‘Being content is more important than success’

Shahan Zaidi – a multitalented senior art director, concept artist, matte painter and teacher from Karachi – recently discussed his influences, styles, workflow and artistic medium with Pakistan Today.
Starting out at an early age and consistently refining his craft, Zaidi stands out as a true artist with the passion and creativity to highlight the details and splendour in his work. He started his career as a cartoonist when he was only 15. Later, he started painting and also did a comic series for a magazine. He also worked as an image editor under the supervision of a renowned photographer, the late Asghar Bhatti.
He received training in theatre from Michael Shank, Sheema Kermani and Irfan Sadiq, acting in a few plays with Kermani and Sadiq at the Arts Council of Pakistan, the Pakistan American Cultural Centre and the Rafi Peer Festival. He also wrote some short plays, and acknowledges theatre playing a major role in improving his character design skills, which he had put to good use at an animation film studio he had joined as a 3D animation intern.
However, after realising his interests leaned more towards art than animation, he joined another post-production house as a concept artist. He has also worked as a senior concept artist and a senior art director, whereas he is currently a visiting faculty member for character design at a reputed university. “Everything around me inspires my art. My house and family members, my workplace and colleagues, good and bad people, my students, nature, films, the Internet, writers, artists, photographers, musicians – everyone and everything,” Zaidi said.
He said that every new project starts with some brainstorming, which then gets intense, followed by research. “As concept artists, we know what we have to do and how, but we sometimes require others’ views as well. Therefore, the better the brainstorming, the better the results. We do a lot of rough sketches and sometimes engage in long discussions, but at other times, we only think,” he added.
For professional work, Zaidi prefers digital media, but for personal projects, he likes to paint with oil and acrylics, and employs pencils, markers, calligraphy pens and charcoal as well. He also sculpts with clay and paper pulp because it relaxes him. “I am proud of a high-resolution book cover that I made for author Jason A Spencer-Edwards’ ‘Patrol Boy’. I had done it on a very slow machine using a more or less out-of-order tablet pen when I was unemployed and pretty much broke,” he said.
Zaidi advises aspiring artists to just take a pencil and start drawing whatever they wish to in a sketchbook. “But draw,” he stresses, adding, “In your spare time, watch good films, travel if you have the opportunity to do so, read good things, and then draw again. Draw life and still life as much as humanly possible – and you are an artist.”
However, he said, being successful is a different thing. “Sometimes you achieve success overnight and sometimes it takes as long as a lifetime,” he added.
Nevertheless, what matters the most is your own satisfaction, he said. “Be honest with yourself, find out your flaws and try to remove them, but most importantly, keep on learning,” he concluded.