Bored Panda reached out to the creative mind and talented artist behind VeryCereals to find out more about his comics, and we are happy to introduce Mayati exclusively from his own words. Although of Moroccan descent, Mayati was born and raised in Germany and is currently studying Computer Science, so we got curious how his relationship with art and comics came about. Spoiler alert: it was a bumpy road.
"Art was and is still not a big thing in my family. But for me, it has become a big part of my life over the last 10 years. I think about it daily, like I did about this crush I had in second grade. Usually, I was the one that was the worst at drawing. I even had to retake 6th grade because I had a 6, which is the worst grade in Germany, on my report card in art. I remember my older brothers drawing characters from anime shows like Goku from Dragonball Z or Pokemon and I was amazed by how good they were. My attempts were rather poor. I guess that was my first encounter with art and the last one for several years."
The artist came back to drawing years later, driven by a simple goal of learning to draw.
"I really liked to learn new skills. The internet was becoming more and more integrated into our daily lives, which gave me the opportunity to pull from a giant pool of information to do so. I started to learn some card tricks, learned pen spinning, and how to solve a Rubik's cube, and stuff like that to an amateurish but still satisfying extent until at some point, I really wanted to learn to draw. There was no particular reason other than to master that skill. So like every kid that wanted to learn to draw, I looked up anime tutorials on YouTube and went from there."
Mayati told us about his ideas and inspirations for comics:
"The topics of my comics vary a lot, and that’s because I don’t follow any strategy when creating them. They are about stuff I find interesting, I have an opinion about, or about just very random situations with a funny, some might call it stupid (I do), twist to them. Sometimes I even think about a character that would be funny or interesting and do a comic about it. For some time, I wanted to have a more strict environment, with recurring characters and maybe a set scope of topics for comics, but so far it hasn’t worked for me. Doing it that way would be beneficial for marketing purposes, but artists don‘t create because of money, am I right?"
"I wanted to keep it simple," Mayati says about his style choice. "In the past, I have tried to accomplish ambitious illustrations, but I could never finish any, which was frustrating. When I started these comics two years ago, I wanted to take the pressure off myself and just have fun without caring too much about the art. Ironically, I feel like I have improved much faster that way."
VeryCereals comics might be about random things in life, but they have one crucial element in common to make them enjoyable, and that is humor.
"Humor has no rules and that means I have the freedom to express anything that I want even if it is controversial or absurd. Humor is something that can release the tension about certain topics and nobody can get mad about that."
We asked Mayati what creating comics means to him:
"For me, it’s about exploring different ideas and ways to tell a story and set up jokes. Because these comics are so short I can just try out different things. I can create a whole world without much overhead, invent new characters just to see how they play out in my head, and find out in what different ways I can insert a joke, while at the same time, I can practice my drawing and illustrating skills by simplifying the elements I need to put into each panel."
Mayati said that the most difficult part about creating comics is also what's the most rewarding:
"Like in many disciplines, overcoming the most challenging obstacle is the most rewarding. The biggest obstacle for me is to come up with an idea that makes even me, while I’m thinking it, laugh or curious. Furthermore, when I share these ideas with my readers online and get to know their responses. Also, drawing silly faces is very rewarding."
As a fairly new artist to the comics scene, Mayati said his proudest moment so far was when he hit 10k followers on Instagram: "Somehow it validated that I can really do this." When asked how his work stands out in the crowd, he said that every artist's comics are individual and can stand out if they are taking it seriously, but it's up to the readers to decide what's special about the particular artwork.
"I think people enjoy these comics, and most of the time blow some hot air out their noses after reading one. Someone told me she laughed out loud. That made my day. It’s nice to have people that enjoy the things I create."
Mayati said that depending on his mood, he wants to evoke different emotions and feelings in people: "Sometimes it‘s just about having a quick laugh, sometimes about a deep thought."
With so many possibilities and distractions out there, we asked the artist what keeps him focused and motivated on creating comics: "I think my own development as an artist is what keeps me motivated. These comics are just one stop of the work I will create. I’m having fun with it now, but I also want to start to create bigger illustrations, and actually finish them."
Lastly, we asked for advice from the artist which you, bored pandas, could use to your advantage when starting and developing your comic projects:
"Draw comics. But maybe more importantly, learn. For me, it was very beneficial to my art to dive into different topics that interested me. I could use newly learned information to create new ideas. Also, if you want to learn to draw comics that look good, then I highly recommend learning the fundamentals of drawing and practice them daily by doing studies or little illustrations."
