The Art Of Heba Farahat

Memories of Mexico

2011-07-17T14:13:00.000-07:00

While i was walking around admiring the beauty , magic , and charm of this Mexican city , San Miguel de Allende, I spotted a little round ball in the sky that was tied up to what looked like balloons. As it got nearer I noticed that it was a flying balloon man ! This memory captured me ever since.

I wanted to give Miguel a special treatment , and do something completly different then anything I have ever done before. So , I built the little guy out of wire, foam , and sculpey . Then I painted him , cut out his clothes out of fabric- and voila ! there he was, exactly the way I saw him .

Then for the entire weekend I sculpted, and sculpted, and sculpted those ballons. painted the ballons and background- and there he is . So the next time you are in Mexico , be on the lookout for Miguel and wave to him , it might bring you some good luck .

I still didn't get the high res, better lighting quality photo for the finished piece , another thing that will have to wait till I get back to Savannah =( but at least I have something to show.

I'm SO Confused Without YOU

2011-07-17T13:42:00.000-07:00

This is my set of I miss you cards !! I wanted my cards to be unconventional , and started thinking of how the people we love influance our everyday lives and often bring more sense and stability to us . Thus, we night be happy enjoying everyday , yet something inside is missing and things don't appear the way the were before. So everything just gets so confusing . The outside of the card carries the illustration , and the inside will say " I'm so Confused Without You ".
As with Lady Savannah , I painted each character individually

and then started collaging and transferring some elements. I then made some nice color prints , and cut and pasted different elements on different levels so that they would cast shadows . I then had it lit and photographed and printed out onto.

At first I liked the idea of keeping the backround for the cards a nice clean white , so that it would enhance the actual image and add simplicity to the already complex figure. However, my curiosity struck me and I started thinking how it would look like if I painted a background. This is what i got :

I'm actually still not sure what I prefer. I think as a greeting card set I would go for a white clean background, but if for an individual illustration I would go for the colored background.

Lady Savannah

2011-07-17T13:19:00.000-07:00

Another Savannah poster , but this time it's about the historical aspect of Savannah . The beauty of these old houses, the trees, and the warmth of southern hospitality .

I'm exploring more and more now with adding 3D into my illustrative work , which I am enjoying very much . I painted everything separate in oil paint and then transferred and collaged the tress onto the background. For the southern lady I cut her out of the illustration board and then placed her a little higher on the background to cast a shadow.

Tree of Life

2011-07-17T13:10:00.000-07:00

This is a poster illustration for the music of Omar Tekbilek http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmvKQ0fmBdU
his music is so soft and inspirational, it's a blend of traditional and modern , and just so magical and beautiful in my opinion . I wanted my illu to convey this magic and how the music coming out of the trumpet is of a new color and dimension . It transforms everything around it , and overflows with mystic and magic.
More technique experimenting here , it's a mixture of oil painting and paper coiling

Homage to King Abdullah

2011-07-17T12:58:00.000-07:00

I have been thinking lately of how fortunate I am to get the opportunity to fulfill my life dream of going to art school and getting my MFA in illustration, and how those dreams have been possible with the help of the Saudi government and especially King Abdullah . With over 30, 000 studetns on full payed scholership in the US alone, many young Saudi's find it possible to travel and study and prepare themselves for a better future. So when i was asked in my Collage class to illustrate an homage piece , I knew that this is one way I can thank the king for all the money and his support to education . The background design and colors are a reference to Saudi money, but I also didn't want it to be too straight forward. here is a sample of it :

The Slowest Bike Race

2011-07-17T12:44:00.000-07:00

more and more in the journey of playing around and exploring the journey of experimenting in style and technique. This is made for a long rectangular mural piece, or a hallway. the idea was that while a person would walk down the hall way , they would walk along side to side with these fun individual characters, and enjoy their differences. I was going for the idea of simplified quarcky characters , surreal bikes, and bright intense colors.

degital portrait practice

2011-07-17T12:30:00.000-07:00

A little digital painting practice using photoshop, and using a quick under painting technique and some background textures. What I mostly liked about this technique is how fast it came a long. I was thinking about experimenting using this technique as an under painting and enhancing some elements by going over it with oil paint. I think it would work in speeding up an oil painting illustration time. I'll get back about that when I try it out.

