Here we go

Ok so the basic plot was complete now I've written down what goes on in every page hopefully by the end of tonight I'll have the layout sketches done isA so I can get on with pencilling over the weekend isA

Wish me luck
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Artist statement Edited and translated

El Shater Hassan (Hassan the Cunning)

A tale of morality, El Shater Hassan is a modern day adaptation of the original bedtime story made popular by moms, grandmas and maids for ages. The story is that of the perpetual protagonist who fights the forces of supernatural evil and saves the damsel in distress, followed through with a heavy handed moral of the story. It is not the superficial “just give him a blackberry and an iPod” adaptation but more of an homage to the tale through a new original tale that fits within our modern society. It tackles elements of moral choices and what pushes man to do one choice over the other within extreme situations. This story is more of an experiment of morality, the characters being lab rats. They are thrown within the story and observed for reaction. Through this I reflect on their moral choices and form a conclusion, and hopefully so will the reader.

This work is divided into form and content. Yet the selection of form in terms of medium and treatment of subject matter here is in itself a conscious choice selected to emphasize a certain point.

Comics, Graphic novels, Manga in Japan, Bande Dessinée in France and Fumetti in Italy is that form, this medium of sequential art that is placed (usually) in narrative form, accompanied most of the time with textual elements. This form is a marriage between art and literature, transcending both yet viewed by society as less. It has so much potential yet it is seen always as the underdog, hence the choice of using it for my project.

Through this work I try and offer two points of views to the audience. The first is that comics can be treated as a literary medium for adults, and the second is what moral choices would one make in certain situations and the latter is better elaborated in the tale of El shatter Hassan.

الشاطر حسن لمروان  إمام

هذه قصة عن المبادئ. قصة الشاطر حسن المشهورة  التي تقص  على الأطفال منذ قديم الأزل. قصة البطل الهمام  الذي يحارب قوى الشرالخيالية من الغيلان والشياطين لكي ينقذ محبوبته في قصة تعلم القارئ أو المستمع مبدأ يفيده في الحياة. هذه القصة هي معالجة حديثة لذلك التراث. وهي ليست بالمعالجة السطحية بل تتوغل في العمق لتري القارئ نبذة من مجتمعنا الحالي. وتعالج القصة ايضا الاختيارات التي يتخذها المرء في المواقف الصعبة. فهي تجربة في المبادئ, وشخصياتها هم فئران التجارب. وضعوا بالقصة في مواقف تقتضي منهم ان يتخذوا قرارات تدل على مبادئهم.ومن خلال تلك القرارات يرى القارئ كيف تتحول مبادئ الأفراد في المواقف المختلفة.   

هذا العمل  ينقسم إلى مضمون و هيئة . وإختيار هيأته هنا  ينبع من إختيار واعي لمحاولة توضيح فكرة معينة.

القصص المصورة, التي يطلق عليها اسم مانجا  في اليابان  وباند  دسيني  في فرنسا وفومتي  في اطاليا , هي  المحيط المستخدم في تقديم القصة هنا. فهذا  المحيط أو الهيئة المستخدمة هنا هي إجتماع بين الفن والأدب. ولكن يارا مجتمعنا أن القصص المصورة اقل من الإثنين. ولهذا اخترت تلك الهيئة لمشروعي لكي أوضح للناس أهمية هذا المحيط الفني.

ومن خلال هذا العمل أحاول ان أوضح وجهتين للنظر, الأولى هي ان القصص المصورة هي نوع من الأدب  المتطور الذي قد يوجه  إلى  البالغين وليس فقط الأطفال . الاخر هو  ان الانسان حين مواجهته لموقف صعبة قد يتخذ اختيارات  مضادة  لمبادئه  لمجرد انه استسلم  لغرازاهه الطبيعية.

Artist statement

Ok so here's the statement about my work so that you know I'm not being completely unproductive.

Artist’s statement

Marwan Imam’s

El Shater Hassan (Hassan the Cunning)

My work is divided into form and content, just like any other piece of art. Yet the selection of form in terms of medium and treatment of subject matter here is in itself a conscious choice selected to emphasize a certain point.

My form is comics, known also as Graphic novels, Manga in Japan, Bande Dessinée in France and Fumetti in Italy. Different names are given to one form and none of them properly defining this medium of sequential art that is placed (usually) in narrative form, accompanied most of the time with textual elements. This form is a marriage between art and literature, transcending both yet viewed by society as less. I choose it because of its underdog state, but I also choose it because of its extremely powerful potential.

The content however is simple enough. A tale of morality, El Shater Hassan is a modern day adaptation of the original bedtime story made popular by moms, grandmas and maids since forever. It is not the superficial “just give him a blackberry and an iPod” adaptation but more of an homage to the tale through a new original tale that fits within our modern society. It tackles elements of moral choices and what pushes man to do one choice over the other within extreme situations. The characters in my story are my lab rats. I throw them within the story and see how they react. Through this I reflect on their choices and form a conclusion from there, and hopefully so will the reader.

I hope through my work I offer a point of view of this abandoned medium that is different than the norm and through my tale to send a message to people to make them think about who they truly are.

