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INTERVIEW: Jarah Ali
Last modified on 2010-03-07 17:17:11 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
Interview with: Dr. Jarah Ali
Trade: Illustrator
Work sample gallery:
Hello Jarah!
Hi Patrick, and thank you for your interview.
Please tell us about yourself, your background, where you come from and what you do.
My name is Jarrah Ali Al-Tubaikh. I’m a 30 years old Kuwaiti, and I’m a doctor (MD) specializing in radiology at the moment in Germany. I’m a freelancer comic artist, caricaturist, and medical illustrator; all self-trained with no prior experience or training in art institutes.
Wow a doctor &Â an illustrator! When and how did you first start to illustrate?
The drawing ability was born with me. Since I was a kid I used to fill my books with lots of doodles on the school books as I study. I think in my hand. I didn’t start taking my skills seriously until 1997. Like most Arabs, especially Gulf citizens, I didn’t thought seriously of developing my drawing skills because my future as a doctor is sufficient to cover my life expenses, so why the bother to develop something else for money? This thinking is very common among Arabic and Gulf countries especially. Ok then why I changed my thinking? I didn’t actually, still being a doctor is my main job and my main financial resource. I just realized that I can do so much by being “both†artist and doctor in the same time. I started training myself in digital coloring and all types of drawing styles since 1997 in particular, when I was in the second year of medical school. Before that, most of my drawings were on regular papers. And of course, all my training expenses were covered from my medical financial salary. So medicine pays for the art.
What was your very first illustration?
I still have my first drawings until today; my first illustrations were about a rabbit character. I love rabbits I don’t know why. I made 3 comic stories about it in three scrapple books. It was in 1989, and I was 12 years old when I drew them. No one ever saw these illustrations, and hopefully no one will.
Tell us how it is like to be an illustrator in Kuwait, do you have enough resources or inspiration or tools?
As I mentioned, I don’t use this ability of mine as a financial resource. However, I got many commissions over the years. I get actually good payment, with each commission, the payment can exceed the 1000$. But of course, you have to go into the trouble of correcting and doing what the client wants..ect. I don’t like it actually because most of the time the client doesn’t know what he wants. He wants you to do things he doesn’t even know what, just draw until something hits his mind. I know that so many designers face this dilemma. In Kuwait you can get very good payment, but the bother in dealing with the clients doesn’t suit me. I’m a doctor and I have a stressful job and short time, this can be ok with a full-time artist, not with me unfortunately. Due to the last points, I always ask before I accept any commission, what the client wants exactly and how he wants it. I allow one or two corrections. If I felt that the client is hesitating and wants me to draw something he doesn’t even know what, I just refuse; I don’t need the money after all. I do what I do because I enjoy it, and I don’t want to get troubles out of it! You can say that my drawing abilities serve one client, me!
Please take us through an illustration process (how does it start, stimulating the idea, first on paper then on computer, coloring…)
Well, it is like any typical art process. I see the idea in my mind. I visualize the characters, the body language, the motion, and the sounds. Then I draw directly into the pages. I do not make thumbnails or sketches, I just draw directly on the paper, and I draw what I feel. This is something not done by many artists. Most artists will plan their pages in advance, especially comic artists. But because as I said, I sense the situation like a movie, I draw it like how I imagined it. I draw on A3 papers in pencil. If the artwork is designed to be in realistic colors, I keep it on pencil because I will color the lines later. If the artwork will be in a comic style coloring, then I ink it traditionally by artists inking pens, and then I scan it into the computer. From there, either I color directly in adobe Photoshop, or I color it in painter first, and then I transform the image into adobe Photoshop for final touches.
What tools do you use to draw and illustrate on paper?
Most of my drawings are done in pencils, and then colored is completed in the computer. Sometimes I use pencil and rarely charcoal. Now all these traditional media can be accurately mimicked in Corel painter and other programs.
What tools do you use to draw and illustrate on the computer?
I use adobe Photoshop and Corel Painter. These are the two programs I use extensively.
Have you ever drawn or illustrated something that was against the law or that caused some problems? (for political or religious reasons..)
