Interview with alnour 
Thank you for taking your time with the interview for AllArtSupport.
AllArtSupport
Hello Mustafa, please tell us a little bit about yourself. How did you get into the world of photo manipulation?
alnour
Firstly, I would like to thank you all for giving me this opportunity to expose my art for more and more people. I'm a self-taught artist since I was 12-years old kid. I started doing art (mainly working on Photoshop) 2000. At The beginning I was doing every single tutorial I find, I loved to practice more and more, this gave me a big advantage to learn about art and to learn more about the program that I use. After almost five years, in 2004, I found myself lost in the sea of art, so I decided to stick with one category and become a professional in it. I did Abstract, Drawing, Collage, Fractal and finally in 2006 I stuck with photo-manipulation. It took me 2 years!
AllArtSupport Which are the reasons you have made an account in deviantART? What makes you stay in this community?
alnour I first found DA by a coincidence; I was lost by the amount of art I found in it. But this, although, gave me such a huge courage to live in community like that and share my art, and learn from each other. DA became my identity, it gave me all the fame and all the improvements I made in my art, until I became who I am now. And that's the big reason that makes me stay, loyalty.
AllArtSupport Could you name some of your favorite artists? (Painters, musicians, writers, etc.)
alnour I don't have a good memory, maybe because of the many artists I come across every day, lots of the digital drawing artists in DA are some of my favorites. I love the old artists as well, they identified the meaning of art ( Dali, Picasso, Vincent Van Gogh ,...). Good that you mentioned musicians! In fact, most of my arts inspired by musicians, basically by just listening to their music, my favorite of all time is Yanni. My artwork “Nostalgia " was inspired by his music which is also called Nostalgia.
AllArtSupport How do you fuel your inspiration to create your beautiful works?
alnour Three things! Browsing DA, Reading and Music. Some of my artworks I need to read more and more about them almost like doing a research! One of these artworks is " The Morrigan ", I've read lots and lots about the character, meaning of ravens in an artwork, the different atmospheres (cloudy, foggy, clear,..etc.) and also the meaning of each color and position.
AllArtSupport You buy stock images from Shutterstock.com, what does an image need to have in order for you to choose it?
alnour For me the image should be in a specific angle, position, face expression and body movement. It’s very difficult to find a model from Shutterstock with all of the specifications that you want. Most of the times I need to redraw clothing, face expressions and sometimes limbs. In addition to that, as I work with very large sizes, the image must be in a very high quality.
AllArtSupport What is your process? Please walk us through it from start to finish.
alnour My process is a bit complicated, well, crazy! I first sketch everything in my mind, I start to write in words the scenario and the colors each object should be in. Then I move to the second step which is looking for the model that I have in mind. Once I find it I move to the Photoshop to start cutting and cleaning a position every element in place. I first start with making a basic or a primary background, which changes in every step in the process. I try to make it normal and as real as I can with the main model. Final step is working on the lighting. This is the most important step for me, yet it’s the most difficult to master! Many of the elements in the artwork will have shiny bits or reflective surfaces, if you can master these all, impression on people/fans is 100% guaranteed. The whole process takes me about a month average for each artwork, with so many pauses thought.
AllArtSupport When you create a new piece, how do you feel that people respond to it?
alnour It depends on the artwork itself, and artwork that I’m very passionate about will be very loved by people, some of the artworks that I do for practice and I see that they deserve submissions are not as loved as the others.
AllArtSupport Out of all your beautiful work, which piece is the one that is closest to your heart and why?
alnour That’s the hardest question that I didn’t want to be asked! Each artwork is linked to my emotions and moods; but maybe the closest artwork to my heart is “Nostalgia “, I decided to do it because of my emotions and mood in missing the closest person to me. All of my passion and energy were put into it, and this tells you a very strange thing about me, which is, when I’m in a bad mood I reach the peak of creativity and top of my power in art. It’s good and bad at the same time, but I enjoy it!
