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Recently, cgart.ir held a competition with the theme of "Heroes and Villains". It was a chance for Iranian CG artists to showcase their work. There's a lot of really good submissions. I was surprised to find all this new talent. I've selected only a few of them to show here, to see more head over to cgart.ir.

Ehsan is a 26-year-old illustrator and comic artist from Tehran. His disney-esque illustrators have a clear manga influence. The Rostam illustration, pictured here, is a good example of his clean lines. We'll definitely be keeping an eye for Ehsan. Check out his Deviant Art portfolio here.

Zahra's Paradise is a new web-comic chronicling the turmoil after the disputed 2009 Iranian elections. It is written by Amir, an Iranian, and illustrated by Khalil, an Arab. The drawing style is very similar to the "Prince of Persia" graphic novel.

Zahra's Paradise is translated in English, Farsi, Arabic, French, Spanish, Italian, and Dutch.

I just discovered this. It's an Iranian game in development called Garshasp. Here's an exceprt from the developer blog:

Garshasp is an upcoming 3D action adventure game based on Persian Mythology. The story revolves around the hero Garshasp, whose stories can be found in ancient mythological texts.

There are some highly talented people working in the video game industry in Iran, mostly in independent studios and with very little funding. Their talent clearly comes through in these concept art and early models, all taken from the developer blog.

I have been meaning to feature Golrokh's artwork here for a while now. Born in Tehran, Golrokh's illustration often combine her unique style with strong social commentary. She is more productive than her blog suggests, but you can still check out some of her stuff on her blog.

We had featured Soheil Danesh here before, but we just found out that he also has a blog, which means more eye candy for the rest of us.

Here's even more illustrated goodness, this time from 21-year-old artist Reza Riahi. This Tehran-based illustrator does a lot of caricature and character design. His blog is filled with a whole lot of sketches, as well as some finished work, all of which are a pleasure to look at. He also did a whole bit of Zoorkhaaneh-themed illustrations which are absolutely hilarious.

Mehdi Shiri is a 20-year-old illustrator, character designer, and a background artist from Hamedan, Iran.
He is one of the many talented emerging artists in Iran who are all part of a great generation that is reviving the art scene there. His blog features some of his great work, so definitely check it out.

Hadi Tabasi is a 25-year-old illustrator/animator/character designer/cartoonist from Qom, Iran. He is the type of artist whose work is so good it makes you want to cry. His blog is a wonderland filled with delicious characters and illustrarions, as well as a few short animation samples.

I was absolutely delighted to stumble upon Mahmood Mokhtari's blog. I simply love his whimsical yet modern illustrations of some of the most traditional Persian characters; especially his "ZoorKhaane" series. (ZoorKhaane is a traditional Iranian gym, for some real-life pictures check out this link).
Artists like Mahmood Mokhtari deserve far more recognition for their work, and it is a great shame that various other limitations imposed on them by the environment they have to live/work in prevents that.

I would love to buy that whole Zoorkhaneh set in a book or as post-cards ...