Armenian Artist Edgar Soghomonyan: From Classic Cartoons to a New Comic Community

Armenian artist Edgar Soghomonyan’s creative journey began as early as preschool. Heavily influenced by classic Soviet-era animation, he started drawing at a young age. His grandfather’s wooden sculptures further ignited his lifelong passion for the arts.

Building a Creative Community

In 2019, Edgar and a group of friends founded the "PanProjeKt" art center. Initially designed simply as a space for art courses, it gradually evolved into a thriving creative community. Today, the center offers academic drawing and graphic design classes while also organizing local art exhibitions.

"Many traditional schools seem to force people to fit into a rigid system, stripping away their individuality," Edgar noted.

He firmly believes that an art teacher’s primary goal is to establish a personal connection with the student and nurture their unique style, rather than conditioning everyone to think and create in the exact same way.

The World of Comics and Future Plans

In 2023, the artist began creating short, six-panel comics depicting the daily life inside his studio. The main character was inspired by one of his actual students, Maral. Although the project quickly gained widespread popularity, it had to be temporarily put on hold due to Edgar's heavy teaching workload at the center.

"A comic format allows you to tell a compelling story with significantly fewer resources," the artist explained, comparing the medium to traditional animation.

Looking ahead, he plans to organize a specialized comics workshop this August. When discussing the growing trend of artificial intelligence in art, Edgar emphasized a critical point: if the creative process is handed over to a robot, art loses its most essential element—human individuality.

Currently, teaching remains his primary focus. However, Soghomonyan is actively developing new characters and storylines, harboring the ultimate goal of transforming his original comics into fully realized animations in the future.