To Forgive is To Forget

2011-07-17T12:25:00.000-07:00

For this illu we each got a fortune cookie, and we were asked to illustrate our fortune. Mine was " to forgive is to forget " . As I was thinking how I should go about illustrating this , I thought whatever happened to Marry and her little lamb!!!!!! Turns out , as Marry grew older , she had a thing for fluffy and fancy furry stuff. So she took advantage of her friendship with the lamb and decided to use it's wool as a scarf !!!! The lamb managed to forgive and forget . I hope this was a wise dessiscion from the lamb.

As far as media, I dabbed with a different technique. I startted off with some watercolor washes , then topped that with some chalk pastels, and just left that there without much blending. I subsequently added more layers of both watercolors and pastels. To sharpen some edges, i went over them with pastel and color pencils.

I noticed some composition adjustments that I wanted to add, and clarify the lamb and scarf a little more. I started working on that , but unfortunately I didn't get a change to finish before leaving Savannah . Here is a little phone pic of how it might look , even though the colors are very off in this one.

Thank You !

2011-07-17T12:02:00.000-07:00

This was an assignment to illustrate an environmental issue that we felt passionate about. I did so much reading and research for this project , that every time I pick up a plastic bag I think about all the unrecycled waste and all the dying animals =/. Once a plastic bag , alsways a blastic bag. It can never be recycled, it either floats in the bottom of the ocean , or somewhere in the sky. Lots of animals get caught in those plastic bags, thinking it's food or another animal .
There is a lot in this illustration that I like , and some that I don't really. I hope I can get back to it soon , and revisit some of the issues I'm having with it .

sketchbook

2011-04-23T19:16:00.000-07:00

I'm working hard on trying to update my blog. The last few months I have been really bad with posting. but I promise it'll get better = ) . One of the most things i have been enjoying in Savannah is sketching , I love doodeling and playing around with different techniques that I usually don't use in my finished work. I try to at least go through a skechbook every quarter ( every 10 weeks ) .
This is some stuff from the sketchbook from last quarter . Even tho most of them are from location , i did add more color and lines to them at home

OCD

2011-04-21T10:10:00.000-07:00

OCD or not so OCD ? I was asked to illustrate the mental illness OCD, not so much the everyday actions rather how these people feel . I was trying to do that , while conveying an OCD feeling in the illustration. However, I found out that I'm probably the least OCD person EVER . The idea of repeating the same task ( drawing ) over and over again was just not my thing.
I enjoyed coming up with the concept and also experimenting with some new mixed media techniques .

Days of the week coasters

2011-04-21T09:40:00.000-07:00

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

Monday

This was a little coaster assignment I was asked to work on last quarter. I decided to do mine on the days of the week and how we felt on each one of those days. I'm still missing Tuesday and Wednesday . So I guess my week goes from Thu- Monday. The 2 missing days will have to wait a little , who needs Tuesday or Wednesday anyway!

World largest feet

2011-02-08T19:12:00.000-08:00

Savannah Haunted Ghost tour poster

2011-02-07T20:49:00.000-08:00

I did some updates to this one and got a better scan . This one looks so much closer to the original painting.

Sad Heart

2011-02-07T20:35:00.000-08:00

Finally , I did the color for the Smoking Heart . This was mainly an experimental piece, both content and media. I colored this in color pencil , oils , and then touched up on Photoshop. I enjoyed this project a lot . would like to do more of them in the future.

Back to computer illustration

2011-02-04T16:03:00.000-08:00

I'm taking a digital illustration class this quarter. Which is great , there is so much about Photoshop that i need to learn . Here is our first assignment, we had to select an illustration from our sketchbook and color it using Photoshop. I cheated a little and got some help from Painter as well ;-) This is another version of my Urban Legend about the lady who wandered Savannah in hair filled with spiders. Guess what she did at night when nobody was watching ? helping her friends with their cob webs.

