With a broken arm .. Painter to mark the faces of passengers on subway tickets in Egypt

Sarah Mohamed

At one time, what was meant by the use of the term "photography" was the meticulously drawn lines on the leaves, the cloth, or other materials, but in our time the word evolved to retain the old-albeit rare-meaning and acquire new meaning in the invention of the camera.

In accordance with our common humanity, everything that has ever happened has the glitter of gold and nostalgia, which has made the world so dazzling with oil paintings, and with every progress made in this field.

Mohammed Essam, 24, from Suez, east of the Egyptian capital Cairo, was working on the outskirts of the capital during his days of work and the commercial school in Banha, north of the capital, as a lecturer in a training company in Nasr City and a broken arm.

You may wonder how a person whose right hand used in writing and drawing has broken his hand can be a lecturer and producer of painting. He who has spent nearly a quarter of a century does not know how he feels left-handed? This is what Essam began by saying to Al Jazeera Net. "We were playing football and my hand was broken. I tried to work with my left hand. It was the first thing I did on a plaster painting of van Gogh's paintings by the acrobat."

Between trade and drawing
According to Issam, there are natural spaces for the intersection between the study of trade and drawing, but the origin is due to the fact that he discovered his non-conformity with his studies. He resorted to self-study via the Internet to develop his talent and follow the curricula of the faculties of fine arts without formal enrollment based on what he learned in the youth At the Suez Culture Palace of the basics influenced the lines and drawings.

The challenge was what Essam, or the metro painter, as Facebook social network users, who shared his first drawing on the meter tickets, paid for his paintings on small spaces.

"Drawing on small spaces is harder, shows the aesthetics of the painting, and points to the artist's skill," says Essam. "But now I'm drawing on small and big spaces together."

Nine years is the sum of what Essam spent in practicing drawing on normal spaces, and spent two years drawing on small spaces. The first attempts were a collection of portraits of famous figures such as Abdel Halim Hafez, Umm Kulthum, Ismail Yassin and others.

Difficulties
The goal of this challenge is to face the difficulty and to identify the possibilities with the tools they have. The time it takes to transport is long enough to be used for development. Three hours back and forth Issam spends every day from his temporary home in the capital to his headquarters in Nasr City.

Issam practices the new experience through his papers and pens in the area he determines, until the day of the month of his month through social networking sites. "On a day I did not have papers, and I have only a few minutes and a metro ticket, and I was impressed and impressed by the attempt."

Day after day, Issam tried to practice the hardest through known faces, reproduce the seven portraits of celebrities, then draw the faces he meets directly, and fought the experience of caricature with a friend, although some refused to draw them.

Draw on various bearings
Issam works with acrylic, dry, coal, lead and pastel in his studio and with his students. But with the metro line he preferred to work with the dry pen (the pen used in everyday writing) for his distinctive color, Essam told Al Jazeera.

Issam is aware that he is not the only one who works in small spaces. He shows examples of people drawing gum and others on nuts.

The challenge is now a daily routine; the images of the passers-by or those captured by friends of photographers depicted by Issam in the space of the ticket in a period of time between 15 minutes and an hour full, according to the details that increase.

In the paintings of Da Vinci and Rene Bra, Essam sees inspirational models, ingenious lines and an approach that follows, and is the challenge he faces now in terms of quality and approach.