I am overjoyed as I write these words to you, as more than ten years have passed since the founding My humble website, "Summer Art"”. I never imagined I would reach this point. Since my teenage years, I have been passionate about sharing what I love with others, and I have always created small websites and forums to teach drawing and animation in early 2006 and so on.
I wasn't very committed or successful because I was young and lacked the experience to create websites. All I remember is starting on Google's well-known Blogger platform, and it was a great experience; I loved working on it. Here's a link to my old blog, Summer Art. Here
Then, after years of stagnation, I created my Summer Art website on WordPress, but it was somewhat difficult, so I decided to settle on Wix. I succeeded there, publishing many tutorials on my Summer Art blog, and then I decided to buy a custom domain to make my site look professional. Since then, I've been writing tutorial after tutorial, and my site has been a top search term in the Arab world for drawing and animation tutorials.
After five years on that platform, I finally decided to take a step forward and move my Summer Art website to the WordPress platform, as I was determined to grow and reach a wider audience. And I won't hide from you that it took a lot of effort from me.I had to manually transfer every lesson from my Summer Art blog from “Wix” to WordPress, because that old platform was very slow, in addition to other things that made me do that.
My beginnings with drawing in elementary school
The first person to discover my talent for drawing was my first-grade teacher. I remember she asked us to draw three apples: one red, one green, and one yellow. She was particularly struck by how... I drew and paid attention to detailFrom that moment, the teacher realized that I was truly talented, so she started following my drawings and giving me feedback.
The funny thing is, whenever art class came around, my classmates would jostle to have me draw for them, and the sketchbooks piling up I sat on my seat and drew for them without pay, because it was something I loved. In return, I received their support and words of praise whenever they saw my drawings. This made me even more proud of my emerging talent.
Self-learning in the absence of institutes
I never attended an art institute, not because I dislike studying, but because there were no institutes for anime and manga drawing in Syria. This prompted me to search and study online. At that time, 2009, there were no Arabic resources or websites teaching drawing, so I had to look for foreign sources and teach myself. Not just meRather, it was with my brothers. We would bring out our drawing books and pens, and follow along with the websites step by step.
It is true that it was difficult, as the free sites did not provide a completely free learning opportunity, in addition to the fact that I had to search again if I wanted to learn how to draw a part of the human body separately. The process was difficult and exhausting.Sometimes I would stop because I was so bored. So I had to create this Summer Art website later on, so that other artists wouldn't suffer what I did.
First step into the world of animation
Now we come to the animation section. As you know, our generation, the 90s generation, grew up watching Spacetoon, and I was very fond of it, like many others, especially the anime characters whose beautiful eyes and attractive hair always amazed me. I used to wonder, "How are these characters animated? Can one person do it? Or does it require a team?"“
This question kept popping into my head whenever I watched anime on the channel. I resolved to find any program I could find online that would allow me to animate. I remember typing "animation program" and clicking on the first page that appeared. Ironically, it was for the "Ton Boom" program, which I still use to this day. Anyway, I actually started downloading it.
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As you know, in Syria the internet is incredibly slow, so downloading the program took me seven hours! Yes, you heard right, seven hours. I was playing with my brothers and would keep checking the download every now and then, only to find it was still downloading, then I'd go back to my old ways. After all that time, when the download was finally finished, I was shocked to find the electricity had gone out. What bad luck!
You can't imagine the horror I felt. After waiting so long, the download was lost. I was so frustrated. After the electricity was restoredI was ready to re-download the program, but to my surprise, the program was still there! Thank God! And with lightning speed, I started installing and exploring it.
First movement experience
The first thing I moved on the computer was a ball, or what I thought was a ball. I mean, I just drew a circle in the first frame. And I drew it I moved a little further in the next frame, then further, and so on until I was finished. And when I pressed the play button, wow! It actually moved from left to right! I couldn't believe my eyes.
I just moved my first scene. What a historic moment!. The animation I'd always wondered about seemed easier than I expected. One person could do it. From that moment on, I decided to enter—no, to storm—the world of animation through its widest gates, and nothing would stop me!
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It wasn't just me; my brothers also competed with me in this field. We would take turns using the computer to run our work. Each of us created his own project and started working on it. Whenever one of us finished, the other would come and take over. It was fun. I felt like we had created a home studio without realizing it. Unfortunately, most of that work was lost in the chaos of events. You know what I mean in Syria. But we managed to salvage what we could, and I had published it on my channel.
Transition to professionalism and annual production
My actual commitment began in 2016, when I decided to produce one anime film per year. In the past, I would produce works and then stop. Either due to boredom or being busyOr perhaps my train of thought broke. But not anymore. As long as I have the talent and the right tools, why not?
The film she released that year was titled “Camaría” from HereThis was my first full-length film, and it garnered a huge amount of engagement on my channel. This motivated me to continue. My journey in the world of animationAnd to this day I am still working on multiple projects, and I share them on the Summer Art blog.
It's worth noting that my first films were animated using frame-by-frame animation, the traditional method, which was very time-consuming and laborious. This was one of the main reasons for my delays in completing projects, as traditional animation is time-consuming.
Until 2023, I decided to take the most important step, which is bone manipulation, or what is known as ”rigging” or even “cut-out”. Hence, my production rate increased significantly.. In just one year, I managed to produce the series "The Fire," the collection of "Stories of Anecdotes," the film "The Flower Seller," and several short films—something I couldn't have accomplished if I had stuck to traditional animation. And that's why I left frame-by-frame animation behind me, a practice I've maintained ever since.
Pride and Mission
In conclusion, I can only say that I am proud of what I have achieved today, especially with regard to my Summer Art blog. It is the result of countless hours of hard work, fatigue, and perseverance, as well as unwavering faith. I also cannot deny the invaluable comments and messages from my followers over the years, which have been my strongest motivation to continue with Summer Art to this day.
I wanted through This article I want to take you with me on my humble artistic journey, showing you how I was and how I came to own my blog, Summer Art. I want you to persevere, just like me. Don't let anything stand in the way of your talent, because everyone else may leave you one day, but your talent will be the weapon you use to face your future, opening up horizons you never imagined.
Here I leave you, hoping to meet you in another article of mine on my Summer Art blog here, so stay tuned.