AllArtSupport What are your tools (software and hardware), what made you choose them? And which one do you feel you could never live without?
alnour My tools are ordinary, I use a windows laptop, since 2008 and currently almost did and going to be replaced by an iMac. My second are my gorgeous WACOM Intuos 4 and Intuos 5. Without my digital tablets, WACOM, I can’t complete any artwork, so if they’re missing I don’t do any art.
AllArtSupport Most of your pieces have vibrant colors, what influences your color choices?
alnour Although all of them almost Dark, but I love the red and greenish colors. Red is very hard to control, I love to use it because of that, it’s hard to pick the right tune of color and the one that suits the overall scene. Other colors are used depending on the idea of the artwork itself. For example magic is mostly represented by green color and this is because of the myths they say about the fumes which go out of magical liquids and others. This is can be seen in my artwork “The Oracle “.
AllArtSupport Is there anything in relation to photo manipulations that you would like to learn more about?
alnour So many things that I wish to learn, the one that I need is photography. I’m currently learning how to control the lighting and soon I’ll have my own studio and my own stocks.
AllArtSupport What is your favorite quote?
alnour “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit “. Aristotle
AllArtSupport If you could give a useful piece of advice to someone who is considering doing photo manipulations, what would it be?
alnour Lighting, lighting and lighting! Lighting is the most important part that each artist should learn about before doing any kind of art. Lighting can change a face from an angel into a devil! Life is made of lighting. One simple and time-saving advice, I usually give myself a 10 minutes break going out breathing some fresh air and contemplate in the nature and the lighting in different atmospheres.
AllArtSupport Any last words of wisdom you would like to share with us today?
alnour I would like to thank you all first; it’s such a pleasure to be interviewed by amazing people like you. I wanted to dedicate an artwork that I’m working on at the moment but I couldn’t finish it as I entered the final exams period, which is pretty tough on a Pharmacist! I would like to thank all my fans for the support they give me each day, and I would like to announce about a big project I’m working on at the moment which will not finish until next year and the artworks will be published in a personal exhibition. Until then, heaps of artworks coming in my 4-months holiday!
AllArtSupport Thank you so much Mustafa, for sharing your world with us today! 
Thank you for taking your time with the interview for AllArtSupport.
AllArtSupport
Hello Mustafa, please tell us a little bit about yourself. How did you get into the world of photo manipulation?alnour
Firstly, I would like to thank you all for giving me this opportunity to expose my art for more and more people. I'm a self-taught artist since I was 12-years old kid. I started doing art (mainly working on Photoshop) 2000. At The beginning I was doing every single tutorial I find, I loved to practice more and more, this gave me a big advantage to learn about art and to learn more about the program that I use. After almost five years, in 2004, I found myself lost in the sea of art, so I decided to stick with one category and become a professional in it. I did Abstract, Drawing, Collage, Fractal and finally in 2006 I stuck with photo-manipulation. It took me 2 years!AllArtSupport
Which are the reasons you have made an account in deviantART? What makes you stay in this community?alnour
I first found DA by a coincidence; I was lost by the amount of art I found in it. But this, although, gave me such a huge courage to live in community like that and share my art, and learn from each other. DA became my identity, it gave me all the fame and all the improvements I made in my art, until I became who I am now. And that's the big reason that makes me stay, loyalty.AllArtSupport
Could you name some of your favorite artists? (Painters, musicians, writers, etc.)alnour
I don't have a good memory, maybe because of the many artists I come across every day, lots of the digital drawing artists in DA are some of my favorites. I love the old artists as well, they identified the meaning of art ( Dali, Picasso, Vincent Van Gogh ,...). Good that you mentioned musicians! In fact, most of my arts inspired by musicians, basically by just listening to their music, my favorite of all time is Yanni. My artwork “Nostalgia " was inspired by his music which is also called Nostalgia.AllArtSupport
How do you fuel your inspiration to create your beautiful works?alnour
Three things! Browsing DA, Reading and Music. Some of my artworks I need to read more and more about them almost like doing a research! One of these artworks is " The Morrigan ", I've read lots and lots about the character, meaning of ravens in an artwork, the different atmospheres (cloudy, foggy, clear,..etc.) and also the meaning of each color and position.AllArtSupport
You buy stock images from Shutterstock.com, what does an image need to have in order for you to choose it? alnour
For me the image should be in a specific angle, position, face expression and body movement. It’s very difficult to find a model from Shutterstock with all of the specifications that you want. Most of the times I need to redraw clothing, face expressions and sometimes limbs. In addition to that, as I work with very large sizes, the image must be in a very high quality.AllArtSupport
What is your process? Please walk us through it from start to finish.alnour
My process is a bit complicated, well, crazy! I first sketch everything in my mind, I start to write in words the scenario and the colors each object should be in. Then I move to the second step which is looking for the model that I have in mind. Once I find it I move to the Photoshop to start cutting and cleaning a position every element in place. I first start with making a basic or a primary background, which changes in every step in the process. I try to make it normal and as real as I can with the main model. Final step is working on the lighting. This is the most important step for me, yet it’s the most difficult to master! Many of the elements in the artwork will have shiny bits or reflective surfaces, if you can master these all, impression on people/fans is 100% guaranteed. The whole process takes me about a month average for each artwork, with so many pauses thought.AllArtSupport When you create a new piece, how do you feel that people respond to it?
