Dragonhearted!

The mythical creature dragon has always influenced the imagination of a lot through the years. Japanese comics, anime gave a reincarnation to the dragon mythology. Artist Zubaida Nazzal found herself fascinated with the concept and could not resist herself from creating her own version of the anime dragons.

Zubaida’s passion for art and her talents were first realized by her brother and her father. As she grew up, she carried that passion and practice with her throughout the years.

Despite being eager to dwell on the art she is in love with, Zubaida could not find much support during her childhood until she met Najat, her art teacher in high school who introduced her to acrylic colors and the concept of painting.

When it was time to start her university years, to her disappointment she could not find a major of fine arts in University of Bahrain like she wanted to. So she ended up majoring in English Language and Literature.

But with her university experience, she managed to take extracurricular activities to keep flourishing her art by painting for clubs and events like the University’s National Day Celebrations with Chess Club and Music Club. She also met another great teacher, Moamen, in her university years who helped her to develop her skills further. And she attempted to bring together a group of artists in the university by working on projects where she concentrated on Japanese dragons and landscapes.

After graduation, she kept working on her skills only to have them exhibited in several events, festivals and exhibitions. She started exhibiting her work in Bahrain Noor El Ain festival in Amwaj, which strengthened her experience in the field of art business collection.

She then participated in the Artist Alley by exhibiting her work in events like Animania and most recently IGN Bahrain.

Dragon art as an archetype of her work

Claiming that dragon art is her major source of inspiration, Zubaida said, “I drew my first dragon when I was in middle school. From that point, my art style stuck was with dragons. Dragon art is not really known in Bahrain, and I’d love them to be viewed differently and may be even taken more seriously.”

“Dragons are my all time favourites. Shenron is on the top of my list followed by the fire dragons. The curves of the dragons and their tough dark looks make me eager to work on them. ‘Shenron Legend’ was the first perfectly done dragon that I worked on, and I worked on him for about a month and half which made me really attached to him,” she said.

“I don't only do dragons, fantasy art and fan art, I also work on home decoration, and themed exhibitions projects. I started my business based on fan art, traditional fantasy art and animals fantasy, which I mostly work with. As a creative artist, I work on any possible materials, like canvas, walls, pottery and even wood,” she added.

Other inspirations and plans

Depending on her art projects, she finds her inspirations evolving as it progresses. But she expressed how art is a field that goes beyond our time by saying, “Art has been a secret tunnel to many cultures, and the sole message carriers which lots of cultures depended on through history to reflect their ideas. We can all be part of this artistic history, which can be studied, if we give our work the sufficient time and effort that it needs.”

Zubaida Nazzal is currently working on projects, commissions and exhibitions. But she has further plans that include a cultural exhibition, in which she will employ her imagination to reflect on the Palestinian cause. She also plans to work on a whole gallery collection, which will be inspired by the Quean description of the universe.