Ali Khalkhali
Visual Portfolio
These work samples represent a relatively small portion of over four decades of artistic activities, with a primary focus on comics and visual narratives. I hope you find them interesting
City Rally Comics
I drew this comic in 1994, a few months before I attended college; it was a personal project inspired by an actual rally my friends and I participated in.
The Adventures of Dan and Jessica
This was a professional project for a food product company, for which my brother and I crafted the story. I will include the manuscript of this comic in my writing portfolio section. Please note that the story is originally written in Persian, and the sequence of the panels follows a right-to-left format.
The target audience for this comic is teenagers who are enthusiastic about both adventures and cooking. This comic was one episode of a longer series.
This project is considered relatively recent and was done in 2022.
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Cooking Adventures Of Saman and Fingil
This was another professional project that is already published by a well-known publisher in Iran. The publisher had the story, which was about the cooperation of parents and kids in making traditional Persian cuisines. We turned the written story into a comic manuscript first, and then I illustrated accordingly. Please note that this story is also in a right-to-left format since it is written for the Persian-speaking audience. This project was done in 2023.
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Don Camillo
This is a personal project, which is a comic adaptation of a novel called “The Little World of Don Camilo.” All the characters and visual scenes were originally created. I also wrote the comic manuscript inspired by the original novel. I did this project during the pandemic lockdown in 2020.
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The Pirate
Regarding this illustration, I have written a short story named “Captain Zigolou,” which I have already submitted in my writing portfolio. In 2018, I wrote a tutorial about how to make a clay pirate for an international magazine named “Polymer Week.” I used this illustration as the cover page of the tutorial and my introduction. My intention was to showcase my storytelling ability in a single image. The material I used was polymer clay, and I originally invented this technique many years ago when I was in the first semester of college, as I described earlier in my essay.
Illustration for The ministry of education
In 2005, one year after winning the special creativity award for my works in the second national illustration festival for children’s textbooks, I was assigned by the Ministry of Education to participate in the illustration of a number of textbooks on different subjects. I utilized my clay illustration technique once again, deeming it suitable for children. As you can see in a sample provided, I insisted on illustrating one particular story in a comics format. It took a considerable amount of effort on my part to convince the project director to adopt the comics format because he believed that not all children might understand comics, therefore insisting on putting numbers on the panels.
Another assignment by the Ministry of Education in 2005 was for the history book of elementary school. As you can see, first, I created a pencil sketch, and then I executed my clay technique, resulting in the final artwork. Please note that every visual element used in the illustration above is my own work, except for the toy canon. From the picture in the background, which I photographed myself, to all the scenery and soldiers, and the rest of the elements, which I made separately as maquettes. I also added the explosion effect with Photoshop.
A Caricature Festival in Tehran: Urban Problems
This was one of the three illustrations I submitted to an international caricature competition in Iran in 2006, and it turned out to be the last time I participated in any competition in Iran. The organizers, unfortunately, used my idea for this particular work in their “closing” ceremony poster with their own style of illustration. The subject was “urban problems,” and I chose to focus on the traffic jam, a major issue in our city, Tehran.
The Blue Lion
This is a personal project, featuring a scene from the mythical story of “Shahnameh” (Book of Kings), created in 2005. The main figure is crafted from polymer clay, while the base incorporates FIMO’s quartz sand. Regarding the design, I aimed to capture the essence of ancient Persian stone carvings found in Persepolis and come up with a modern design inspired by them. I also delved into documentaries about lions to study their anatomy, incorporating this knowledge into the illustration. My vision included using exotic and unusual color settings to emphasize the mythological aspect and convey a sense of otherworldliness to the audience. While creating this single frame required significant time and effort, the process also provided valuable learning experiences.
Rostam Comics
In the early 2000s, while I was hospitalized, I undertook this project, which, at the time, was a dream for me. As I described the situation in my personal essay, this was the first time I used a digital camera. The story was a comic adaptation of a part of the famous “Shahnameh” (Book of Kings) from ancient Persian literature. To my knowledge, it was the first time a comic project was done with this technique.
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Acrylic Painting
I am also interested in painting, and my favorite medium is acrylic paint. Here, I am recreating a Tintin cover using a method I invented to achieve flat colors with acrylic paint. Since childhood, I always wondered how it was possible to create clean and flat colored illustrations like Herge did in Tintin. I never received a proper and practical answer until I started painting on canvas. Through a few trials and errors, I eventually reached the desired style of painting flat colors, just like the original Tintin illustrations.
Childhood Comics
I created these comics during middle and high school, often to escape the monotony of boring classes. I would get kicked out of class if caught by the teacher. Perhaps one reason for this was the absence of any dedicated art classes in our curriculum. During that time, the authorities made the decision to eliminate art courses from the school curriculum, courses that had been present before the 1978 revolution.
Al & Mo: A Personal Project
This was a fun personal project based on the characters of my brother and me, depicting our everyday experiences, including our travels and local adventures.
Polymer Clay Sculpting
These are two samples of many clay sculptures I created during the Khamirestan period, a company founded by my brother and me. I worked on both personal and commissioned projects at Khamirestan. One of our clients was the Dali, Warhol and Mucha Museum in Prague (Central Gallery Of Prague), with whom we were honored to collaborate.
Illustrations
This was a fun personal project based on the characters of my brother and me, depicting our everyday experiences, including our travels and local adventures.
Caricatures: Alicaturist
This was a fun personal project based on the characters of my brother and me, depicting our everyday experiences, including our travels and local adventures.
