Ain Naghepour is an Iranian-American illustrator currently in his third year of pursuing a BFA in Illustration here at SCAD Atlanta, who is planning to focus on concept design during his senior year. Growing up, Naghepour was deeply inspired by different types of entertainment including games, film and television, comics and anything related to sci-fi and fantasy, which is deeply reflected in his body of work. A recurring theme in Naghepour’s narrative illustrations is his incredible hold on the harmony of light and dark. His pieces often have strong, contrasting values reminiscent of the chiaroscuro work originating from the classic Renaissance period of art and, with his influences in modern entertainment genres, Naghepour brings a fresh perspective on these traditional techniques using fun and exciting ideas and concepts.
Created for Naghepour’s personal artist biography, “Self Portrait” is a piece that represented him and his style, featuring a portrait of himself donned in vampire-like clothing and other visual elements like bats. Like the majority of his works, he uses a limited color palette with strong, contrasting values. For this particular piece, Naghepour painted it digitally in greyscale to focus on the value work first before applying color using gradient mapping techniques.
With an intent to portray a classic spell from a grimoire, Naghepour devised a spell to travel long distances using a tornado and created this illustration to accompany it. Twisting the concept to look more dark and sinister, he illustrates the caster to be a with a demon-like staff atop a fiery color scheme. Naghepour notes that these are the kind of colors that the sky changes to during tornados and hurricanes so he decided to create this piece by also first illustrating it with greyscale before adding color to nail the values down. He wanted to showcase the heavy movement of the tornado so he chose to illustrate it spiraling and coiling around the witch’s staff. To add extra depth and movement to the piece he also added flying pages as if the witch had used a book to cast the spell, in order to give more insight into the narrative of the piece.
Naghepour showcases Arthur’s final moments in Thomas Malory’s prose “Le Morte d’Arthur” as he is being ferried away to the Fae isle of Avalon after a fierce battle with Mordred where he is fatally wounded. Using heavily dark values in this piece, Naghepour wanted to add highlights and lighter values intentionally for viewers to follow a certain path of focus. He darkens the river and illuminates it using dimly-lit candles with hopes that viewers will notice Arthur’s golden armor, crown and sword first; to use those visual cues to lead the eye to the fatal wound.
Based on the “Death” tarot card in the Major Arcana, Naghepour illustrates his own interpretation of the meanings behind the card using his influences and interest in dark fantasy. The strong contrasting values are strong as they always are with Naghepour’s pieces, with lighter shapes that help viewers shift their eyes across the illustration. He uses classic symbolism involving death like a reaper with a scythe, a raven and a skull. He illustrates hands protruding from the darkness as if they was reaching for the viewer and an hourglass to represent the mortality of humanity.
If you want to see more of Naghepour’s gorgeously lit illustrations, you can find them on his Instagram @dead_0n_time.