Hilton Head Piano Competition

2011-02-04T15:54:00.000-08:00

This is a poster for the Hilton Head Piano Competition . Giving Lino cut another try , I was going for a more simple rougher style than my usual, and heavily relaying on a dynamic composition . Not sure how I feel about this poster yet . Non the less , it was fun , and I gave hand lettering a chance.

Fish on Leash

2011-02-04T15:44:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since an update. Been busy trying to catch up with all my projects at school and working on some other stuff. but it's all going pretty well and I'm enjoying my 2nd quarter at SCAD.

I plan to take this assignment to a finish , for now it'll have to wait and just be a color comp. This task was to illustrate " a fish on leash " , whatever that meant to you . This is my interpretation.

new portrait

2011-01-10T19:14:00.000-08:00

So my big plans for my winter break got kinda canceled . I kind of got busy enjoying the winter season with my beloved family and friends in California. So , I just had to postpone those projects a few weeks. However, I did do this portrait. It was great doing this again , after a while of illustration.

1st Quarter at SCAD - DONE !

2010-11-19T15:18:00.000-08:00

So i survived my first quarter back at school , and in the MFA program ! wooohooooo !!! As a reflection to how it went : over all , it was fun & I enjoyed it very much . It's so exciting to me that I'm in school and all I get to do is learn about art & illustration and work on tuns of projects.
Since graduating with my BFA I've been mainly working on my paintings and setting my own deadlines. So the transition to thinking and working as an illustrator was a little tough . I'm still experimenting with medias and what stuff workout best for me . Never the less, it's been fun, i learned a lot . & I can't wait to see what next quarter will carry out for me.

My plan for the break : I don't go back to school till Jan 4th ( yay ) - I'm going to work on a portrait , finish my Smoking Hear, and rework some projects from the quarter.

This is one of the projects that I'm going to try to edit ( or most likely redo ). It's a cover for a children's book ( Jelly Beans for Breakfast ) .
Some aspects about it i really love others not so much .There are some drawing issues that I'm not too satisfied with . Also , I want to try a different media & style that might look better with it. The other project I'm going to rework , I still don't have a pic of. But I'll be sure to keep myself busy this break !!! let's see if I can actually make it happen .

Urban Legend

2010-11-17T19:07:00.000-08:00

This was done earlier this quarter , for an Urban Legend show that SCAD Illustration held. This lady never combed or washed her hair. When she died spiders crawled and sprang out of her hair. She is still seen wandering Savannah in the late nights.
I scanned the painting , but I don't think that really worked. The colors are off , and the values not true to the painting. I'll take a pic of it , maybe that would turn out better.

Sad Heart

2010-11-17T18:36:00.000-08:00

I wanted to take shot on Medical illustration, but also make it fun and different. It was fascinating to learn all about the heart again and looking at different references to get it to look right. I decided to make it on the side effects of smoking on the heart . Smoking creates buildup and heart clots - what a sad saaad heart =( . Here is the final drawing and a color comp. I'm going to be sure to take it to a final during the winter break . So stay tuned .

Courage

2010-11-09T12:48:00.000-08:00

I forgot to upload this one, it is one of the first projects I worked on this quarter. It was done using Ink on clay board. A really neat process that I hadn't worked on before.

RFA poster

2010-11-09T12:39:00.000-08:00

Here is the finished poster, I added the colors on photoshop. Unlike everything else I've worked on , I wanted to keep this one flat , simple, and preserving the lino cut look .

Figure drawing Friday

2010-11-05T17:48:00.000-07:00

I love the Friday Figure drawing session. I'm going to try to attend them every Fri till the end of the quarter& post them .
We had a pretty pregnant model today . It was really exciting , since she was my first pregnant model.

