the artist · profile
Haya Shahzad(Haya Shehzad, hayartsan)
Haya Shahzad is a Pakistani visual artist, illustrator and animator based in Islamabad, Pakistan. She is a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) student at the National College of Arts (NCA), Islamabad campus, and is also known online as @hayartsan. Her name is sometimes transliterated as Haya Shehzad. Her practice spans oil painting, charcoal, watercolour, digital illustration, editorial work and pixel animation. Commissions are open.
Practice
Works between oil painting and digital illustration depending on what the image needs. The studio sits inside NCA’s Islamabad campus — most pieces start on paper before anything else. A thumbnail, a palette test, sometimes a charcoal rough. The canvas comes after the idea is settled. Recent work moves between figurative oil portraiture, editorial illustration in both Urdu and English, and frame-by-frame pixel animation for social commissions. The oil pieces favour a small palette — three or four colours per canvas — while the digital work tends to be more chromatic, particularly the editorial pieces where colour carries meaning across languages.
The animation practice runs on Aseprite for pixel work — each character designed static at full size first with the palette locked before any frame is drawn. Commission work spans mural painting at architectural scale (interior residency at Studio A, summer 2024) through to looping pixel clips designed for mobile feed compression. Across all of it the process is the same: make it work small, test it on paper, then scale. The mural walls at Studio A were thumbnailed at A4 before any paint reached them. The pixel animations are timed at native resolution so the motion doesn’t rely on smoothing to feel right.
Training
- Currently — Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA), National College of Arts (NCA), Islamabad campus.
- Summer 2024 — Three-month residency, Studio A. Interior mural commission.
- Ongoing — Working illustrator for Mercury Brito Co. (commissioned visual work).
Disciplines & media
Fine art
- oil
- charcoal
- watercolour
- acrylic
- mixed media
- mural
- ink
Illustration
- character
- editorial
- concept
- cover
Design
- identity
- typography
- layout
Animation
- 2D
- pixel
- motion graphics
Tools
Photoshop, Clip Studio Paint, Procreate, Aseprite, Adobe Animate, After Effects, Illustrator, Medibang — plus oil, charcoal, watercolour, acrylic, mixed media, mural and ink for traditional work.
Currently in studio
Working on a small body of oil paintings between coursework, plus a series of pixel animation loops for ongoing commissions. The studio currently leans into figurative oil with restricted palette — three colours per painting at most.
Press kit
Short bio (50 words)
Haya Shahzad is a Pakistani visual artist based in Islamabad. A BFA student at the National College of Arts (NCA), she works between oil painting, digital illustration and pixel animation. Commissions open.
Medium bio (150 words)
Haya Shahzad (also known as Haya Shehzad, @hayartsan) is a Pakistani visual artist, illustrator and animator based in Islamabad. A Bachelor of Fine Arts student at the National College of Arts (NCA), she works across oil painting, charcoal, digital illustration, editorial art and pixel animation. Her practice moves between fine art and commercial commission — recent clients include Studio A (mural residency, summer 2024), Mercury Brito Co. (ongoing illustration), and Khokakhola & Artkaaj (pixel animation for social). Editorial work spans English and Urdu. The studio runs on three colours per oil painting and a locked palette before the first frame of animation. Commissions are open across fine art, illustration, design and animation.
Long bio (300 words)
Haya Shahzad — also transliterated Haya Shehzad and known online as @hayartsan — is a Pakistani visual artist, illustrator and animator currently based in Islamabad, Pakistan. She is a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) student at the National College of Arts (NCA), Islamabad campus, where her practice spans traditional and digital disciplines: oil painting, charcoal, watercolour, acrylic, mixed media, mural, ink, and digital illustration across character, editorial, concept and cover formats, as well as identity design, typography, layout, 2D animation, pixel animation and motion graphics.
Recent commissions include an interior mural residency with Studio A (summer 2024), ongoing illustrated visual work for Mercury Brito Co., a series of pixel animation loops for Khokakhola and Artkaaj’s social channels, and character illustration for the Paint Dialogues registration campaign. Her oil paintings typically run on restricted palettes — three to four colours per canvas — while her digital editorial work tends toward more chromatic choices, particularly where colour must carry meaning across both English and Urdu text.
Process is consistent across media: thumbnail first, palette test second, final surface last. The pixel animation loops are timed at native pixel resolution before upscaling so motion never depends on smoothing. The mural walls were thumbnailed at A4, enlarged to A2, then scaled to wall in pencil before paint. The studio is on the NCA Islamabad campus. Commissions are open for fine art, illustration, design and animation. Contact: Nyanyachanx@gmail.com.
Contact: Nyanyachanx@gmail.com
Find me
- Instagram — @hayartsan
- Email — Nyanyachanx@gmail.com
- Studio (in person, by appointment) — National College of Arts (NCA), Islamabad campus — by appointment only