Nope. Maybe controversial, yes. I draw a lot of caricatures from time to time that criticize the medical system and the private medical practice, and usually some people get pissed. Interestingly, the more they pissed, the more I feel that I hit a nerve, and that my message is well-delivered. The duty of a caricature is to illustrate reality in a black comedy fashion, not to make fun of others, or to amuse people; otherwise it will turn into a stage play or a circus show, not a true caricature. When I draw a caricature I always look for the message it delivers, not weather people like it or not. I remember once I met an artist who was painting a copied image from a book. He told me that I draw to sell; I draw what people want so they buy my work. Nobody will buy your work if you do your own ideas. I told him: you are a merchant not an artist. A man who know how to paint, a technician at most. Most of the great artists they draw what they feel, if people would like to buy it that’s fine, if not, no worries because this is his true identity that he presented on papers. I draw because I like to draw, not to make it as a living.
Do you do caricature drawings? If you do, have you done anything we know or might have seen in the papers or in a magazine or poster somewhere?
A Facial exaggerated caricature is just a style I like to do from time to time. I drew Saddam Hussein caricatures many times, and some were published in Kuwaiti newspapers. But because I draw according to mood, you won’t find many works for me published in newspapers or magazines. Many of my artworks you can find in my deviant website. I update it regularly.
Does drawing or illustration affect you as a Muslim? What I mean is, does the religion limit what you can draw and how far you can go with this art?
Well, this is an interesting question, and I know why you asked it. Look, Islam isn’t a religion that bans everything or forbids for the sake of forbidness. I know that many religious Muslims forbid drawings. I had so many arguments with such mentality, and I have my Islamic proofs, this is not the place to discuss them. But I will tell you this, Islam forbids when something turns into something harmful. I am a doctor, I can use a scalpel to cut someone throat and kill him, or to cut a tumor out of his body. The same instrument become forbidden in the hand of a criminal, and allowed in the hand of a surgeon. For example if I will use my art to do as the retarded idiots in Denmark did and make fun of other populations prophet and religion, yes Islam forbids me from using it and people should put me in jail. Look what the fools did to their country and their economy with few irresponsible drawings. But if I would use the drawing ability to draw comics about the greatness and the kindness of Islam, and help other people to know this religion, then Islam will not forbid it, on the contrary it will be a shame if I didn’t. For example, I’m drawing now hundreds of illustrations to create an illustrated medical encyclopedia, and I already published my first book, do you think Islam will stop me from creating images of diseases that will help doctors to understand and to diagnose difficult and rare diseases?? I’ll leave the answer to your judgment. Finally, remember this, Islam is the religion logic, and if people don’t understand it well, it is not Islam’s fault, but their fault. They should read it again, with an open mind, and without prejudice ideas.
I noticed that you mostly like to draw characters and personages, is that your favorite theme?
Yep. I like characters that you can interact with. Characters that expresses reality. I know many people can interact with many animal characters or robot characters like in Disney’s movies, but for me I do like the human characters.
Have you drawn some sort of a super hero? (from your own creation)
No, only characters those are derived from daily life, or mythological.
If there was an Arab super hero, how do you think would he/she look like? Costume and all…
Ok now this is another interesting question, and my answer maybe will amaze you. I laugh from the idea of an Arabic superhero, and I find it so ridiculous, and I will explain myself more. I studied psychology, history, sociology, and philosophy. When you look at the superhero culture, the American culture especially, it suits them, but doesn’t suit us at all. The Western people in general lives alone, you rarely find families that live together as a unit, the sociological architecture is weak and fragile. Each one lives apart, people are living alone, and expect others to keep them alone. So when he/she is in trouble, yes he/she expects someone to jump and save him like a “superhero”, because actually people sometimes don’t. Any small favor you do will be like a big thing, because people do not expect this help to be presented unconditionally. So they create these mythos superheroes to compensate the virtue of sacrifice that they lack. They created the idea of the superhero that lives for others. Another distorted superheroes idea is what Hitler’s did in the second world war. He tried to push the human body limits through medical experiments to create a superhero soldier, to serve his invading ideology and to eliminate other societies, not to help others. In Arab countries, especially the Gulf countries from where I came, there is no need for such a myth. When I need help, I have my family to ask, my relatives, and my friends. I am surrounded by so many people that will offer me the help I need even if I don’t ask for it personally. Each will act as a superhero without the need of masked person in a funny suit, who never gets old, never eats, never sleeps, and always in a good