22: "I just want to see more stories from here, told by people from here." Dubai-Based, Egyptian Animator and Illustrator Maryam Moustafa on the creative scene in the Middle East

Some of you may be sad to hear but I will be hiatusing this podcast for now! It's been a great 6 months, but I wanted to wrap it up with a small episode on my thoughts so far.⁠ ⁠  THANKS TO EVERYONE FOR YOUR SUPPORT! It's been so great and I hope you will continue to benefit and relisten/re-read all the great interviews conducted so far! HIGHLY APPRECIATE all the guests (y'all are the real MVPs!!!)⁠ Mentioned  My YT Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/DesignDrawDo Douglas Murakami: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zT7N236xEA0&t=52s JunHo Korean episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3LKWHmk8I4

Read the episode on Medium or Substack Today, I sit down with award-winning artist Jason Chuang who talks us through his journey from Taiwan to the UK, and how he has shifted into illustration, alongside the behind-the-scenes of his artistic process. We dive into his inspirations, cultural background, as well as how his life experiences have shaped him including his 4-month military experience which informed his first graphic novel. This was a super interesting conversation and I’m happy to hiatus the podcast on this episode.

Read on https://medium.com/the-pixel-paper-podcast Today’s artist is our second to the last artist before the podcast goes on HIATUS! Isabelle Lam is an architect and illustrator whose work presents the artistic quirks that brand the students of the Bartlett School of Architecture. Her work effortlessly spans across both digital art and architecture, cultivating a hybrid of aesthetics and underlying messages which weave her work together. Please enjoy this short but worthy read with Isabelle! Hamza Sheikh Interview with Bartlett Graduate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ebpp_NJVcPI

Read on Medium, or Subscribe on Substack or on Youtube. Would you define yourself as a painter or a designer? Well, Caner Soylu describes himself as the latter! For this week's episode, I sat down with the Turkish Children’s book illustrator based in Poland who shares his journey thus far. We talk about the ups and downs of illustration, and discuss in-depth about art education, theory and practice what it means to be a painter vs a designer. For people who are interested in traversing this route, I think you will benefit so please enjoy this episode with Caner Soylu.

Read the episode on Medium or Substack Today’s artist, Becky, went from studying astrophysics at university to quitting her job as a software engineer to pursue art: a tale we all envision, and dream of, Becky tells her tale of navigating through the uncertainty of dropping it all to pursue her dreams. She offers a lot of great insights into artists who she has learned from, her inspirations, alongside many great tools and apps which she uses to help her workflow. Don’t miss out this awesome episode with Becky! And give her Youtube channel some love too!

Read the blog or watch on Youtube Today's guest talks about her passion for animation which determined the course of her career. Maryam Moustafa is our first guest from the Middle East who describes how her love for the industry stemmed from an early age when she was dead set on becoming an animator. We spoke about how the animation scene in the middle east is still in it's infancy and what gaps there are in the creative industries in this region.  In fact I think Maryam's story and her persistence is in and of itself very inspiring and sounds somewhat like the start of a hero story hmm...to find out more about animation, interactive design and freelancing in the Middle east, please enjoy this episode with Maryam Moustafa. You can check out her instagram here.

Follow Xiao here: Listen to the episode on Anchor or Youtube Read the episode here: https://medium.com/the-pixel-paper-podcast/about As soon as I saw the hues, blue and purple sprinkled with glowing stars, I knew I had to interview Xiao. His work evoked a profound sense of bittersweet loss, hope and sorrow all wrapped into one. These emotions translate not just through his paintbrush but also his pen, as he provided me with the longest script yet! This is a truly insightful, profound and philosophical interview which I hope you will enjoy. As soon as I saw the hues, blue and purple sprinkled with glowing stars, I knew I had to interview Xiao. His work evoked a profound sense of bittersweet loss, hope and sorrow all wrapped into one. These emotions translate not just through his paintbrush but also his pen, as he provided me with the longest script yet! This is a truly insightful, profound and philosophical interview which I hope you will enjoy.

Today's guest is from France - Claire Sun is a vibrant visual artist, and a graduate of the ultra-famous school of animation Gobelins. Today she shares the experiences that she had at university, including how she made a cool Japanese-inspired short which was the opening for the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in 2019. If you want to find out more about what life is like in a top animation school, please enjoy this episode with Claire Sun. INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/lilblueorchy/ TWITTER: https://twitter.com/lilblueorchid?lang=en YOUTUBE:  ARTICLE: https://medium.com/the-pixel-paper-podcast

For today's guest, we have a marketer-turned artist with a background in textiles. In this episode, Miriam from Malaysia spills her story of how she became an artist after a solid career in marketing for 10 years. This was a cool and unique episode in that Miriam has a very different route to the usual artist career and she offers a lot of professional advice as well as advice from a more experienced point of view so for young people who are starting out in their late teens or early 20's, I think this is a really good episode to listen to, and even if you're not it's just a super interesting episode to see how Miriam has come to where she is, how she started her super popular meme page called Mirro Notes and how she uses her art to help her local community. Please enjoy this episode with Miriam Omar.   INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/miriamomar/?hl=en https://www.instagram.com/mirronotes/?hl=en  YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/dmVdyODsDYo ARTICLE: https://medium.com/the-pixel-paper-podcast

Today’s artist is a Dutch artist who likes to emulate calmness in his work, through his subjects and playful colours. Joey Pool is an early-career illustrator who has worked on some really cool projects including an interactive film which he worked on with a whole team (more info on that in the recorded podcast interview). Joey loves to transport people into different worlds through his art and we traveled a lot as we had a lot of deep discussions around art. This is a nice calming, yet thoughtful interview so please enjoy this episode with Joey Pool. INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/joeypoolart/?hl=en ARTICLE: https://medium.com/the-pixel-paper-podcast YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/B4O5fEdEdMU SUBSCRIBE VIA EMAIL: https://pixelpaperpodcast.substack.com/