Khalid al-Dakheel

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"Khalid al-Dakheel" (خالد الدخيل in Arabic) (born 11 May 1981) is a Saudi cartoonist, animator & director from Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. He first launched his website K.D.CARTOON back in 2003. Khalid's creation and art brainstorm started to show when he turned 5 years old only, as he started illustration and designing real & cartoon characters. Then, he started creating comics when he became 10 years old, everybody at that time noticed his tendencies into cartoons style in his childhood

“I’ve always loved cartoons and everything about this amazing art, the characters, the animation techniques, the music, everything!, it’s in my blood!”

1 Biography
2 Awards
3 Other Animations
4 External Links

[edit] Biography

Khalid al-Dakheel started very young drawing and creating characters, and it became obvious to everyone around him that cartooning is his passion. He published his first comic Hassan al-Fannan in a Saudi magazine called al-Jeel al-Jadeed. His drawings and comics appeared to be influenced by the Japanese style Manga when it comes to his comics, as well as the animations, they’ve looked very Anime styled as well.

“Although I love the legendary world & art of Disney, which I always learn a lot from his life and works, but I’m so passionate and in love a lot more with the Japanese style; Anime, it’s the way I lived with and have been influenced by since I was a little kid. Conan The Future Boy, Plawris Sanshiro, Remi, Treasure Island & other shows are still deep in my heart. Living Legend Hayao Miyazaki without a doubt is my idol”

Khalid continued working on comics for few years until he started Classical Animating in 1992, when he produced his first 15 minutes film about the famous character Pac Man, which he loved a lot back then. He made the film using a video camera and some simple equipments, and that’s after making couple of Flip-book animations before, then he continued making couple of animations in a classical style, he also used his video camera for creating some Stop Motion short films using clays and simple toys:

“I love Stop Motion, although, it’s not the type of animation that I’m dreaming to work and get deep in, but I really enjoy making short films in this cleaver style, and I got many benefits from it which helped me in my 2D animations”

Directing & acting were some of the major artistic skills and talents that Khalid always passionate about. His vision started to be clear in his art works, and in his videos when he began filmmaking with his brothers and friends. He got involved in Live Action films, and made his first short film called The Butcher, he acted more than 5 characters in that film beside his brothers, which led him into video editing, when he made couple of other short videos in those years:

“Yes I love acting, it’s one of my hobbies that I’m love with, I love to act even if there’s no camera!, I act in a front of my family, my friends, in my car.. or by looking at my mirror!, but because animation is everything I think about and planning to accomplish in.. I got advantages of everything related to Live Action & video editing for my animations. Acting is a really important principle of animation, and I always love to show that in my films & in the characters I animate”

Khalid didn’t really get support from the local media or from the responsible’ of supporting and helping the gifted in Saudi Arabia’s associations to improve and develop his talent, specially when he got into the painting field at the age of 18. He joined The Saudi Association Of Culture & Arts in 1998, then joined a group there as a painter, he stayed for few months, he didn’t fit in for couple of reasons he tells:

“The place was a mess!, nothing is organized at all, no sponsors, no mentors, and in many days; I find myself looking for some colors or tools to use, and guess what? Nothing is there!, I’m an artist you know? it kills the artist when he/she looks for a color and not finding it, you'd pull your hair!!”

A famous Arabian channel called al-Arabiya had interviewed al-Dakheel later in 2006, he talked about his experience in that Saudi Association in particular, he attacked them honestly by describing the situations there, and how he didn’t get what they’ve promised him, and the interview had a real media furore later on, newspapers and magazines wrote about that interview:

“I hate to blame others for screwing a big part of my life, specially when it comes to my passion, my art, but yes they’ve tried to kill an important side of me, and they played with my feelings, and tried to screw my love to art and to painting, but it’s back again, and I love to paint, paint, and paint!. I love the smell of the paintings, it’s magical!”

K.D. graduated from a high school in Riyadh in 1999. But he always describes his high school years as hell:

“I can say that the year I graduated from the high school is the year I'm born again and started breathing and living again “mostly”, and it's the time I seriously got back into animation, I really found it difficult to focus on my art, when I see the ignorance from some of the people around me, or from the people who are supposed to help the talented in my country, it’s a disaster!. I hated high school years and everything about it!, and I hate to be reminded of it”

In 2000, K.D started using Adobe Flash (Macromedia back then). He made couple of short cartoons, his first animated short film was called Kick Kivi, which he created using just a mouse, but it showed that this simple film was a breathing for him, even his followed cartoons, they appeared to be psychological and a vent of his anger and internal feelings, specially when he produced "Cats Benefits" in 2003, the film was high rated and participated in couple of film festivals including Emirates Film Competition in 2007, at the same year Khalid launched his personal website and still shows his works until today:

“Cats Benefits is my favorite animation that I’ve created, it’s really my real character, and it shows many feelings that I kept in my soul for years, some people may not understand some parts in the film, but I had to do them, and I tried to show my love into cats in a crazy way!”

In 2004, K.D went to work with a production company in Riyadh. He worked on many TV programs, as an illustrator, video editor, story-board artist and a director. He directed more than a TV commercial in a cartoonish style for the benefit of local companies in KSA. Then he started to cool his angry engines, when he produced a film that was different from his known style in the past years. At the end of the 2005, he produced Sida, the film is traditional in its style of animating, and in the idea as well, it’s pure Arabian and the story takes place in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia back in 1960:

“Sida is a dear film to me, for some reasons. One: because it’s pure Arabian styled, which I’ve always wanted to create a film like that. But most of all; is because it’s been told by my dear mother, which is based on true story that happened a long time ago, and it’s rememberable by my mom and many people here”

K.D participated with Sida in couple of short films festivals, where he received his first award (A Special Mention Award for Sida's Production Quality) at the Emirates Film Competition 2006 (Efilm), as well as a Daily 3rd Place Award at the online famous animation network Newgrounds. Then the film was shown in other festivals and animation network, including Jordan Short Films Festival, and the first Saudi film event called Jeddah Film Festival 2006, which took place in Jeddah city. These events made him the first Saudi animator and cartoonist to appear in media and film festivals, and the first director to receive awards for his animations.

[edit] Awards

2005- Daily 3rd Place Award for animated film Sida at NewGrounds.

2006- Special Mention Award For Production Quality for animated film Sida at Emirates Film Competition in Abu-Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

2007- Announcing animated film Sida (Famous Today) at MyToons.

2007- A Thanks Letter from The Saudi Ministry Of Culture And Information for participating with animated cartoon Cats Benefits at Jeddah Film Festival inJeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

2008- An Honor from The Leader of The Saudi Royal Guards for participating with Awareness Cartoons at the “Anti-Drugs” Exhibition in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.