Savannah Ghost Tour Poster

2010-10-31T17:56:00.000-07:00

Oil paint - 18 X 24
When you walk at night in Savannah, you'll find Ghost Tour hearse, busses , and walking tours. All there to listen to the legends of this haunted city, and the secrets under those cobble stones. Therefore, I found it necessary to illustrate a Ghost tour poster and include some of Savannah's beautiful architecture.
The painting is fairly wet, so it was hard to get a good picture without the glare. I'll try again later when it dries a bit.

LOVE

2010-10-30T20:54:00.000-07:00

This is poster illustration for Ethanol corn as a renewable energy. Also going with the idea that using corn products is safer for the environment. my first linoleum cut print, it was lots of fun to make. I'm still going to add some texture and color on photoshop. Will post the finished piece later next week

2010-10-16T18:30:00.000-07:00

it's been a while since I blogged, I haven't had internet. But I am going to start blogging at least once a week from now on ;-) .

I went to a quick figure drawing session , about an hour long only . Here it is

A day at the beach

2010-09-15T20:55:00.000-07:00

Here is my newest oil painting . I worked on this one from a photo , which really gave me the chance to study her figure up close , and examine the anatomy. Unfortunately, It'll be a while till I can get a better quality of this taken , since I left it to dry in Cali.

Sketchbook Project 2011

2010-06-17T23:34:00.000-07:00

http://www.arthousecoop.com/projects/sketchbookproject

YAY !! it's here =) ... I signed up for the Sketch Book Project Tour 2011 - hosted by Art-house Co-op & I just got the sketchbook. I'm really excited and nervous about it . I haven't been sketching enough lately , so this is something that will get me going . My theme is : Nightmare. I'll start soon , and will be posting my pages up , So excited =D

Life Drawing in Graphite

2010-06-04T11:53:00.000-07:00

Fun with life drawing . This was nice , because I had a lot of time to work on it and really get into the details. Unfortunately , its another bad quality phone pic, I'll replace it really soon .

2010-05-23T13:25:00.000-07:00

I finally got my paintings photographed . These look much better and a lot closer to the original paintings.

Portrait drawing from life

2010-05-10T22:08:00.000-07:00

Puck

2010-04-21T13:29:00.000-07:00

Here is a piece I've finished a while now. It started off as a simple still life study. The photo is terrible , i still can't seem to take a good photo of my paintings by myself . but it'll have to due till I get the better ones.

2010-03-28T01:20:00.000-07:00

I have been lazy about posting. I'll upload everything I have been working on really soon .
Here is the finished portrait , still waiting to get better pictures taken .

A Road Less Traveled by

2010-01-08T12:15:00.000-08:00

oil painting portrait in progress

2010-01-08T10:43:00.001-08:00

2009-12-03T09:16:00.000-08:00

2009-12-02T14:38:00.000-08:00

2009-11-17T14:30:00.000-08:00

2009-10-20T12:28:00.001-07:00

Laundry Day !

2009-10-20T12:20:00.000-07:00

This is a typical laundry day in Riyadh ( Saudi Arabia ) the heat , the roof top , and the palm trees. ..... the painting is still very wet , so I couldn't take a photo with less glare than this one.

More figure drawings

2009-10-20T11:34:00.000-07:00

Back to figure drawing

2009-09-09T14:33:00.000-07:00

Time to get back into figure drawing , and revisit those old anatomy books. It's been some time since I've done any figure drawing. I felt a little rusty , non the less, I was stocked !! it was so much fun. This is a qucike study, didn't have that much time to really get into the shading details, and workout the values. More figure drawings coming up really soon=-)

Portrait painting - work in progress

2009-08-30T23:29:00.000-07:00

This is a temporary photo hat I took with my phone. The original painting has a lot more texture, which is lost from the low resolution photo. I'm really excited about the portrait, I've been working on this one some time now, and it's almost done. I just started painting the torso today , so it's still a little rough . The face also needs a little more work , but it's getting there. I'll post the finished one when it's done.

