A disproportionate head with exaggerated comical facial features. This is what 27-year-old Ramish Safa sees when he draws people.

Safa is a creative entrepreneur from Pakistan, who runs his own studio where he creates illustrations for comics, animation, story books, digital campaigns and print.

The Caricature Shop Qatar, recently opened by Safa, is small business that accepts orders for caricatures through Instagram or email. Caricatures are drawings of people, much like portrait drawings, that tend to exaggerate people's features and make them look comical.

“I have been in love with caricatures ever since I was a kid. Comic books and caricature magazines were always my favorite type of books,” Safa said. “My mom got me my first comic book when I was six. The first magazine with caricatures followed soon.”

Safa has always been fascinated by how exaggerated caricature drawings were and how they were still so recognizable.

“It was magical for me as a kid. When I grew up and took illustrations as my profession, I knew caricatures would be a big part of my work life,” Safa said. “The fact that caricatures are extremely customizable makes them great gifts. That was an opportunity in the market that I decided to work on. Personalized caricatures as gifts for special occasions.”

In hopes of one day becoming an international phenomenon, Safa shares that his style of drawing caricatures is very unique.

“Although I already have customers from all over the world, scaling it up is obviously the desired objective,” Safa said. “I'd also want to start a caricature magazine, whether digital or in print. A magazine that focuses on local and international stories in the form of comics and caricatures. Something like MAD magazine.

One of Safa’s primary objectives behind creating caricatures of people is just simply to “spread love.” He shared that people actually love his work a lot more than the usual caricatures they’ve had made. People also send him creative ideas and feedback and ask him to experiment as well. Safa feels that this is a major plus for him as an artist.

“From the get go, I knew that exaggerating people’s features in a way that made them feel embarrassed or self conscious was a major no-no. Caricatures artists tend to do that but I decided to go in a different direction,” Safa said. “My exaggerations are not very extreme and I try my best to focus on the best features on a person's face, something that makes them feel flattered rather than sad. It's all about making people smile."

Khalifa Al Haroon, our very own Mr. Q, recently had a caricature drawn by Safa, which he also then shared on his Instagram account (@iloveqatar).

“Mr. Q really is our friendly Qatari neighbor. I’ve been following his social media pages and I saw how he appreciates new talent so of course, he was my go-to guy,” Safa said. “Apart from that, I knew it was going to be fun drawing him!”

On the subject of art and artists, Safa also believes that Doha’s art scene will flourish in the coming years.

“Discovering and promoting local talent is one of the best initiatives the industry has taken,” said Safa.

Safa’s art style focuses more on comics when he has the time, and caricatures of course. He keeps himself busy for long periods in a day, which doesn’t allow him to try out different types of art. But he’s not complaning.

“I love my life and my work.”

Follow him on Instagram: thecaricatureshop_qtr

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AngelPolacco

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