Turning Creativity into $$$
Born and raised in Selangor, art has always been Syiqah’s passion. What started as a hobby grew into a source of income that helped to cover her daily expenses in university. Nur Rasyiqah Wardah Noruddin or better known as Syiqah among her peers, says it all started during her schooling days when she decided to take art as one of her subjects. having a deep interest in the field.
Source of Inspiration
Most of her artwork is often inspired by artworks on Tumblr, Pinterest, and other social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram. To her, imagination is a crucial key to producing art. “I would just simply imagine it through, then I would translate the ideas from my imagination into my diary” says Syiqah. She also added that she manages to find new painting ideas everywhere in her daily life. She would make sure that she jots them down in her diary, as it helps her to translate the ideas into an actual painting. To her, the uniqueness of Fritilldea’s art have greatly inspired her. “He is famous for his doodles and that is what inspires me to keep going”, she said.
Generating income through hobbies
Syiqah never thought that this hobby could help her gain public attention. It all started after her older sister posted one of her artworks on social media, and started to take orders from customers. “The first order I received from a customer, required me to draw a picture of a cartoon on her tote bag and soon I began to receive demands from clients asking me to draw their portraits” says Syiqah.
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She would simply draw using her smartphone using an application called Adobe Draw. Up until now, she has created drawings on various materials ad mediums as per her client’s wishes. “I would normally recreate the drawings that my customers have emailed to me beforehand, then I would draw it on the materials requested, such as jeans and shoes”, explains Syiqah.
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As the fourth child among her siblings, Syiqah’s income doesn’t allow her to live in luxury. But her earnings is enough to cover her tuition and daily expenses at university as she tries not to rely on her parents for financial support.
Planning schedules
Currently pursuing her diploma in Fine Arts at Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) Seri Iskandar, Perak, she tries her best to juggle her hobby between her tight schedules. The key to that is to plan well, and prioritize her activities accordingly. "I need to balance my hobby and my lessons so that I don't overdo or overlook one of them," she says.
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The time she takes to complete an artwork would really depend heavily on the design that she needs to work on. At the very least, it would take three days to complete a single painting. But there are also drawings that would take almost a week due to the complexity of the design. "Creating a painting requires a good mood. If I am not in a good mood, I would stop painting and do other things." She also said that night time is the perfect time for her to produce her artwork. “The night atmosphere keeps me focused.”
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She added that in order to produce a truly beautiful piece of artwork, she has to spend long hours to refine and give it a detailed look, rather than her drawings which are just for the sake of her sales and bookings. For Syiqah, she would emphasized the quality of her work so that the customers would be satisfied with the final product.
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There are also customers who want their commissions to be completed within a short period of time. These requests stresses her out as she needs sufficient time to make sure the painting is exactly what it represents.
Future plan
Her future plans for her hobby is to expand it until it becomes widely known. For Syiqah, persuing her passion is very important to her, because at times, she would feel tired and frustrated with painting all day. Only by having a strong interest and passion could motivate her to continue the hobby. “People on twitter know me from my Powerpuff girls drawing that I recreated on jeans which went viral before and I truly hope that more of my artworks will be acknowledged in the future,” she concluded.
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