Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost + Geraint Thomas at the 2012 Tour de France, 2023 Giro d'Italia, 2007 Tour de France, 2023 Vuelta a España.
trying out a different style of the third picture under the cut
was potentially planning on doing the whole thing like this but it just wasn't Working
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could i ask what program you use? your art is so gorgeous!
Yes, certainly! And thank you very much!
For pixel art, I use Medibang Paint to draw/color. I just turn of anti-aliasing and use the normal pen brush with pressure (usually 1.5px for line art and 4 or 5px for coloring). Only reason I use it is cause it's pretty hassle free and straightforward. I find it awful to use for actual painting though.
For "painterly" pieces, I used to use Procreate, and now I use Infinite Painter (I sold my iPad and got a Tab S7+, I like it a lot better). The two programs are extremely similar, though infinite painter has nicer hand gestures. I just use a pencil or pen brush for line art, and a square-ish brush for painting. Sometimes I use the "blend" setting on the paint brush, sometimes not. (I know you didn't ask, but a matte screen protector and metal pen tip feel incredibly nice to draw with!)
After the drawing is done, I edit it using Snapseed. I think balancing light/colours after drawing sometimes makes a huge difference in making a dull picture look way nicer. Because I'm indecisive, I often make a few versions and do another pass over in medibang/infinite painter, and then post whichever version I'm feeling after!
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— Tamino for Behind The Blinds, Issue 13 / Fall/Winter 2022 (x)
Tamino: The In-Between State
Antwerp, July 2022
Interview by
MARTIN ONUFROWICZ
Photography by
ZEB DAEMEN
Fashion by
JONATHAN HUGUET
For Tamino, the title of his new album, Sahar, reflects his mindset while working on the record. “The literal meaning of the word is “just before dawn” and I think that perfectly captures the feeling of being in this in-between realm that I felt at the time,” explains the Belgian-Egyptian singer. Having catapulted him to fame in Belgium just after turning 20, Tamino’s debut album Amir also earned him fans from all over the globe, leading to non-stop touring for years. With instant popularity — and responsibility — at a young age, Tamino oscillates between adolescence and adulthood; this very in-between state being at the core of his latest record.
With Sahar, the musician continues to express the melancholy and vulnerability that became a signature of his artistic language. The key tool in creating the record was the Arabic lute known as the oud — an instrument that takes center stage in a ballad titled A Drop of Blood. “With this song, I wanted to accompany myself with the oud as the main instrument, just like my grandfather and father did in the past,” says Tamino. “It was very important for me to have at least one song like this on the album to honor the traditions of Egyptian and Arabic music.”
MARTIN ONUFROWICZ: Why did you decide to name your new album Sahar? What is the meaning that this title holds to you?
TAMINO: The literal meaning of the word Sahar is ‘just before dawn’ and I think that perfectly captures the feeling of being in this in-between realm that I felt at the time of creating the album, and still feel a bit right now.
MO: Where is this feeling of being in an in-between state coming from?
TAM: It has a lot to do with what my life has looked like in the last couple of years. I went from moving to Amsterdam to study, where I felt so out of place, to moving back to Belgium and my music career taking off, and starting to tour almost immediately for years. It felt a bit like tunnel vision — my life started to just revolve around one thing. I’m still very young, and feel like a child on so many levels, but I'm working very much like an adult.
MO: The album was written during the solitary times of the pandemic. How has that period affected you?
TAM: I was always planning on having a break because my team saw that I was feeling a bit burned out. So when it came a bit earlier than expected, I was quite happy about it. That said, I always imagined that when I will have my rest, I will be able to integrate into the world again as a regular person who's not traveling all the time, but then that wasn't the case either because everyone was at home, and life as we knew it was on hold. I think that period has definitely contributed to that feeling of in-betweenness as well, and was also a very transformative and important time for me personally.
MO: You're starting touring again later this year. Having this perspective now, how are you going to try to avoid the burnout you had a couple of years ago?
TAM: That was the one thing I kept saying to myself during the break, “I’m going to learn from this and take this zen feeling that I found into the busy life that awaits me again." Of course, I’m not sure how well I will do, but it definitely already affected how I approach work. For example, I’m now in New York for a couple of weeks and not just packing all the promotion stuff into one week because I thought, "I don't really have that much to do in July, so let me spend some time here and see what it’s like." I wanted to be here long enough to be able to ground myself, get to know some new people, have fun and be inspired.
MO: That sounds like a really good idea! What are your favorite places in the city so far?
TAM: I’m staying in Williamsburg, which I really like. I also really enjoy the Lower East Side. I went to Central Park yesterday, which is always amazing. But I have yet to discover a bar or a restaurant that I really love — I’ll know when it will happen because I’m a creature of habit, so when I find it, I will want to return there every day. [Laughs.]
MO: Which of the songs on the album was the easiest to write and which one was the most challenging?
TAM: The one that I wrote really fast was The Longing, the first song on the album. I first came up with the guitar-picking sound that I recorded on my phone and the next day while being in bed, I listened back to the recording and started humming the melody. Then, all of the verses came in one go! I was stunned because that rarely happens, so that was a very cool moment. A Drop of Blood was probably the song that was the biggest challenge for me because it was the one that I knew I wanted to write — all the other ones were improvised while I was trying out sounds with the guitar. With this song, I knew that I wanted to accompany myself with the oud as the main instrument, just like my grandfather and father did in the past. It was very important for me to have at least one song like this on the album [to honor] the traditions of Egyptian and [more broadly] Arabic music.
MO: Looking back, do you remember having a clear moment when you realized that music was something that you wanted to pursue as a career?
TAM: Music was always something I did, but I never really thought about making a career out of it — I remember that while I was growing up, I never really worried about how l am going to make money later and I'm very thankful for that to my mom. We didn’t have a lot growing up — she was a single mom with three kids — but she never put pressure on us to earn a lot or anything like that. I do remember clearly writing my first song when I was fourteen and the feeling of ecstasy that I got from it — for me, it was one of the best feelings in the world and something I've been chasing ever since!
MO: What's a music album that changed your life?
TAM: There’s been so many, but one that comes to mind immediately is one by Radiohead that I got when I was also around fourteen. I don’t think it was even a specific album, but rather The Best of Radiohead — I just remember being so inspired by their music when I first heard it. Now, my favorite record of theirs is In Rainbows.
MO: That's so cool! It must be a totally dream-come-true situation then for you to now be able to work with Colin Greenwood [one of Radiohead's band members] — I saw that you collaborated with him for Sahar.
TAM: Yeah, it's amazing! It sometimes still feels so surreal when I think about it, but now, Colin has really become a friend to me — we have played a lot of concerts together and he did seven songs with me on the new record. He's a lovely person and it’s a dream to work with a musician of his caliber.
MO: How did you guys first meet?
TAM: We had mutual friends in Antwerp — they took him to one of my shows and that’s how it started.
MO: Let’s end with a throwback question: who was the first musician you saw playing live and what impact did that make on you?
TAM: It was Lenny Kravitz at Sportpaleis in Antwerp. Also, his song I’ll Be Waiting was the first song I deliberately learned by heart — I performed it at a school concert. I love Lenny, he's such a good performer!
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