Self-taught artist Achraf Baznani (pronounced: Ashraf Baznani) carries on the traditions of Surrealism with his wild, imaginative, and wholly impractical imagery.
Among his inventive scenarios, small human figures – often the artist himself – appear trapped within glass jars or the size of a camera lens; in other works, Baznani more or less dissects his body, as for example, in one, he cleanly removes his brain from his cranium, or in another, twists off his hand, much as if it were a light bulb. Imparted throughout such works are strong senses of humor and wonder, and as such, Baznani’s art offers a Surrealistic take on life experience in the digital age.
There is some level of abstraction, thus, in my works: the image is not an explicit example of the concept, but a general expression of the idea.
For my works, there are a variety of ways a concept falls into place, most often it starts with a spark of inspiration and grows from there, whether it is a person, design, story that needs to be told, regardless, it all starts with a single point. From there it becomes simple problem solving. I don’t spend very much time looking at what other people are doing. I like to stay aware and connected to what others are doing by following sites such as Flickr.. but beyond that, I spend the rest of my time meeting people, creating, and really just living life. I think the best way to being inspired is not to just try to emulate others, but to find what inspires you in life and trying to capture and share it.
I use Photoshop CS4 and Lightroom 4. I use Lightroom to correct and change the colorimetry pictures. Then I go on to the most important Photoshop retouching. To learn how to master these tools, I spent hours in front of my computer to study the tutorials available on the Internet.