Interview with Maheen Sana

I enjoy the process.

It was my personal choice.

I make digital art. I wish to make more sketches.

I am not a design legend, but I would suggest young digital artists not delay learning perspective, colour theory, composition, and so on.

I don't know.

It should look good.

The value you give it, I guess.

I would create more art based on my experiences with people.

My comic.

The secret ingredient is to stop listening to the people around you.

Alexandre Diboine, Jessica Taylor, Darya Kozhemyakina, and many more people.

Way too many. One of my favourite paintings is New Order by Mosh Art.

My greatest drawings are my sketches.

I didn't do anything which is why I'm nowhere near where I want to be. If you want to keep getting better, keep drawing.

Probably a comedian or a writer of some sort.

I haven't reached any heights. I don't think of my life in terms of my supporters. I don't know who my supporters are?

I didn't face any obstacles in my art career.

That's up to them.

Expect a lot of rat jazz.

To not be called a designer.

I honestly have no idea.

It doesn't. Art is beautiful to look at though.

Getting back into drawing. Yes, I stopped for a long while.

My sketches.

I don't care much about that.

It's irrelevant to me as a visual artist.

3-5 years.

I start by writing about it.

Wing it? No one knows what they're doing.

Quite a big one since I am primarily a digital artist.

I am using Affinity Photo these days.

Quite a big one, I guess.

I do not wish people to ask me about my drawings.

That I should draw something.

Probably my crushes.

More recently, Kafka's books.

By winging it.

The guy on the bus that I like.

I have only won 1 award. I feel okay about it.

I like all colours, I suppose. My favourite place would be somewhere near the Mediterranean. Favourite season depends on the country. My favourite thing right now is reading about esoteric health advice. I don't have a favourite brand.

The funniest thing is when your inexperienced clients become your art director.

It was obvious that I would draw for a living as an adult.

Rat jazz.

Someone please teach me how to not be afraid of a blank canvas. Thank you.

I’m a freelance illustrator and designer.

My bread and butter.

I like making illustrations and digital paintings the most.

Not sure if it was for a company, but my first paid freelance job was to draw an onion in Microsoft Paint and I killed it.

I love digital art. I’m currently happy with my Wacom Intuos pro tablet and stylus. The setup is easy and comfortable. Photoshop is hands down my favorite software to work in. I recently got into 3D art and so Blender and Zbrush are pretty fun to play around with.

Ideas come to me randomly.

Composition and color.

If I’m in the flow state and making something I genuinely care about, then I feel indifferent to everything and anything around me.

Mostly relief.

If it gets more than 60 likes on Instagram. But on a serious note, generally, if a lot of people are talking about it and it just really makes you go “man, that’s good” then I guess that’s successful. On a more personal level, I feel like a design is successful if you see your idea through to the end and do not have any regrets.

If it looks good or bad.

I’d like to see more artists interested in tech. I’ve seen so many artists completely shun any new technological advancement especially if it somehow makes its way into the art community.

In digital art, I am noticing more and more people incorporating 3D into 2D artworks. I think it’s a really nice strategy to get more structure into your paintings and up your perspective and composition game. I don’t know if it’s the “future” of digital art. It’s certainly not revolutionary, just something that is very cool, I think.

I exhibited some of my paintings at ND2C 2018 in Islamabad. I don’t have any plans for an exhibition at the moment.

My art style is all over the place, but in a good way. I like drawing different things in different styles.

Through the internet. I’ve always been a freelance artist.

Look at their work and talk to them.

I start by collecting some reference images, start working on some concept sketches, and then once I’m happy with one, I start painting.

My iPhone, Macbook Pro, Doc Martens, these earrings I got from Istanbul, the floating stairs in our house.

Wake up, workout, breakfast, chores, shower, work, lunch, work, dinner, read, sleep.

Put in the work. Express what you want. Have self-respect.

The positives definitely outnumber the negatives. We as designers get to do what we love, most people can’t say that. We actually enjoy doing our work, well most of the time anyway. I guess the only downside I see is constantly having to deal with imposter syndrome, which can often lead you to undervalue your work and be underpaid.

Kill your darlings. I know it’s a rule for writers, but I think artists/ designers should incorporate this in their art process as well.

Knowing how to sell.

The hardware includes my Macbook Pro and Wacom Intuos Pro. I mostly work in Adobe Photoshop, but I dabble in Adobe Illustrator and Figma depending on what I'm working on. I’ve also been learning some 3D in Blender. I use a lot of different websites to get inspiration. Some of these are, Awwwards, ArtStation, Behance, Pinterest, DeviantArt, etc.

My life is different from most 22-year-olds, I think. I’m fortunate enough to have a lot of time to create art for personal projects as well as for work.

An illustration can take me anywhere from a day to a month to make. Yep, pretty standard.

Can you draw me?

Illustrations and digital paintings. I just do.

Making good art.

I work alone.

Yes, I’m working on several projects right now, some of them I can’t talk about. I'm also working on some original paintings.

@maheensana on ArtStation and Behance
@maheensana_ on Instagram and Twitter
@Maheen-S on DeviantArt