Drawing has always been with me — from the notebook on my school desk to the tablet
Around the same time in university, I started drawing not only during lectures but also at home. That’s when I discovered watercolor, but portraits remained my main focus—they were either of celebrities or friends.
After graduating from university, I moved to St. Petersburg and discovered the dotwork style. I began drawing with dots, creating sketches, and dreaming of my first tattoo kit. Once I got it, there were people ready to become my "canvases," and everything fell into place. I created sketches and did tattoos. This was already 2018.
In St. Petersburg, I continued working on digital drawings, which gradually shifted toward abstraction or something close to it. My works began to feature complex narratives with fragmented thoughts, references, and Easter eggs, all mixed together. There was a clear immersion into postmodernism, contemporary art, and the influence of pop culture. During this period, I had a strong desire to experiment with form.
I’m still involved in tattooing, but it has gradually taken a back seat because I now create more on my tablet. Then my friend Vlad suggested we make clothing with my artwork, saying it was really cool. We started producing clothes, but they didn’t really sell, and we didn’t try too hard—we weren’t aiming to sell, nor did we have the skills for it. We wore the clothes ourselves. It’s worth noting that we wanted to make clothing that only we could understand. When developing designs for posts, we purposely created confusing photos where everything looked chaotic and there was no focus on the clothing itself. We enjoyed the fact that others didn’t get our idea. The only exception was our first collection, which we shot in a studio with the help of friends. In the end, no one really appreciated the "coolness" of our clothing, so only we wore it, and eventually, we gave it up entirely.
After the clothing phase, my tablet broke, and I returned to dotwork and drawing on paper. The experiments with form continued, and the themes became darker, which was connected to my internal state. I felt comfortable in this melancholy—sadness is easy to carry through life, as it gives you an excuse for everything :) I still occasionally do tattoos, but I’ve become more and more absorbed in the process of drawing itself.
I began to feel constrained by dotwork, and to avoid losing interest in drawing, I started changing my approach again. I picked up watercolor and began adding digital post-processing through Photoshop. In my works, I started touching on social themes, if they can be called that, making references to songs and elements of pop culture. All of this still retained dark tones.
During the next period, I added some street outings to my creative process—my friends and I printed my digital drawings in large formats and pasted them onto bulletin boards. This was how we entertained ourselves for about a year. Meanwhile, I continued creating digital art and gradually transitioned to A3-sized watercolor pieces, although I took my time with them.
Digital art suited me perfectly, and at some point, I even stopped seeing "traditional" methods as viable for drawing. I moved away from paper and enjoyed the convenience of working on a tablet, while also creating simple animations. However, I couldn’t stick to doing the same thing for too long—I wanted to change the process again. And then, I received a request to create a painting, and a painting is always something framed, on paper, at least A3 size. That’s how I returned to A3 watercolor drawings in mixed media. I started using markers, paints, and cut-out phrases from newspapers and magazines that reflected the meaning of the work. Everything looked cluttered and overloaded with details, but I liked this approach. I believed that the more difficult it was for the viewer to figure out where to focus, the better. I wanted the drawing to be something you could look at endlessly, always discovering new details. This also helped mask my not-so-high level of drawing technique.
As soon as I returned to working with paper, the first canvases appeared. These were works in acrylic and gouache, although I had no idea how to use them properly. But I was confident that you could paint with anything—the tools didn’t matter. Around this time, I decided to go beyond the canvas and add abstract elements, using, for example, glued and spray-painted LEGO pieces that I would then attach to the canvas. I also started experimenting with creating my first custom frames in a similar way. Overall, I didn’t focus on any one direction—I continued to work with watercolor and do tattoos, but at that time, I was mostly fascinated with working on canvases.
Around the same time, while working on canvases and learning how to use paints, I continued creating digital drawings with references to everyday life. My watercolor works initially followed the same style, but later became more understandable. During this period, I also tried making clothing with my artwork again, which we wore ourselves.
Soon, I began feeling disappointed with what I was doing. There was a sense of hitting a creative dead end—my works seemed to lack a clear idea. I started wondering if I was truly expressing myself or just transmitting fragmented bits of my environment. My interest in working with form began to fade, but I still wanted to draw—drawing was something I was used to, something I had always done. So, I started drawing freestyle, without relying on references or planning any meaning. I called it "maintaining creative tone and developing imagination." At first, I just sketched random things on the tablet. And then came a new realization—when you draw from your mind, it’s a direct reflection of what’s inside it. It turned out that it wasn’t as full as I thought :)
Following the same approach, I switched to my sketchbook and continued drawing there using mixed media—watercolor, gouache, markers, and pens. Mostly, it was freestyle, without any pre-planned ideas. It was only towards the end of the sketchbook that I began drawing based on requests from friends. The practice of drawing continued.
Sketchbooks have taken an important place in my creative process. They always come to my rescue when I start doubting what I’m doing, offering me creative freedom and freeing me from any obligations to myself. In my sketchbooks, I don’t criticize myself—I just have fun. The second sketchbook was more intentional, but its purpose remained the same—to improve my drawing skills even further.
Then I discovered oil painting, and it turned out to be an incredibly enjoyable experience. For the first time, I tried blending colors directly on the canvas, watching them transition into each other, creating new shades and smooth gradients. Working with oil reminded me of digital drawing with all its blending tools, but the process was much more satisfying to the touch. In my oil paintings, I tried to make my ideas more understandable and avoided abstract forms as much as possible.
Some works still contained a lot of details, but they were as intentional as possible. I also added LEGO pieces to the canvases and continued experimenting with form, including elements like fisheye perspective. The themes of my works ranged from escapism and winter drifting to everyday life, factory workers, and construction workers.
While working with oil, I aimed to approach the process more consciously and avoid spontaneous ideas on trivial topics.
Some works still contained a lot of details, but they were as intentional as possible. I also added LEGO pieces to the canvases and continued experimenting with form, including elements like fisheye perspective. The themes of my works ranged from escapism and winter drifting to everyday life, factory workers, and construction workers.
While working with oil, I aimed to approach the process more consciously and avoid spontaneous ideas on trivial topics.
Of course, I couldn’t focus solely on oil painting. I began experimenting with animations using parallax effects, in which I delved a bit into reflections on the history and development of humanity. In these works, I tried to hint at what we’ve moved away from, where we’ve arrived, and where we’re heading next. This was all related to the Soviet era and current reality. In these animations, I aimed to convey a specific meaning, using watercolor and newspaper clippings.
I learned parallax effects thanks to my next sketchbook, which I finished just before creating the three parallax animations I mentioned earlier. This sketchbook turned out to be somewhat "trendy"—everyone seemed to like it. Apparently, the style caught people’s attention, and the video itself turned out quite beautiful and enjoyable to watch.