2009-08-30T23:07:00.000-07:00

2009-05-18T15:17:00.000-07:00

Portrait study

2009-05-11T22:02:00.000-07:00

Finished Mural

2009-04-26T13:16:00.001-07:00

Mural is done. The "king Monkey " - the one with the banana crown, was meant to resemble the boy who the mural belongs to. They were pretty satisfied with how it turned out.

mural progress

2009-04-15T20:48:00.000-07:00

Lazy rain-forest monkeys

2009-04-06T20:15:00.000-07:00

It's mural season for me. Here is another mural that I just started painting. So far, I'm still working on a grayscale underpinning. I'll post the finished mural when I'm done

More flowers

2009-03-24T21:43:00.000-07:00

I actually worked on these before working on the Tulips. They were the first Oil paintings I've done in a long time, since other than the little quick Plein-air paintings that I did I mostly focused on digital painting.

Tulips

2009-03-22T21:34:00.001-07:00

24 X 12
I worked on a few floral paintings, which have been just a lot of fun. Also, they gave more a chance to think more of color and techniques in a nice simple subject matter.

under the sea mural finished

2009-03-22T10:17:00.000-07:00

Here is the finished mural, I took these pics with my phone so they are not the best quality. I'll take new photos next week and upload them.

another mural

2009-03-04T23:36:00.000-08:00

this is my "under the sea " mural that I'm currently working on. There is still a lot to do, I barely am just done with putting some f the background colors in, and just started adding some sea life. I'm doing this for a 9 year old girl, in the planning of this mural I was trying to be age consciousness. So far it's going good, I'm having fun and the family is liking it. There is still a third wall to this mural that I didn't have a decent photo of. I'll try to publish it later this week.

Tree Mural

2009-02-16T12:40:00.001-08:00

I know I haven't posted anything in a few months. However, i have been working on a bunch of new stuff, just haven't gotten to post them yet. But I will be very soon.

This is a mural I worked on this sunday, my client had something very specific in mind. I really enjoyed working on this one, the flat one color scheme of the mural was a nice break from the more complex painting i usually do. It also gave more of a chance to work on the curvy lines and stylization of the tree.

I'll try to post better images for it.

more Plein-air painting

2008-10-21T21:25:00.000-07:00

Self-Portrait

2008-10-13T12:44:00.000-07:00

Oil on Canvas. Still working on those portraits =) it was actualy a little more of a struggle working on a self-portrait. It's just hard to stop, the longer I work on it, the more I see.

Getting back in to Plein air painting

2008-10-03T07:58:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to get more Plein-air paintings done. However, by keeping my composition simple and more zooming in to the objects, I'm working more on my color choices, and understaning what happens to the color under the sunlight and in shadow.

Portrait

2008-09-10T11:25:00.000-07:00

working more traditional lately. 8.5X 11. oil on wood pannel. I've been working more and more with portraits lately, an area that i didn't explore much before. I'm deffinatly enjoying it a lot more now, and I'm having fun again painting with a brush and paint.

2008-07-30T23:29:00.000-07:00

Here is an older illustration that i had.I expeirment a little with this one , adding warmer shadowes and more texture.

YUMMMMMMMMY !!!

2008-07-15T00:20:00.000-07:00

Just a little fun illustration. I was going for a bright joyfull look, making the cupcakes especialy standout.I think I'm pretty happy with how it turnend out.

portrait sketch

2008-05-13T01:05:00.000-07:00

just practicing my portraiture! I'm a little rusty when it comes to portraits, so I'm taking some time to practice. I did go into Painter and added some of the detail ( hmmm!! still don't know if it was a good idea !!! ) . However, I'm actualy really enjoying portraits , especialy when it comes to noticing all the subtle details that makes each indevidual who they are to get the likeness across.

2008-04-23T12:58:00.000-07:00

The colors on my posts varies on diffrent monitors =(

2008-04-13T12:36:00.001-07:00

I have been checking out my blog in diffrent computers, and often the colors look so diffrent then on the screen of my laptop!!! they are either too dark or too light. So i'm trying to figure it out and get that taken care of =O

Old town Riyadh- Saudi Arabia.

