Imran Hasan, an architect by profession and a self-taught artist by passion recalls his earliest memory is of him drawing something. With his perpetual passion and knack for art, he chooses to draw simple subjects in great detail and draws in rows to reach a certain narrative. Graduating in architecture from American International University Bangladesh in 2016, Imran is currently working as a freelance architect.
Imran’s artwork is derived from some kind of theme but there is no particular theme that confines his artwork to any boundaries; whenever he is going through a particular phase regarding his art, he keeps doing that till he gets inspired by another phase. He tries to explore any medium that interests him at the moment.
Most of Imran’s artworks are more detail-oriented rather than being technique-oriented, choosing to explore the minutiae of the subject that he has chosen for a particular piece.
He does not pay attention to the skill that is required for a particular piece, but rather he chooses to focus on the level of detailing that is required to tell the story behind that particular piece.
Of all the mediums Imran has explored, his most comfortable medium of choice is graphite, ink, pen, a choice which is dependent on the size of his canvas, as he prefers to do most of his artwork on small pieces of canvas as they are very portable and easy to work on. Imran has recently dived into the glorious and tricky world of watercolour. That experience has been great for him, as his skill with this very finicky and temperamental medium is growing. He had always admired this particular medium and knows how difficult it can be to work with. When he first started, he was fascinated by how the medium would direct the flow of the art, sometimes the colour would direct the flow and sometimes he would direct the flow of the colour. There is a simple reason why Imran prefers the pen or pencils to draw with, it is because they are very handy.
Speaking about his inspirations for his artworks, all artists from all disciples have had some sort of an impact on him, not just artists who draw or paint only. Musical artists inspire him when he is listening to a specific song while working on a particular piece. He is also very heavily inspired by nature and natural elements, a practice that is very evident in his artworks.
One of his most interesting pieces of artwork is an extremely detailed drawing that is done on multiple small canvases and then joined together to tell the story. One clever detail about this piece is that if one joins the top of the drawing to the bottom of the drawing, the viewer can see that the two seemingly separate pieces are actually continuations of each other. The story behind that piece is also very interesting. At the time, the lockdown had just started and that in itself was a new experience for everyone, according to Imran, he really enjoyed that space and the ability to isolate and be at one with his thoughts. The piece itself has no starting point and has no ending point, it is a continuation of the entire drawing. And the drawing is full of minute details and repetitive patterns that are inspired from other places. Even the elements that are in the drawing are there for a specific reason, and they serve a particular purpose.
Art block is something most artists face but in Imran’s case it may not be so as he tends to draw very rarely, so he assumes that even if he was going through an art block he may have not realized it.
The idea for his pieces is something that he thinks about for months and is implemented after a long time so the space for an art block is very little.
All of his artworks are preplanned, he thinks about how he wants each section to look like and executes it accordingly, but this process makes drawing a bit difficult at times.
For Imran, the story behind the drawing is more important, and that story defines the medium, or the style he will use to tell the story visually.
