired me to create my own characters and creatures. Being creative became a natural activity for me, along with this came experimentation, mistakes, and failures. It was something fun that I loved doing and it had no rules to it. You used your imagination to create whatever you feel during that moment. I realized this was my path when I knew that being creative in any medium I choose is sustaining to my overall well being. The feeling of bringing something from your imagination into this reality for other people to experience is amazing and out of the world feeling you can get. Like “WOW!… did I really do that?” kind of feeling.”
PrintShop: How it feels to be part of such a creative journey?
Junaid: Being on this creative journey has lead me to meet other talented artists. It has opened up doors for many different creative collaborations along the way.
Whether it was success or failure that was the outcome, it always had a valuable lesson and experience to go with it. On this path of the Creation Artist, I am forever a student of life. Forever learning and growing every day.
PrintShop: What’s your process of creating a piece of artwork and what tools and techniques do you use?
Junaid: When I create a new character, I normally start with rough sketching. I sketch out several things until I find something that speaks to me.
Working with shapes can be a great technique when creating characters from your imagination. Once I know what direction I am going with the sketch, I draw it over again a few times, refining it each time.
From here the sketch will be uploaded into Adobe Illustrator. I use the sketch as a reference while outlining the character artwork with the Pen Tool. I use the paint bucket tool to fill my artwork with a solid color.
Once I am happy with the artwork as a vector. I then can bring it into Adobe Photoshop where I can do the final color works on it. I’ll add shadows, lighting and any other extra.
PrintShop: How do you find inspiration and stay creative?
Junaid: Keeping inspired and staying creative is one of the key components to master when being an artist. There are many ways in finding inspiration and staying creative.
Videos / Movies and listening to music are good ways to stay inspired. I love watching cartoons, anime, movies, and documentaries.
As well as watching and learning just about anything I need to on YouTube and the internet. I am a dancer at heart and enjoy just about any music that will give my body a beat to move to.
I find that giving your body a sufficient amount of exercise or stretching can be essential in maintaining your creative flow. Following other creatives works which I admire can spark ideas and even inspire me to try something new creatively.
Doodling and drawing can be a really good form of staying creative too. Especially when a creative block occurs which most artists are faced with.
PrintShop: Did you face any challenges in your artistic journey? If yes, How did you overcome it?
Junaid: On your artistic journey, you will be faced with many challenges. One of these challenges that any artist would encounter would be a “Creative Block”.
I experience creative blocks on a regular and have to find ways to overcome it. Taking a step back in any way from your creative project might just be all that you need to get back into it.
Whether it be taking a walk, cooking, being in nature, going out with friends, resting, exercising, etc. Just do whatever you need at that time to see the bigger picture later on.
The remedies for overcoming a creative block can vary for every artist and it is up to them to figure out what works best with their creative flow.
PrintShop: What is the best advice you’ve gotten as an artist or the most important thing you’ve learned?
Junaid: Every experience whether good or bad is an opportunity to learn and grow. Appreciate and enjoy the present moment and know that everything will work out for the better.
Growth and change can be challenging and hard sometimes but it is all necessary to become a stronger better you. A person’s character and attitude can get you far. Treat others the way you would want to be treated.
Check out his latest work on PrintShop
