| From the submission |

It all started in the childhood. All I can remember that over time I had the chance to meet amazing souls, witnessed great incidents, small and big things whatever they were, I loved to make my own stories with them, in my thoughts, with my own terms. But I felt it was not enough, to add more weight to those ideas, I began drawing. If you ask me what was the first picture you drew? I remember it clearly, it was a Transport Ship. I remember spending several days to draw one Ship after another until it became perfect to my eyes. I was obsessed with perfection.

My school was the place where I honed myself. During the classes I used to draw at the back of my notebook. I remember my friends’ comments about the level of detail I used to put behind each artwork. I loved detailing, I thought it made the artwork more alive and appealing. Detailing cost me time. I had to put a lot of time behind one single artwork. Obviously patience was the key, I think I have this because I’ve only drawn for myself. And that’s why during class eight I was able to put this much output with watercolor:

My favorite media was ball point pen as they were cheap and easily carriage able in school. It was like gambling, make one mistake and the entire piece of artwork is undone. I often felt nervous before starting to draw, I feared I might mess up in the middle of it. The ball point media helped me there.  Unfortunately most of my artworks were either lost or moldered as they were drawn at the back pages of my notebooks. Luckily I managed to store this one:

During that time we didn’t have smart phones or internet. Source of Good artworks were often the Eid Cards we received during Eid-Ul-Fitre. I tried to draw them, even though they were drawn in digital media, I tried them with water color. Same blending and tone were very challenging. But I kept practicing.

I tried different media as well, I saw many amazing artists from Bangladesh using color pencil with intense skills. So I was inspired and tried my own:

After the SSC examination, I was introduced to digital painting. And this is where I want to see myself in the future. The challenges I faced over years with different media and tools made me ready for this step. If you are a new artist and eagerly want to start painting in digital media, I will strongly discourage you. Learn the basics first, Try different media, face the challenges they throw at you, otherwise you will mess up badly in here. My first work on digital media was something like this (this image was drawn with mouse only)

I think it is necessary for learners to spend more time behind one artwork rather than producing dozens at once. It allows our consciousness about the nature of different subjects, their shapes, their nature in all sort of lighting environment, so when we are going to use the same subject in another artwork we don’t have to face difficulties about their tone, color, gesture and about their position in the suitable spaces. Specifically I want to mention this original work of mine (It was also drawn with mouse only):

Drawing cloth’s fold was once a very challenging obstacle for me, but after spending hours and hours behind this work I was able to understand the nature of the cloths folding, their unique shapes at different human gestures. And this is why I take relatively less time and almost no reference to draw cloths in my artworks.

In 2015, I had the chance to get admitted into the Institute of Fine Arts of the University of Dhaka, and that was the turning place for me. DU was the place where I had the chance to meet so many amazing, talented persons. I had the chance to learn many things that I would otherwise couldn’t learn on my own,DU changed my outlookand founded my very own thoughts about art. I still remember that one thing my Honorable teacher said during our first day at class:

“Where is your credit copying another artist’s creation? You did nothing, you only copied it. I can only give you credit for your amazing copying skill.”

And that’s when I realized I was doing till then was wrong. I must never copy artworks. Not even a photograph. He also said,

“…But to reach that level where you can create your own unique artworks, you must first practice copying. Draw the objects before you, draw anything you like, copy it, and draw it as accurately as possible, not from a photograph not from a smartphone screen, not from another artwork but a live subject, with your own eyes.”

Since then I sought creativity. However, I am still learning. There are still many challenges and obstacle I haven’t been able to overcome yet. And I am working very hard for those. I feel privileged that, I had so many small and big experiences over these years. Each and every lessons I learned over time brought me here today, made me ready for my big journey ahead.

Ziaur Rahman Ovi is an undergraduate student in the Dept. of Architecture, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST)

CONTEXT contributor: Mohaimin Ali Khan , student, Dept. of Architecture, SUST.