From watching cartoons to creating comics: Edgar Soghomonyan’s artistic journey 

When Edgar Soghomonyan  was still a toddler, his mother turned on the television, and he watched a Soviet-era cartoon for the first time. There were no special effects or fast-paced action. But for him, it opened the door to a world that still inspires him today. His creative journey, however, began not with animation, but with a pencil and paper.

Even before kindergarten, drawing was Edgar’s favorite activity. While other children played outside, Edgar preferred to sit and draw. As he grew older, he experimented with different materials and techniques, but his passion for creating images never faded. “Drawing has always been part of my life. The techniques and interests have changed, but I have always worked with pictures and images,” he said.

Creativity also ran in his family. Although his relatives were not professional artists, his grandfather took up wood sculpture later in life. A builder by profession, he spent his free time carving expressive figures that reflected different human emotions. “I didn’t see much of the whole process, but it definitely influenced me,” Edgar said.

He said the biggest problem was the lack of connection between teachers and students. “If a teacher cannot spark a student’s interest, the desire to learn disappears. Too often, the education system tries to teach everyone to think in the same way.”

In 2019, Edgar and his friends founded the PanProjeKt Arts Center. At first, they wanted to offer art classes. Over time, however, it grew into a creative community focused on helping each student develop an artistic style rather than producing artists who all work the same way. “First, we try to understand what the student wants. If you teach everyone the same way, they all end up thinking the same way. For us, it is more important that each person finds their own voice,” he said.

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The center offers classes in academic drawing, graphics, life drawing and different printmaking techniques. It also hosts master classes and organizes an annual exhibition where students present works that often explore social issues. Edgar said art education is about more than learning technical skills. He said that if a student finishes a course knowing how to draw but has not also developed an independent way of thinking, the education is incomplete. “Many schools seem to push people to fit into the system by taking away their individuality,” he said. “We want to do the opposite — we want to help people discover what makes them unique.” It was in this environment that Edgar’s interest in comics began to grow.

In 2023, Edgar finally decided to bring one of his longtime ideas to life. Every day at the studio, funny moments played out in the classroom, but they rarely went beyond its walls. He decided to turn those moments into short comics. The main character became Maral, one of the studio’s students. “I thought she’d be a complete disaster as the main character,” Edgar said with a laugh.

Each comic had six panels and showed situations that many art students could recognize. They were lighthearted, but they also reflected everyday life in a creative space. The comics quickly gained attention, and Edgar created a separate Instagram page for them. Soon, however, he had to put the project on hold as running the art center took up more of his time. “One day I woke up, made a few sketches and finished a comic very quickly. Later, the workload at the center became so heavy that I had to put the comics aside.” Even so, Edgar believes the project is not over.

For him, comics are much more than entertainment. They are a simple and accessible way to tell stories. “Animation requires a large team and a lot of resources. A comic lets you tell the same story with far fewer resources.” That is why he is organizing a comic workshop this August. The goal is to show that anyone can tell a story through comics.

Edgar believes this idea is especially important today, as artificial intelligence becomes more common in creative work. “If you let a robot handle the most interesting part of the creative process — coming up with the story or finding solutions — you lose the most important thing: individuality.” He believes art comes from human experience, emotions, and personal perspective. Those are the qualities that make every work unique.

Although Edgar fell in love with animation as a child, teaching is now his main focus. Still, he has not given up on his dream of making animation. For more than two years, he has been writing stories, developing characters and creating concept art for future projects. None of it has been published yet, but he is confident he will return to it. His first animated project will most likely be based on the comics he created.

“My goal is to encourage people to be themselves instead of trying to fit in,” he said. “For me, drawing became the best way to do that. That’s why I always tell people: if you’ve never drawn before, give it a try. You might discover a side of yourself you never knew existed.”

Photos courtesy of Edgar Soghomonyan.