Akbar Zia was popular among his college fellows at the National College of Arts (NCA) during the mid-1990s for his caricature portraits, usually commissioned by his friends for one rupee per caricature. A seasoned illustrator and visual artist, Akbar Zia, was born in Karachi.

“I used to be quite a shy child living in the world of my own. I still have my junior school drawing sheets where I scored the maximum marks. Seeing my keen interest in art, my teachers would ask me to make charts and illustrations to be displayed in classrooms. And seeing my obsession with drawing human figures, my mother would give me a title of ‘But Farosh’ (statue-seller). She would also tell me if I make human figures or faces, I will have to put soul into them. But, I never got scared and kept on drawing at the back pages of notebooks and hidden parts of the house,” says Akbar during a chit-chat.

A water tank at the rooftop of his house was his safe haven to draw. Its walls were the first huge surface he experienced for executing my drawings. He would draw over life-size human faces with a lot of details, employing coal pieces and soft drawing pencils. He had named the water tank walls as the ‘Building Art Gallery’.

“My father had five brothers. Living in a big joint family, sharing a huge building with lot of cousins, we had regular indoor activities. One of my uncles would arrange a Mushaira, talent shows and art competitions among the cousins, and audience used to be all the family members. I still remember the excitement and pride of feeling like a king after winning the cash prizes,” he recalls the memories of a rich childhood he lived.

Aftab Zafar was Akbar’s first inspiration to be a professional artist.

Inspired by the portraits of Islamic heroes he made for yearly diary of a bank, Akbar searched for Aftab Zafar and went to his studio for apprenticeship.

“He refused and advised me to complete secondary school at least before venturing into arts,” he recalls.

Akbar regards drawing books of Walter T Foster series, presented to him for getting good grades in high school, his first teacher which proved instrumental in learning the basics of figure drawing. He still wonders why he opted for pre-engineering in DJ Science College Karachi.

“The only thing I enjoyed during studies was observing a big range of human faces when I used to walk through Empress Market to change buses daily on my way to DJ College and back home,” he says.

Due to lack of interest in pre-engineering, Akbar failed all subjects and finally landed in the National College of Arts.

“It was like moving from a small pond to an ocean. Practising drawing, sculpture and interaction with fellow students, working in various disciplines, enriched my experience. A conducive environment and experimenting in various forms of performing arts helped me develop conceptual understanding of arts. I couldn’t forget the excitement of transforming sketchy characters, created on paper, into three dimensional puppets and using them for stage performances,” he relates.

Witty and soft-spoken Akbar Zia is committed to teaching the skills he evolved over the years to young aspirants. He is conducting workshops for various institutions for the last few years. Working for more than two decades with national and international organisations, he has numerous publications to his credit.

Akbar’s stunningly sharp perception of varied human features and emotions distinct his works when compared to his contemporaries. The skillfully controlled lines facilitate him to come up with crispy, subtle and spontaneous works, which carry the pride and sharp smile of a ludicrous caricaturist.

Published in Dawn, August 22nd, 2018