Khalid al-Dakheel
Artist | Professional | Film & Animation

Saudi Arabia

ABOUT:
● Name: Khalid al-Dakheel
● Spiritual Name: kid
● Date & Place of Birth: 11/5/1981 – Riyadh, Arabia
● Job Title: Cartoonist, Animation Filmmaker & Comedian (Founder/CEO of Khalid al-Dakheel Cartoon Production)
● Specialities: Drawing, Cartooning, Comic Design, Story-Boards Design, Classical Animating & Directing, Acting, Writing
● Website: www.kdcartoon.com
● Twitter: kdcartoon
● YouTube: kdcartoon
● Facebook: kdcartoon

Biography:
Khalid Sulaiman al-Dakheel is an Arabian award winning Cartoonist, Animation Filmmaker & Comedian, who's known as the pioneer of the Animation industry in the Arabia, and the first Animation Filmmaker to receive awards and honors for Animated Cartoons. The first Website was launched in 2001.

Khalid began drawing and creating cartoon characters when he was 4 years old. At 8, he started creating comics, and at 18 years old he published his first comic called Hassan al-Fannan in a comic al-Jeel al-Jadeed comic magazine. Khalid has characteristic style in drawing and cartooning, which he's been practicing since his childhood. Although, he's been influenced by Anime style in particular, which Khalid grew up with.

Two years later - In 1991, Khalid started animating frame by frame by making flip-book cartoons. He developed his way of animating by working with a video camera and some simple tools he made. He produced his first 15 minute cartoon about Pac Man, which he animated frame by frame. Later, while watching Woody Woodpecker, he discovered the Cel method, which he used to make his other cartoons, by separating the character layers from the backgrounds and props. He also used a video camera to create stop-motion short films using clay and kids toys.

Khalid has always been passionate about acting and directing - and later began live-action filmmaking with his brothers and friends. He made many shows with his brother Ahmed and Abdullah, where in he personally acted as more than five characters, which led him into video editing.

In 1998, Khalid joined The Saudi Association Of Culture and Arts in 1998, where he stayed for only a few months. He described the situation there as "a mess". The famous TV channel Al-Arabiya has interviewed Khalid later in 2006 where he spoke honestly about his experience in the Saudi Association and other areas, describing the horrible situations there.

In 2000, Khalid started using Adobe Flash (Macromedia Flash back then), with which he made couple of short animated cartoons, the first one was called Kick Kivi, which he created with Flash using just a mouse. This cartoon and the ones that followed were emotional vents of anger and feelings, specially (Cats Benefits - 2003) which many people didn't cheer for. Although, Khalid participated with the film in different festivals, including Emirates Film Competition in 2007, Jeddah Film Festival in 2007, and some others.

In 2004, Khalid worked on couple of TV programs, as an illustrator, video editor, story-board artist and director. He directed TV commercials in a cartoon style for some companies. But as he's always been into cartooning and animation, that prevented him from working in different paths. In 2006, he produced Sida. The film has an Arabian traditional style and story, which takes place in Saudi Arabia in 1960. The story, which was told to Khalid by his mother, is about a man called Sida who was known for his bizarre and mysterious character.

Khalid participated with Sida in couple of short films festivals, where he received his first award (Special Mention Award for Sida's Production Quality) at the Emirates Film Competition in 2006. As well as a Daily Third Place Award at the online animation network Newgrounds, among other honors. The film was shown in other festivals and animation networks, including Jordan Short Films Festival, and the first Saudi film festival called Jeddah Film Festival in 2006. Many articles were written about him and his art - as well as TV and press interviews he appeared in.

www.kdcartoon.com