SPOTLIGHT

from Brightness Illustration Magazine No.23

FAIRY-TALE WORLDS

I started drawing in my grandfather’s studio when I was 2 years old. He was an artist just like my father. After graduating from art school, I entered an architecture university at the age of sixteen and I thought to myself that this was the ideal profession for me because “I draw, after all!” I soon realized that this profession was more about designing than drawing and felt miserable. I then left the field of architecture and never looked back. For the next seven years, I traveled around the world, did a lot of drawing, reading, writing, studying history and the history of illustration. I also worked, discovered tango, danced the flamenco, and fell in love with the Middle East and its art… I was on a journey for seven years- a journey to discover myself. I came across an ancient Coptic fresco of Righteous Anna in Warsaw and I was just mesmerized by her eyes. They looked at me through time and space, I was struck to the very heart. Reality seemed to shake. Time began to slow down, stopping for a split-second then rushing backwards with an ever-increasing speed. For centuries, I stood in front of this fresco, forgetting to breathe. As a revelation of sorts, I decided to enter the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts to study medieval Coptic arts. All these years, I have been constantly looking, observing, evolving, and drawing, drawing, drawing.

ANNA ZAVYALOVA

I l l u s t r a t o r

When I finally returned from this journey, the world seemed to have opened from another side, symbols began to appear on the blank pages and bird tracks in the snow. Loose wires harmonized with the moon in “C” in the second octave. Black Gothic letters were on bare branches, like lines in the old Gospels. The world turned into one big illustration and I just need to draw what I see. I prefer traditional materials and work mainly in mixed media, combining watercolors, colored pencils, oil pastels and pen and ink. I don’t add hidden messages into my work, but I try to convey emotions, thoughts, moods, and experiences of the moment. I put a lot of effort into my drawing so I get infinitely elated when my drawings warm the soul of someone, inspire them to draw or just cheer them up.

ANNAZAVYALOVA

ZAVYALOVA

COZY,SWEET &CHILDHOOD REMINDER

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH IRA GRISHANOVA

Ira is an illustrator from Russia. She graduated from art college with a degree in graphic design and now lives in Nizhny Novgorod. She began doing illustration alongside her work as a designer. Gradually, illustration has became the main focus. Most of the time Ira now works on books. She likes to observe people - their gestures, movements, facial expressions, and then transfer these traits to characters from books. Her clients include Phoenix and Kachelly publishing houses.

1. What led you to become an illustrator?

Ever since I was young, I loved to draw and was pretty good at it so I always had the feeling that my career path would be related to the art world. Although I knew the general direction my life was going, it took a long time to find a specific path I wanted to take. I studied graphic design in art college and worked in the field for several years. I decided to change my career path into a more hand-intensive field. There were two fields that interested me at the time: calligraphy and illustration, so I decided to try both. I ended up choosing illustration since there was more creative freedom in comparison to calligraphy. For a while, I was working as a graphic designer and illustrator, but later decided to do illustration full-time.

2. What is your earliest illustration-related memory?

I remember we were at school; we had to draw a tree for art class and my deskmate drew the tree with crosses as leaves. As a little kid, I was enraptured by her ingenious idea. It was the first time I’ve seen something typical being depicted in an unusual yet interesting way.

3. If you were not an illustrator, what would you be?

I would probably do calligraphy and lettering. I also love taking pictures. What’s funny is that I love drawing human characters, but not taking pictures of them. So if I were to be a professional photographer I would only take pictures of landscapes and non-human subjects.

4. How would you describe your style?

My art style is cozy, sweet and reminds you of your childhood. I’ve always wanted to make my digital illustrations closer to traditional ones. I love flowing lines, rounded shapes, watercolor textures and pencil strokes.

5. What do you think about the way people perceive your work?

It is very important for me to get feedback on my art because I get to know myself better through the eyes of the viewer. It is always interesting for me to read comments about my illustrations especially when people talk about the emotions that were

invoked in them when looking at my art.

6. How have your personal experiences influenced your creative abilities?

People are the sum of their experiences and how they react to it. Everything is interconnected so it is impossible not to be impacted by your life experiences. Certain events and people motivated me, inspired me, and contributed to my development while others demotivated me and slowed me down. One summer in my childhood, I met a girl in the village who had a passion for horses. Her love was so strong and contagious that we came up with various games to play with them and drew them all summer long. I had a collection of about a hundred horse drawings by the end of the summer. I’ve never been that rich before! Unfortunately, our friendship only lasted one summer, but it was a great drawing practice. Who knows, maybe that summer was the beginning of my love for smooth lines and rounded shapes in drawing.

7. What techniques are you most comfortable with?

I draw my commissioned artworks in Photoshop because it is easy to make edits. I also like watercolor, but for practice and illustrations that I create for myself, I use paint.

8. What is an event that inspired you?

I am usually inspired not by specific situations, but by some moments, little things. I try to fix in memory what attracts my attention. For example, an unusual tree, the roofs of old houses, or the bushy eyebrows of an old man passing by. And later all this turns into new ideas or becomes part of an illustration.

9. What project are you currently working on?

I am currently working on a book by a Soviet author. The illustrations need to reflect Soviet Russia with a modern twist. The intricacy of this project is in the details such as clothes, furniture, other details etc. Before this project, I only worked with contemporary authors so this is a new experience for me.

10. What are your thoughts on the pressure

to fit into a fixed style, to attract an agent or a certain type of client?

I think if an artist is cramped in one style, then he should not be limited to it and forcibly drive himself into some kind of rigid framework. Any pressure from outside, if it is not one’s own desire, will most likely have a negative effect.

11. Do you have a method for dealing with the feeling of having no ideas?

If we are talking about drawing for ourselves and about own projects, yes, I have a simple and banal way that helps me. I try to sketch all the ideas that come to my mind and keep them in sketchbooks or just on sheets of paper. Ideas like to come at the most inopportune time, when there is absolutely no way to implement them. The sketch doesn’t take long and ensures I don’t forget the idea. And when I have free time to draw something of my own, I have a bunch of everything I would like to draw.

12. What are your interests outside of illustration? In fact, all my interests right now are mostly related to illustration and my work. I like to delve into a particular topic from time to time, be it color science, plastic anatomy or composition.

13. What is the best use of illustration you have ever seen?

It is difficult to single out one thing. I like it when illustrations interact naturally and effectively with typography, for example, in advertising, packaging, websites, and on book or magazine covers. I also love when illustrations help reveal and understand a complex topic.

14. Name three artists you’d like to be compared to.

I admire many illustrators and artists, but I would not like to be compared to them. I think every artist wants to feel unique. It will be better if I will compare myself with the artist I was in the past and not with someone else.

15. How is the (children’s book) publishing industry in Russia?

In Russia, more and more beautiful, modern books are now being published, both by Russian and foreign authors and illustrators. I think everyone can find something for their interests and taste. I am glad now there is such a variety of themes and styles in books.