2008-04-12T19:46:00.001-07:00

I'm finally getting back into the illustration mood, and had so much fun with this one. I love Door ways, and enjoyd working on the subtle details - the bikes,house number, note left on the door, baskets on the stairs, broken mail boxes,graphitie, and paper tea cups that were just left there- which are remains of a story waitting to be told.

Despite, all the fancy buildings and several high scale shopping malls in Riyadh ( where you can actualy always see your reflection on the shinny floor tile ;D ) , I was mostly fascinated by our old town. With it's smaller streets, smaller buildings, markets, and tourists. Haha, as many modern Saudis now a days , my younger sisters hate going there , and wouldn't want to be caught walking down the streets of the old town. However, since Riyadh is the capital, the government is taking extra care of the city and it's modernisation, therefore , where many old buildings once stood, are now newly renovated ones, thus cutting off part of it's history!

WAITING !!!

2008-04-02T13:10:00.000-07:00

So, you think the DMV is bad ?!!!! try getting your ID card in Saudi Arabia. My mother, 4 sisters, and I had a llittle field trip over there. All I can say, LOTS OF PATIENCE was necessary . I did run into some interesting people however, one woman I talked to, said she was a match maker, for marriage that is. She said I can name her any type of man I want, and she would be sure to find him. She then went on providing me with, what she thought were, some pretty valuable marrige tips. On a positive note, only in the recent years did they start issuing ID cards for women in Saudi Arabia, and I FINALY GOT MINE =D.

I like how this one turnned out, especialy the composition! however, I think it still needs some final touches and maybe some diffrent brush strokes. I think this was mostly done in the Acrylic captured bristel brush.

another Saudi wedding

2008-03-27T13:23:00.000-07:00

Finally, I'm back !!! I'm not really too happy with how this one turned out, but it was just a fun quick one, something to get me back into it. My sisters Ammal just got married, her and her husband scuba dive at the Red Sear where you often find these same type of fish. It was my first time back to Saudi Arabia in over 6 years. The wedding was beautiful, and I came back loaded with ideas and inspiration. I'm working on a bunch of other stuff that I will be posting soon.

Lulu's Curls

2008-01-16T02:10:00.000-08:00

Lulu is sure that this will work, her curls are going to be gone in the morning!

More Plein-air painting

2008-01-16T01:03:00.000-08:00

These are some of the Plein-air paintings from last semester's class. I still need to practice a lot, but it's all making soo much more sense now =D

plein-air painting at Corona del mar

2007-11-08T23:31:00.000-08:00

Crystal Cove/ Reef Point at Laguna Beach

2007-10-25T14:31:00.000-07:00

i worked on this from a photograph that I took during Plein-air class, i was trying to capture a bright sunny day using the stuff i learned from the class, and the colors i saw on location to this digital art pice.

work in progress for " lulu's curls"

2007-10-23T01:15:00.000-07:00

"Now I will be just like everyone else," she thought excitedly.
But when she looked in the mirror, her face fell. Her hair was just as curly as before, but now all the curls were tangled up and matted together.

this is an unfinished piece, it still needs some clean-up, retouches, and resolve some stuff ( like the hands =O ) . i'll come back to it later !!

my children's book characters

2007-10-15T18:47:00.000-07:00

( Lulu's curls) is the story of a young girl who, with the help of her baby sister Dada, tries to rid herself of a hated head of curls, but ultimately discovers the beauty of being diffrent.

2007-09-18T18:02:00.001-07:00

2007-09-06T16:35:00.000-07:00

Textures

2007-09-02T12:08:00.000-07:00

Acrylic

zoo drawings

2007-08-29T01:14:00.000-07:00

2007-08-29T01:09:00.000-07:00

2007-08-29T00:47:00.000-07:00

2007-08-29T00:21:00.000-07:00

2007-08-29T00:06:00.000-07:00

wait till i'm superman ..

2007-08-28T23:42:00.000-07:00

nothing beats a saudi kiss !

2007-08-28T23:35:00.001-07:00