Abu Dhabi International Book Fair - 2011

Last month, I was invited by Kitab to participate in Abu Dhabi International Book Fair 2011, Illustrators' Corner. It was my first visit to the UAE where i was overwhelmed with the respect they showed me. It was an amazing experience that i will definitely repeat any other time.

The following are some photos from the opening of the illustrators' corner the first day of the fair.

Other illustrators checking the work i exhibited in the fair. Oliver and his students from Cartoon Network Academy watching some of my animation work.

Meeting the lovely Bea and Rosine from L'agenda Gulf that chose Haltabees as a cover for their march issue. Sulaf wrote an amazing article in L'agenda after reading Haltabees with her kids. Check it in here. Tx Sulaf and the boys :)

We filled the table in the Illustrators' corner with loads of illustrations and i had my portrait drawn by Omar Jaramillo :)

My lecture "The Making of Visual Art" that covers new forms of media in the visual art scene and talks about the relationship between the different types and how they are implemented.

Later, i had an amazing time with the kids reading the books and showing them some animations.

I shared as well some of the puppet making techniques i learned in different workshops with the illustrators and we did a spontaneous workshop for 2 days.

The festival organized a cruise tour in Abu Dhabi full of chats, food and trallala moments :)

In addition to the great lectures i attended and all the connections i made, i met some beautiful amazing friends that i will try to keep forever ...

Thanks for Kitab, Alexandra, Julia all the staff (except Erin Cox), for the amazing opportunity, and please meet the amazing illustrators and check their work:

Nasir Nasrallah

Dina Khorchid

Kate Babbayan

Liz Ramos

Nasim Abaeian

Antonella Antonioni

Claudia Deweck

Ruth Burrows

Debjani Bhardwaj

Luis Chumpitaz

Hasan Temizturk

Omar Jaramillo