00:00 Khadija Khateb was just 14 when she started reading Rick Riordan's best-selling Percy Jackson series.
00:06 Little could she have known that 12 years later,
00:10 she would be the artistic wizard behind the UK edition book covers for this epic series.
00:24 I couldn't really like grasp my head around it at first because it's like a really big series,
00:30 you know. At one point, I wasn't sure if I could even accept the job because I already had a lot
00:37 of jobs but also it felt like it's a bit too difficult to like pass on this opportunity, you know.
00:44 And she's glad she didn't because the public response has been really encouraging.
00:54 I think a lot of people are also shocked that the one illustrating the books now is a Malaysian.
01:02 I think they didn't expect that. Even like the international followers are very excited for the
01:07 covers and a lot of people are trying to like hunt the covers down. The thing is because it's a UK edition.
01:18 Before this spellbinding chapter unfolded, Khadija was already making waves as a book cover illustrator.
01:28 The 26-year-old's previous works include The Marvellous by Donielle Clayton
01:35 and Noorah and the Immortal Palace by M.T. Khan.
01:42 Khadija's artistic journey began at age nine when her parents took her to art workshops.
01:48 Comics and manga were her playground during her secondary school days
01:53 but she says she truly found her artistic voice while pursuing her tertiary education.
01:58 I feel like it's quite, it's realistic but also graphic. It can be quite dark sometimes but not
02:11 too dark as well. It has a bit of edge.
02:14 Khadija says a unique blend of alternative music, fashion and photography fuels her creative spirit.
02:26 And in the future, she dreams of trying her hand at darker works like reimagining the covers of
02:36 Stephen King's spine-tingling classics. I think just embracing your own art style
02:42 because I feel like a lot of illustrators now are kind of like lost on how they want to mould
02:49 their work or like what direction they're going in. I feel like they should just embrace whatever
02:54 they like and go in that direction fully.
03:04 Dinesh Kumar Makarnadhan, FMT Lifestyle
Comments