Skip to main content

In Search of

by Kehkashan Khalid

Ever since the covid pandemic, I felt my art inching towards digital illustration– a medium kinder to moms of little ones who can’t leave tubes of paint lying around the apartment. I made black and white fantasy maps and illustrator drawings representing short stories, but my heart kept hoping I’d get the chance to make a full color speculative fiction cover art the likes of which I’d seen on the cover of magazines like Clarkesworld and Beneath Ceaseless Skies. I dabbled in it privately, developing a small toolkit, but I didn’t really think I’d ever have the time (ontop of work and writing and tasavvur editorial duties) to develop a portfolio that recommended me as a SFF magazine cover artist.
And then an unexpected opportunity opened up. We were lagging a little as a team here at Tasavvur as the demands of life pulled us away from our beloved magazine. And, as this issue came together, we realized we hadn’t shortlisted a cover artist. So, with a week left to the deadline, and no intention of ever supporting AI over real artists, the team suggested I give it a go.
The brief was ‘science-fiction themed art’, but if you know me, you know I always gravitate more towards science fantasy. Enter an epic (I hope) landscape with magical lava rocks, distant mountains, and shooting stars. And who has landed to explore it but a lost sentient droid, in search of…. something. I’ll leave that up to your imagination.
To me, science fiction is all about exploration, so I wanted to pepper questions throughout the painting. Where are we? Is this earth or a distant planet? Is there magic? Will the droid find other signs of sentient life? What is he feeling as he looks up at the stars?
In short, this was a dream-come-true opportunity and I’m really glad that my first cover art attempt began with this magazine–our passion project.

Kehkashan is a visual artist and writer from Karachi. She can’t function without a sense of community or a cup of coffee. She can currently be found in Jeddah, working on her first novel, spending time with her three young children, and searching for calm in the midst of chaos. You can see her in action at www.instagram.com/artworkbykehkashan