Crunch Time

Ok so here's the skinny, I got to Make it to the printers in nearly 3 weeks time so now I have 3 weeks to finish 40 pages of a graphic novel mixed with schoolwork and the like, simple task, is it not ?

so i'll be updating on the progress of it over and over.

Plot and characters are down, script and layout underway.

then comes the hard part the actual drawing of it all.

wish me luck

The Awesome Post

Ok, so I haven't been posting for a while because I was swamped with university and stuff, or so I'd like to deceive myself. However, in actuality I've been quite busy that I opted not to update my blog or my deviant art page  till I Prepare for an overhaul. that Being said I have prepared some of the elements of redesigning both pages I'm just not done yet. So instead I will have to post this now because I can't fucking wait anymore.

Remember a while back when I posted this, I talked about how not a single girl gave me the time of day. Well that girl has come along. THE MOST AWESOME GIRL IN EXISTENCE and I LOVE HER TO DEATH, and I'm pretty sure she does too. it all happened too fast it was a blur of emotions and compatability it just sounds like a fairy tale to me when I think back about it. Needless to say I am now one of the happiest people on this planet. though I am still in disbelief just because of the fact of how awesome she is but that's just the way it is. Her name is Ragia, Rougie as it may and she is the greatest girl on the planet and most importantly she is mine.

The story of how it happened will surface in due time, till then this is the Warman out...

Like I said AWESOME

Assigned Writings

 Might as well Put them here,

I don't know if at one point turnitin.com would make me count as plagiarizing myself for submitting articles that are assigned to my grad project course but I wanna share them so FUCK IT.

anyway I'll start with the latest since I like it and I don't want to do the older ones cause in hindsight they suck (that doesn't nullify the possibility of me posting them later)

anyway so to cut things short turns out it will be harder than I think to convince the professor's leading the grad project course to do a graphic novel that easily, I have to go through a process of priming (one I have gone through on my own since the winter). But I'm not complaining this guiding process is helping me enhance my work so I'm all for it YAY.

So this is a reflection piece on this article. posting this on a blog reminds me of a previous assignment blog that I used to do for Anne-Marie Schleiner's class history and theory of digital art, one which looking at now I don't know if it was really me writing, that was actually coherent thought that had a purpose (something I usually am not known for most of the time)


anyway I guess I'll be rereading it to try and grasp the state of mind I was in then, because I feel that is the closest I was to an artist (probably).


without further ado here is the article:

Why do you need to draw a cube a sphere a cone and a cylinder?

                Luis Camnitzer’s article on art and literacy went on and on in describing the need for alphabetization. It also talked about how the current educational system is hurting education rather than helping in progressing it. Teaching a person how to read and write without teaching them what to read and write or why to do so is essentially the main problem, or so she states.

            Now from her perspective, those basics of reading and writing (in that order) are preparing future generations to become perfect parrots, machines not capable of sentient thought. It is the same with art, you learn by copying the model in-front of you, or drawing the basic shapes art schools are so fond of.  Sure one is entitled to certain hours of still life, figure and landscape drawing to pass within this system that has been put forth as education. But this formulaic process of learning in which one is spoon fed the basics till the brain is saturated with this information, to the point that it is second nature yet of no real use, is hurting the people within this system. One could learn the alphabet and read as good as the next guy. They would also be incredibly capable of putting letters together to form words, sentences, paragraphs, and in the end, essentially, what would be considered as writing. Yet this writing based on purely learning the alphabet would be as valuable as a single ski ball ticket. Writing words doesn’t make you a writer as much as drawing a cube to pin point precision, arguably, doesn’t make you an artist. You would be considered a great draftsman, maybe, but not an artist.  Same with all disciplines, not anyone who can work a camera is a filmmaker, or anyone who can play an instrument a musician.

            To be truly capable to create work on your own based on what you learned, that is probably a step in the right direction. The one thing missing when learning the basics is to learn function and application. I can learn figure drawing over and over but if I have no purpose or function to use it. So what is the point of that? When does one cross the line from learning the tools to applying them? To actually going out and discovering things, thinking for one-self and creating original work. I agree with Camnitzer that doing just that, going out, discovering and creating purely without instruction, is essentially amateurish, and learning the tools too well without trying to think or apply those tools for a certain function is just “empty professionalism”. The trick lies within finding a balance between both aspects of it.

One must seek and pursue the tools and skills needed to create a work of art but it is equally important to work as hard, if not more, to acquire that idea, that thought, that would be turned into a piece of work worthy of display and appreciation. Which brings us to the point of the importance of research, like learning to draw research is still a tool, the application of that in a work of art mixed with expertise in other tools in creation of that art results in the end in a piece that stands out. The functionality that we give to the tools is what makes any work respectable and worthy of attention. A screw driver is a piece of metal with a plastic handle, but when you need to remove screws to open a box it is a life saver. A paintbrush is exactly the same for anyone who learned how to use it, it is one way to put a paste of pigments on canvas, yet in the hands of an “artist” it is an extension to his thoughts and expressions, a magic wand that creates a window into the artist’s mind.

anyway more later

for now here's some shameless advertising

Waltz with bashir, The Photographer, Footnotes in Gaza, asterios polyp four Graphic novels I'm currently dying to buy and read.