These surreal and quirky illustrations by Nader Sharaf play with scale in an interesting way, creating a magic world where regular-size and miniature people live side-by-side.
Moderate Love for Nature I
The series Moderate Love for Nature contains four illustrations “inspired by different pictures of human details.” They are surreal close-ups of people, with smaller people climbing on them. One shows a tiny gardener clipping the flowers on a man’s necktie, while another shows a boy riding a woman’s hoop earring like a swing (and with her green sweater appearing like grass below him). Another shows two snorkelers peeking out from a man’s underwear, with a koi fish print on the underwear and an anchor tattoo on the man’s abdomen.
Sharaf’s illustrations have also been used in a number of publications. For Sugartremens, a baking and pastry arts magazine in Spain, he drew a slice of chocolate cake as if it were like a mountain: the cake is on a plate, but surrounded by tiny houses, clouds, and sprinkled with powdered sugar “snow.”
This theme of miniature houses continues in From Your Door To Mine (The Kiss), which shows a boy and a girl with houses for heads, and several smaller people hanging from a rope that goes from one house to the other. A drawing done for the Illustrators Corner of Espacio de las Artes — an art gallery in Madrid — shows a girl surrounded by houses, a train, and a solar system.
I love the muted colour palettes and the way the artist uses patterns to fill in the drawings. which gives them a sort of vintage feel. The backgrounds are simple, but the main subjects of the drawings have a lot of interesting detail.
“I draw to make an inventory of all what I experienced, experience and I would like to experience. To grasp what I haven’t closed, to go beyond prejudices, to understand better what I see,” says Sharaf. “I draw to avoid wasting time, to avoid giving explanations and ’cause creating an image is easier than writing one thousand words to me.” He is from Madrid, Spain.
Moderate Love for Nature II
Moderate Love for Nature III
Moderate Love for Nature IV
Illustration for Sugartremens Magazine Chocolate Issue
From Your Door To Mine (The Kiss)
Illustration for Espacio de las Artes
