SCRF 2023: Meet Egyptian mangaka whose innovative thread work brings anime characters to life

Visitors to this year’s Sharjah Children's Reading Festival (SCRF) can admire a variety of manga artwork which features different characters such as Johnny Depp's Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean and reinterpretations of Vincent van Gogh's Starry Night paintings.

SCRF 2023 has been attracting a diverse group of artists and creatives that includes Egyptian mangaka Manar Elraghy, who uses her skillful thread work to create colourfully embroidered manga, anime and pop culture characters.

Her unique approach to embroidering manga and anime-based works on the canvas has been a big draw.

She says, “I am a passionate animation enthusiast, with a particular interest in Japanese manga and thread manga work. I have been drawn to the art form since a young age and have been honing my skills through self-study and practice. I use thread and needle but, on a canvas, instead of cloth, combining both painting and embroidery to create the artworks.”

Her other creations include Joker from Batman, Mushu the dragon from Mulan, the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland, Willie Wonka from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Edward Scissorhands.

The artist is particularly interested in the storytelling and visual style of Japanese manga and has been experimenting with different techniques to create dynamic and expressive illustrations for three years now, in what first started out as a hobby during the restrictions of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.

“The works take anything [from] a few hours [to] a week to create, and involve a precarious process since threading on canvas can tear them easily; a single mistake means the work has to be restarted from scratch,” says the manga enthusiast.

• Look: Emirati artist creates stunning black-and-white portraits of UAE leaders