Introducing Myself: Izz Iqbal

Hey there, the name’s Izz Iqbal Irfan bin Saleh Salim. I’m an art student and currently studying at Multimedia University of Cyberjaya (MMU) in Malaysia. I draw comics, doodles and quick sketches of people in my free time. I'm mostly interested about drawing mechs and armory concept arts. I like to do my artwork in both traditional and digital art.

Here are some of the mech doodles I did in my sketchbooks:

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SHOUTOUT

(First of all, I would like to thank my lecturer, who happens to be a great local comic artist, Mr. Anuar Hassan a.k.a @sireh for building a community of talented artist and introduced me to Steemit. The community is starting to grow and I’m really enjoying being a part of it!)

The ComiNation Club

I’m considered myself lucky to be where I am right now. My path of becoming an artist did not have a good start but my passion helped me a lot throughout the years, thankfully. I never get the privilege of having a drawing teacher to teach me about art during school years. Instead, I just watched videos on Youtube and learn to draw with it as much as I could. My parents are both teachers, so you guys may get the idea of what situation I’m facing but yet again, I am very thankful that they supported me for doing this.

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Something About Me...

I’m currently in an experimental mode with my art style, so you might see random styles of drawing throughout my posts in the future. Anywhow, I used to be a freelance artist and make interactive comics for an online game streamer as an entertainment years ago but I stopped doing it because I have to focus on my studies since it was during my high school days. Now, I’m in college and currently studying for my animation course but I’m looking forward to draw comics again - here on Steemit!

Here's a preview of a comic I did for the ComiNation Club:

Before even I own a drawing tablet, I rely heavily on my mouse when I’m doing digital art. At first, I really didn’t like it because my artwork would look terrible because of the limited movements I have using it but I managed to adapt. (I must say, all those hours of PC gaming experience finally came in handy haha!) Later on, I finally figured out a way to draw using a mouse without losing my ‘artistic touch’ like when I do on paper. I tried to harmonized both traditional and digital medium together and they turned out pretty well!

Digital arts I did with my mouse using Paint Tool Sai:

From traditional to digital form:

Since the mouse does not have any pressure sensitivity, I had to make use of the low opacity when colouring. Here’s how the process looks like:

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A Tribute

After years of using pencils and a mouse, I finally got my first drawing tablet in 2016, thanks to my big brother. He has been supporting me throughout the years, even when I’m just a little kiddo. His influences of art and pop culture is what inspired me to be what I am now. Something like Pokemon, Dragonball Z, Gundam are parts of my childhood thanks to him.

Although he likes to draw, he loves to help people even more by deciding to be a doctor. Now, he is a doctor, married and already had two lovely daughters. He still enjoys art and read comics but it really feels like he lets me to continue his passion, pursuing to make art. I'm proud of him for being a good example in family and with that in mind, I always try my best to improve myself from time to time.

My big brother and his family:

Anyway, that is all for my introduction. I’ll see you guys in my next post. Ta-ta!