Islamic illumination is a traditional art form that came from the Islamic world that developed between the 10th and the 16th centuries. Illumination or Tezhip was applied to Qurans and other manuscripts. This art form is based on the Islamic geometric art, but the geometry is usually covered with organic, free flowing shapes inspired from nature. Sometimes the art of Islamic illumination is referred to as Arabesque in English, islimi in Persian, Rumi in Turkish and Nabati in Arabic. The main reason for using the word illumination is the use of real gold.

I fell in love with this art from the first day I started learning about it and I have been sharing my journey on this blog, instagram and YouTube.

Back to painting flowers 😍 These flowers were part of the 4th annual golden flower challenge that I hosted in March. Even though, they are simple, they are taking me a while to finish. .
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Painted with Earth pigments that are part of the set I will

[Pigments & Handmade Watercolour]
The first time I was told about making my own watercolours from pigments, I was confused and thought why would I ever need to do that with such an abundance of choices out there in the shops, but something clicke

When I first started painting this pattern I wanted to create a fist in the middle to show solidarity with Black Lives Matter, but it took a different turn as I painted it. It still a little documentation of the movement and my support for them becau

Summer flowers are so pretty and full of colour inspiration! Need to introduce some of them into my next painting! I finished the outlining with ink and brush today and next is the background 🌻

Back to working on this today ✨More pigments turned into a handmade watercolour ✨
The light blue is made of white chalk and indigo and the light pink is titanium with red cadmium 💕
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I like using sea-shells to store my paint and use as palette, it

Zoom/Online workshops for all the Saturdays of June & July! .
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They are all suitable for beginners and they all have a drawing aspect at first then a longer focus on painting with gouache following the traditional methods of Islamic illumination

Just added some malachite for the leaves and the branches! Also love how the gold looks on top of the textured cotton paper ✨🌱I can’t wait to change this piece dramatically with the backgrounds, though still have to print the flowers first 🌸

[Copyrights & watermarks] ⤵️
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22ct gold added✨ & this lovely brush stand is made from the garden rosewood by @fidget_one 💛🙏🏻
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“You should put a watermark” someone told me, but it’s not the first time I get told &ldq

After a few years of practicing and training with Persian and Turkish artists, I started teaching the basics of Islamic illumination, the painting process and drawing the patterns step by step from the geometric grid. My main workshops take place in London, but I do have international ones like the ones I taught in Saudi the start of this year.

However, the international demand for this art has been HUGE! After getting so many requests the past two years to make an online course, I managed to film the full painting process from finding the pattern to finishing it. This has been a huge step that I wanted to take towards sharing this beautiful art form with as many of you as possible. I know how hard it is to find online resources, so I tried my best to deliver on one of the most requested things from me. Let me tell you about this online course:

Art of Illumination Online

Learn Islamic Illumination/Tezhip Online

The islamic online course is taught in both English and Arabic and it includes over an hour of video footage, photos, written lessons and some practices to get you involved. The course is three parts. The first part is introduction and a detailed video about all the tools I use. The second part is preparing the paper and the gold before painting. The third part is the detailed painting process, where you can follow along to do your pattern step by step.