Hi Saad, thanks for taking time away to chat with us. Could you introduce yourself to the viewers and tell us a bit about yourself?

I’m Saad Moosajee, a British born self taught illustrator currently living in the United States. I’m still fairly young and in school so am currently freelancing.

Where do all your ideas and inspirations come from? And why do you love creating them?

My inspirations and ideas are from various sources, so I could never quite pin it down. Sometimes I get ideas and inspiration from the most random events or objects, and sometimes its by looking at other peoples work. If i had to pick one though I would say random, a lot of the time I’ll be thinking about stuff and then just have something pop in to my head.

What are your major principles for doing a great photo manipulation?

It depends on the manipulation. If your going for a surreal scenic manipulation, its all about the technicalities and the levels of exposure and color. I really like to keep a good balance of exposure and color to create a certain type of tone in my manipulations, like Frank Miller did with some of his productions like his movie ” 300 ”

What percentage of project duration does it take to achieve such detailed works?

It depends, I don’t usually count in hours but rather days or weeks. Sometimes I give my projects complete 360’s, I worked on Tree Of Life on and off for 3 months, I left it for an entire month because I ran out of ideas and then modified the entire piece into something else later.

What are your top 3 favourite graphic software’s, and why?

My tools of the trade are Poser, Cinema 4D & Photoshop. Photoshop is the most important for me because its what I do the majority of my work in, but I like to mix 2D and 3D which is why  I use Cinema 4d and Poser.

Do you use any special techniques and tools, such as a tablet, or is it mainly the mouse doing all the work?

I use a large Wacom Intuos 4, which I believe is absolutely necessary to any sort of digital artist regardless the genre. It makes my life easier and allows me to do digital painting and highlighting much easier.

You are a very young self-taught artist, there’s a well known debate in the design community regarding the role of education in a designer’s work versus no design education,what do you think about this?

I can’t say for sure, I haven’t gone to art school so I don’t really know if it helps or not. My view is that art school probably helps, but to get a good job you don’t really need the degree that comes with art school.

What areas of your work do you enjoy the most?

Looking back on projects and selecting my portfolio overall, I like to glance at works that are 6 months or a year old and remember the experience and be glad I made them because I am proud to have created a certain piece.

If this whole “designer career” thing fell through the floor tomorrow, what else could you see yourself doing for a living?

I’ve still got two years left of high school so who knows…

What is one piece of advice you would give to any artist looking to improve their technique?

Dedication, if you actually want to be good you can push yourself to become good, its all about how hard you try.

What sort of things do you do to relax?

Eat chocolate, drink tea, and watch some good television.

So what do you see yourself doing in the future?

Being my age I don’t really like looking that far ahead, so who knows..

Do you have any helpful comments for our viewers out there about being a young freelance artist?

Everyone says it but its true, if you’ve got contact info for someone, send them your link, it doesn’t even matter who, just send away.

Finally, Red-Bull, Coffee or something else?

Tea.

Well its been a great pleasure and thanks for taking the time out to talk with us.

No problem, cheers!

For more info visit Saad’s portfolio here:www.saadart.com

DON’T FORGET TO CHECK OUT THIS COOL TUTS!