Everytime I get an email from Qifa Nabki with his latest idea for a collab, I get very excited about illustrating it! Here’s our latest! [Click on the image to view the full post]
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Exotica… The Comeback! Moukarzel… The Fall Down!
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And if I might ad, the execution of the C&F ad is terrible, as it is clearly a cushion inserted into the woman’s clothes, and not a baby.
Again, I’d like to thank Exotica and their creative team for responding positively to the criticism of their campaign [I knew from trusted sources that the reason they updated the campaign is because of the reaction they saw through social media]. If that’s the case, then they are pioneers
What do you guys think about the other campaigns I just shared?Exotica is now all over the Lebanese blogosphere: Raafat Hamze analyzes the campaign change here, and there is Plus961‘s, Liliane‘s & Joe‘s take on this.
On another note, I got back from Zahleh [as you might have noticed :P] and will update you tomorrow! Have a beautiful day with this smooth song from Spirited Away soundtrack by Joe Hisaishi!
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See you later!
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Consumption, creation and Arabs
I was very lucky to illustrate 2 cartoons for the presentation of Donatella Della Ratta at the Young Leaders Social Media Cafe. Dona is the manager of Creative Commons Middle East, and we are now helping her organize the 1st CC Salon in Beirut, so stay tuned!
Here are the 2 illustrations:1- “From Bedouins in a desert to media savvy terrorists: those are the Arabs in the eyes of the West. How do we get rid of this??”
2- “Switching from the culture of consumption to the culture of creation. Can Arabs do it?”
And here”s a photo of Dona”s presentation [credits: Darine Sabbagh]
The cartoons are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
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Blogging Arabnet.ME!
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[ Thank you to Omar Christidis, Samer Karam, Ibrahim Nehmé, Sana Tawileh, & Amber Lauretta for the great work they’re doing!]
DON’T MISS THE AMMAN WORKSHOP TODAY!
For more info, visit Arabnet.ME website, blog &/or Facebook fan page!
And if you’ve got some ideas cooking, it’s not too late to submit! [they said the deadline passed, but just tell them I told you you can still submit
]Download: Application Form, Registration Form & Sample Business Case!
And as always, we end it with music
Here’s Queen’s You Don’t Fool Me! Have a great businessy day -
Oriental Moms
In this month’s issue of ELLE Oriental, Nour, Ashley & Vanessa talk about their mothers.
in French [click to enlarge]
in Arabic [click to enlarge]
Thank you to all who gave me feedback about the languages! I’m definitely sticking to English, but will be considering the option of having the comics translated separately to Arabic!
And now, I wish you a beautiful fruitful day with The Doors’ Soul Kitchen
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The language dilemma
The latest post on BeirutSpring blog reminded me of a [very sweet] message I received by email from a reader.
It read:
“Dear Maya,
I drew something about *your blog*, I hope you like it even though it’s a criticism
I spent a lot of time on it… It’s not good enough, but I tossed the coin Maya, please read this: http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2010/02/28/101744.html“And had the below illustration attached:
To answer you, Rocky [and to all of you asking the same question]
Thanks again to all who participated yesterday to the celebrations!
Tomorrow I’ll be “officially” announcing the winners!Until then, here’s Kevin Shield’s Ikebana from the soundtrack of Lost in Translation
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March Goodies
Continuing the birthday celebration, I’d like to share with you the March wallpapers!
May all your days be as flowery & peaceful!
Download at your convenience
[Hope I didn’t miss any resolutions – including iPhones!]320 x 480, 1024 x 640, 1024 x 768, 1200 x 800, 1280 x 1024, 1440 x 900, 1620 x 1280, 1680 x 1050
Don’t forget to join us at 7:30PM at Obros, Clemenceau, to celebrate more!
I’ll get books, stickers & birthday hats! -
Birthday wish!
I have a small surprise/wish that I’d like to share with you! {Maybe next year will take the comics one step further? ;)}
[For relatively better viewing, click here > photo-passport for the Flash version, but resize your browser to the size of a youtube video :)]
Presenting: “Passport Photo… The [very sketchy] animated version!” [the vimeo below is low-quality]
Photo Passport [Maya’s Amalgam] from Maya Zankoul on Vimeo.
So in case you’re wondering, I just put this up together rather quickly, it’s been tempting me to see what an animated version of the comic would look like… What do you guys think?
[Credits: the soundtrack is Chick Corea’s Armando’s Rhumba]
I would also like to share this AMAZING visual sent by the lovely Naeema Zarif! (Click to enlarge) Check out her fantastic work in her Flickr stream. Well, if you’re wondering what Audrey is doing here, Naeema knows she’s my role model
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My baby turns 1 year old!
So, let’s go, comment away!
The comment has to be “Happy Birhday!” So if you don’t want the book, just comment something else :p[If you already have the book and don’t need another copy, please give a chance to others
& sorry about limiting it to Leb, but it’s a bit complicated to send the book across the planet at this time]I would also like to take this chance to give some…
BLOG FACTS & STATS!
• Let’s go back to the VERY FIRST POST I did on this blog! I called it “my tranquilizer” back then, and today I can say that this is exactly what this blog has been to me. I hope you all find your own “tranquilizers” and that next year will only be as good as the 1st one!
• 236: Is the number of posts on this blog since day 1!
• 2247: Is the number of comments you guys made on all the posts!
• 200,000+: Is the number of visits during the blog’s 1st year!
Let’s end it with Frank Sinatra singing “Happy Birthday” just for us!
N.B: Two other posts will follow today, so stay tuned if you want to get those books!
P.S: This birthday was due on February 10th, but I have been over-super-busy to prepare all this, so let’s settle for March 1st as official blog birthday!
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Apocalypse Now! (or Waiting for Godot)
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I can’t say I was disappointed the tsunami didn’t happen (or happened in the shape of a small splash on the shore). At least I got to sleep [
], and many people got their homes & business saved. In the hope this is the last natural catastrophe to hit this planet And the last time the media make a HUGE FAKE buzz. If only they were able to prevent the bigger disasters like Haiti’s…Anyway, see you tomorrow with a BIG surprise
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Sunday updates (+Fanart #10)
Yesterday, Saturday 27th February, I got the chance to give a presentation to the children of the Armenian Thorossian school in Bourj Hammoud. We talked about drawing, blogging, going after what you truly like doing in life. And we had a lot of fun! I only have this terrible photo that I took with my phone from where I was presenting.
In other news, yesterday was also the book signing of the illustrated Arabic poetry book Haltabees (حلتبيس، اشعار من سمسم وخيار), result of the collaboration between the incredibly talented David Habchy & Rania Zaghir. Mashrou3 Leila also sang the poems, and cucumbers & semsom were given away with the book. Beautiful combo & beautiful people! AND I got my copy signed!
I wish you a beautiful Sunday, and I can only tell you one thing: you’re in for a special surprise tomorrow!!!
So stay tuned! And while you wait, I leave you with Lhasa de Sela’s Desdeñosa.Un, deux, trois. Deux, deux trois…