alnour
It depends on the artwork itself, and artwork that I’m very passionate about will be very loved by people, some of the artworks that I do for practice and I see that they deserve submissions are not as loved as the others.AllArtSupport
Out of all your beautiful work, which piece is the one that is closest to your heart and why?alnour
That’s the hardest question that I didn’t want to be asked! Each artwork is linked to my emotions and moods; but maybe the closest artwork to my heart is “Nostalgia “, I decided to do it because of my emotions and mood in missing the closest person to me. All of my passion and energy were put into it, and this tells you a very strange thing about me, which is, when I’m in a bad mood I reach the peak of creativity and top of my power in art. It’s good and bad at the same time, but I enjoy it!AllArtSupport
What are your tools (software and hardware), what made you choose them? And which one do you feel you could never live without?alnour
My tools are ordinary, I use a windows laptop, since 2008 and currently almost did and going to be replaced by an iMac. My second are my gorgeous WACOM Intuos 4 and Intuos 5. Without my digital tablets, WACOM, I can’t complete any artwork, so if they’re missing I don’t do any art.AllArtSupport
Most of your pieces have vibrant colors, what influences your color choices? alnour
Although all of them almost Dark, but I love the red and greenish colors. Red is very hard to control, I love to use it because of that, it’s hard to pick the right tune of color and the one that suits the overall scene. Other colors are used depending on the idea of the artwork itself. For example magic is mostly represented by green color and this is because of the myths they say about the fumes which go out of magical liquids and others. This is can be seen in my artwork “The Oracle “.AllArtSupport
Is there anything in relation to photo manipulations that you would like to learn more about? alnour
So many things that I wish to learn, the one that I need is photography. I’m currently learning how to control the lighting and soon I’ll have my own studio and my own stocks.AllArtSupport
What is your favorite quote?alnour
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit “. AristotleAllArtSupport
If you could give a useful piece of advice to someone who is considering doing photo manipulations, what would it be?alnour
Lighting, lighting and lighting! Lighting is the most important part that each artist should learn about before doing any kind of art. Lighting can change a face from an angel into a devil! Life is made of lighting. One simple and time-saving advice, I usually give myself a 10 minutes break going out breathing some fresh air and contemplate in the nature and the lighting in different atmospheres.AllArtSupport
Any last words of wisdom you would like to share with us today?alnour
I would like to thank you all first; it’s such a pleasure to be interviewed by amazing people like you. I wanted to dedicate an artwork that I’m working on at the moment but I couldn’t finish it as I entered the final exams period, which is pretty tough on a Pharmacist! I would like to thank all my fans for the support they give me each day, and I would like to announce about a big project I’m working on at the moment which will not finish until next year and the artworks will be published in a personal exhibition. Until then, heaps of artworks coming in my 4-months holiday!AllArtSupport
Thank you so much Mustafa, for sharing your world with us today! 
