This Artist Creates Lovely Illustrations That Might Brighten Your Day
Images are a form of expression which tries to communicate something to us. While some images express only a limited amount of things, illustrations by Maia Zeidan speak volumes about love, comradery, wonder, and other positive things.
The way they’re composed and drawn, and the way the characters interact look like still images from an animation that reminds us of the great works by Pixar or Disney, rather than just a static image. In other words, while some illustrations try to tell one thing, the works by this talented artist tell a rich story.
The Montreal-based artist’s style is very distinct, and it’s marked by simplicity, calmness, vividness, and wholesomeness. But it also has similarities with Pixar or Disney animation, as mentioned above, so naturally one wonders if these illustrations will become an actual animation film one day. Let’s hope that they will.
More: Maia Zeidan, Artstation, Instagram, Facebook h/t: boredpanda
She’s told exclusively to Bored Panda what are her main influences and motivation behind these illustrations: “My influences? Mainly it is the natural world around us. It is my biggest inspiration. Everything amazing and beautiful is out there already. As for motivation? Using that to express my own feelings and anxieties and to spread a message about taking care of our environment. That last part is definitely my strongest motivation.”
Looking at the quality of her works, it’d come as no surprise that she had professional experience in an animation studio. And it turns out that she did, in fact. Maia worked as a background artist on Looney Toons and “Green Eggs and Ham” for Warner Bros., a background artist on Edendale, and a 2D animator on “WAKFU” and “Max et Maestro.” She also worked on feature-length films and short films as well, so she’s well-versed in narrative creation.
However, she’s pretty modest about her experience and doing an animation film on her own: “Even though I work in the animation industry already, I am not the best animator for sure; so no, I don’t think I could do an animation film, that would be too painful for me!” She answered with a laughing emoticon.
Maia’s educational background is also very interesting. It’s surprising that the artist briefly studied dentistry at one point. But she probably realized that it wasn’t what she wanted to do with her life, and switched to studying general arts and animation. Over time, she has created loads of concept art and animation of her own, which you can see on her showreel found on her website. You can see a few glimpses of it in this post as well. Despite her thorough education and experience, she feels it’s necessary for her to do things on her own: “I studied 2D animation, and I have been working in the industry for 10 years. But on the side I need to develop my own projects, it is how I learn more and explore my creativity.”
Despite the sunny motifs, the Maia is no stranger to other more ambiguous emotions, too. “I think being melancholic is a big part of who I am. Being amazed by what surrounds you it is also being anxious about keeping it safe and being aware.” As for her future, she’s fairly open that she’s feeling uncertain: “My future is a really blurry thing, I can feel I need to develop something in my professional life, but so far I haven’t been able to put a finger on it.” Let’s hope she finds what she truly desires!
If you want to show support for this brilliantly talented artist, you probably know the drill: follow her on Instagram and Facebook, and make sure you check out her website, as there are loads of very interesting artworks that you may not see anywhere else. Her portfolio, mainly focused on illustrations, is very diverse, and it’s a testament of her talent and skills: she’s done concept art, backgrounds, animations, character designs, speed paintings, and illustrations. Check it all out!
