I can hardly contain my joy as I write these words—it’s been over ten years since I founded my humble website, Samar art. I never imagined I would come this far. Since my teenage years, I’ve been passionate about sharing what I love with others. I often created small websites and forums to teach drawing and animation starting as early as 2006. But I rarely stayed consistent or succeeded, as I was too young and lacked the experience to manage websites. I remember starting on Google’s Blogger platform, and it was a special experience I truly enjoyed. Here’s the link to my old Samar art blog: from Here

After years of inactivity, I launched Samar art on WordPress, but it was somewhat difficult to use. Eventually, I settled on Wix. I found success there, publishing many tutorials on my Samar art blog. Later, I decided to buy a custom domain to make my website look more professional. Since then, I’ve been writing tutorial after tutorial, and my site ranked high in Arabic search results for drawing and animation lessons. After five years on that platform, I finally decided to take a big step forward and move my Samar art site to WordPress. I was determined to grow and reach a wider audience. I won’t lie—it took a huge effort to migrate every single tutorial from Samar art on Wix to WordPress. The old platform was incredibly slow, along with other issues that pushed me to make the move.

My Early Days in Drawing During Elementary School

The first person to discover my talent for drawing was my first-grade teacher. I remember she asked us to draw three apples—one red, one green, and one yellow. She was impressed by how I drew and paid attention to detail. From that moment, she knew I was truly gifted, and she began following my work and giving me feedback.

The funny part is, whenever we had art class, my classmates would rush to get me to draw for them. Their sketchbooks piled up on my desk, and I drew for them for free—because I loved it. In return, I received their support and admiration whenever they saw my drawings, which boosted my pride and confidence in my emerging talent.

Self-Taught in the Absence of Art Institutes

I never attended an art institute—not because I didn’t want to study, but because there were no anime or manga art schools in Syria. That pushed me to study online. In 2009, there were hardly any Arabic resources for learning art, so I had to rely on foreign websites and taught myself, along with my siblings. We’d get our sketchbooks and pencils and follow online tutorials step by step.

It was tough since free websites didn’t offer full access to learning material. I also had to search anew every time I wanted to learn how to draw a specific body part. It was exhausting and sometimes boring, and I would pause out of frustration. That’s exactly why I later felt it was necessary to create my own Samar art site—so other aspiring artists wouldn’t have to go through the same struggle.

My First Steps Into the World of Animation

Now let’s talk about animation. Like many from the ‘90s generation, I grew up watching Spacetoon. I was obsessed, especially with anime characters that amazed me with their beautiful eyes and flowing hair. I often wondered: How are these characters animated? Can one person do it, or does it require a whole team?

These questions lingered in my mind whenever I watched anime on TV. Determined to find out, I searched online for “animation program” and clicked the first link I saw. Ironically, it led me to Toon Boom, the software I still use today. I downloaded it immediately.

As you may know, the internet in Syria is painfully slow. It took me seven hours to download the software! I kept checking the progress while playing with my siblings, only to find that the power went out once the download finished. I was devastated!

The fear I felt was unimaginable. After all that time, it seemed like I’d lost everything. But miraculously, when the power returned, the program was still there! Thank goodness! I quickly installed it and began exploring.

My First Animation

The first thing I animated on my computer was a ball—or what I thought was a ball. I drew a simple circle in the first frame, moved it a bit in the next, and so on. When I hit play—voilà! It moved from left to right! I couldn’t believe it.

I had just animated my first scene. It was a historic moment. Animation turned out to be easier than I expected. One person can do it. From that point forward, I made up my mind to dive headfirst into the world of animation—nothing would stop me.

My Online Store Has Everything an Artist Needs

I wasn’t alone—my siblings joined in too. We took turns using the computer to animate our own projects. Once one of us finished, the next would take over. It felt like we had a home studio without even realizing it. Unfortunately, most of those early works were lost due to the turmoil around us in Syria. But we managed to save some, and I posted them on my YouTube channel.

Transitioning to Professional Work and Yearly Production

My serious commitment began in 2016 when I decided to produce one anime film per year. Before that, I would start projects and abandon them—either due to boredom, distraction, or creative blocks. But not anymore. With talent and the right tools, why not go all in?

That year, I released my first full-length film KAMARIA, linked Here, and it received a lot of engagement on my channel. This motivated me to continue my journey in animation. To this day, I’m still working on various projects and sharing them on my Samar art blog.

It’s worth mentioning that my early films used frame-by-frame animation, the traditional technique, which took a lot of time and effort. This was one of the main reasons behind my slow production rate.

In 2023, I took the most significant step by switching to rigging, or what’s also known as cut-out animation. This greatly increased my productivity. Within a single year, I managed to produce the series “Alhareeq“, the short collection Rare Tales, the film The Flower Seller, and several short animations—something I never could’ve achieved with frame-by-frame. From that point on, I left traditional animation behind.

Pride and Purpose of Samar Art

In conclusion, I can only say that I’m truly proud of what I’ve accomplished, especially with my Samar art blog. It represents countless hours of hard work, struggle, and faith. I also can’t forget the comments and messages from followers over the years—they’ve been the strongest motivation to keep Samar art alive.

Through this article, I wanted to share with you my humble artistic journey—how I started and how I came to own Samar art. I hope it inspires you to persist just like I did. Don’t let anything stand in the way of your talent, because people may leave you one day, but your talent will be the tool that carries you into your future and opens doors you never imagined.

That’s all for now. I hope to meet you again in another article about me on Samar art, so stay tuned.