Maryam Ahmad is a brand ambassador for Scholar Stationery. A 2D animator with a BFA in Commercial Arts, she works as a freelance illustrator for children’s books and academic publications. In this interview, she talks about her artistic process.

What are the Bare Bones projects you have worked on?

The Bare Bones mascot, Bobo and the Magic Cloak by Reeham Ahmed, and an untitled book on Responsible Tourism by Mani Mahesh Aurora.

How did you approach these projects? 

Before starting any project, I like to completely understand the vision of the author–– in terms of visualisation of the story, the look and style of main characters, and how the pages are going to be formatted. It is imperative to do full justice to the author’s vision. So, for the Bobo book’s author, being a young girl herself, Reeham had a pretty great visual picture of the main protagonist, the look, and the style to be followed through the book. Which made things extremely easy and fun for me.

As for the Responsible Tourism book, the author had a definite vision to what he wanted to convey through his book. The layout and the minimalistic styles were discussed. As the protagonist had already been made, the Bare Bones mascot, we just had to incorporate the same sketchy, loose style in the book as well. The rest was easy.

What is your favourite type of design work?

My favourite type of design or illustration work is working on children’s books. The vibrancy, the imagination, the storylines are always so much fun to illustrate. And I love trying out different styles and techniques in my illustrations. So, it never gets boring for me.

What is your favourite design tech?

Although I work in either Photoshop or Procreate on my iPad, my go-to design tech is Procreate. I love the options in terms of brushes and textures and the infinite styles that we can work with in Procreate. It is extremely intuitive and responsive, and till date, the best app or tech for illustrators and artists.

How do you adapt to new styles or techniques? 

New styles and techniques in illustrations are something that I am obsessed with trying out… I always, always practice and work on my own projects while trying out the new techniques and styles so that when I get to make them for clients, it is always easy. Also, the samples are there for them to see how the final product or artwork might look like.

A design book you would like to recommend.

I have grown up sketching almost all the time. And my go-to references were people around me, comics like Asterix, or Amar Chitra Katha, or some Urdu journals that had some amazing pencil sketches. I also remember sketching from the Russian story books that were flooding the market during my childhood and which had amazing artworks. While in college and my animation years, I referred to artists like Victor Perard and Vilppu for anatomy and Stephen Silver for character design. Also, Disney artists. They have some amazing books in the market for any newbie illustrator who wants to brush up his or her skills. Till our drawing is good, our digital artworks will not be good. So, practising traditional art is necessary to grow in the illustration world.

What is your greatest career accomplishment?

My greatest career accomplishment would be to continue working irrespective of my situation. Being an Army officer’s wife, having a regular job was not on the cards for me after marriage, so I consistently hustled to get freelance work. Any work in the beginning, then I got more selective as I grew in confidence. But continuing to work, and enjoying what I do, has been my biggest career accomplishment.