mood!! This is a form of fantasia that you go to the cinema to see, spend a good time, and that’s it. The sociological bindings in the Arab countries are very strong, and you don’t find this personal isolation of the Western societies. Helping your brother, friend, or other Muslim is a duty, not something you do out of generosity. There were many attempts to “Amercanize†Arabic characters as Superheroes, and these attempts, in my opinion, are just pathetic. You barely find someone who buy these products in the Arabic markets, why? simply because the reader know that this is unreal and silly. If you want a reader, the most important issues are creativity, credibility, and truth. I and many other Arabs laugh when we see how Western movies express Arabs. They look so fake, because they just express our image according to their values and believes, not ours. Any Arabic act even in the best American movies is so pathetic and so fake. They do not make enough research, they think just by dressing someone like an Arab and adding beard to him is enough to make him believable. Yes you might trick your American/Western citizens, but not our citizens. I can believe an American movie like the matrix to occur in USA because the country itself allows for such imagination, but it would be ridiculous to image it in my country. I have hundreds of graphic novels and I still buy and read comics. Every 2-3 months I buy a lot of recent American and European comics, I read them to enjoy them, not to mimic them. The Japanese comics, or Anime, reflect their own culture too. The Japanese draw their own culture and ideas, and you as a reader interact with their culture, not yours. I know so many people in Kuwait who are so occupied with anime that they started to learn Japanese language just to be able to read the un-translated anime comics, or watch the un-translated movies. This is the type of philosophy you’ll try to accomplish if you want to create Arabic superheroes. Just be yourself and present your culture. The doctor in a certain situation can be a superhero, a person in a certain situation can be a superhero. I read the Arabic literature and history, and I find hundreds of heroic situations and stories that no one heard about, especially among the young generation. In my own view, this is the type of stories that should be created, or the type of comics that should be created. I adapt the philosophy of comics according to my values and my believes, not to import other society’s believes into mine.
Have you considered drawing for comic books or creating Arabic versions of comics?
A I made some characters out of the 1001 Arabian nights, my best fantasia ever, and till today they are the best characters I made according to many of my friends, Arabians and foreigners, because simply they are genuine and authentic. It reflects me, and who I am, and my culture. I’m looking forward to do a comics inspired by the 1001 Arabian nights, I just need to finish my studies, and a good writer. Also, I had already my 3 publications, the first book (The tales of dr. Metyah) the butcher surgeon in 2003, the second is a graphic novel by Dr. Ahmed Towfik in 2004, and the third is a novel by the name of (The fame name: a hospital) in 2005. Just to give you an example when I say something authentic that made people interact with, my first book (The tales of dr. Metyah). I made this book from my own pocket money in 2003, still until this year 2009 people ask about it and remember the character, and some people want me to do a second book. The character became popular in a very short time because it is a true creative character with real black comedy. The character is inspired by true personalities, and reflects characters that you can see in you daily life. I got email feedbacks from people in the gulf and even from many other Arabic countries! Although it was my first book, and the distribution wasn’t that good, but it distributed itself through people in such an amazing way.
Is drawing or illustrating something you can learn? Or is it a gift that you have to be born with and you just exercise on your style? In other words, can anyone become an illustrator or only certain people with certain abilities can?
It is a gift, which you have to grow up like a plant. I know many people who can draw and make doodles, but they never put the effort to be good artists. I continuously learn and change my style and skills. I buy so many DVD seminars and courses of worldwide artists and learn from them. The moment you stop learning from others is the time you stop to grow and mature as an artist. Even the best artists worldwide learn from other artists. No one is perfect. It is my opinion I don’t know, but it is really hard to train someone to draw who doesn’t have it already; It is like training someone to play on a piano, he can play other people’s symphonies, but he won’t be able to create his own.
Can people buy some of your illustration? If yes, where can they buy them from?
Well, apart from commissions, I have my books. Currently only the graphic novel (The legend of the snake lady) is available, and my medical book. The snake lady is available from Al-Moassasah Al-Arabeyah for publication in Egypt, or its distributors in the Arabic countries. The author is Dr. Ahmed Towfik, and I and my friend Ali Al-Shubbar are the illustrating artists. My medical book is available from amazon.com or Springer.com on the first of July 2009.
Is there anything you would like to add for this interview?
Thank you very much for this interview, I enjoyed it actually.
Thanks for your time!
You are welcome.
Contact information:
Website: http://jarah.deviantart.com – www.le-v-el.com
Email: tabeebjarah@hotmail.com
