A combination of the pandemic and my personal life has forced me to make my studio extremely mobile. This has made me very minimal in materials and explore digital methods of creating artwork. This series, thus far untitled, is based on a combination of my queer and Russian identities, which is traditionally a very oil/water relationship. I'm referencing personal narratives through the lens of classic Russian folklore.
This is the very first page I worked on this project; Sometimes my thinking will just take the form of drawing from reference. A lot of research has gone into each piece, but also personal thoughts & associations end up here as well.
I'm very text-based in my idea generating. If I have the thought, it ends up on paper, otherwise I'll immediately forget it. This is one of many pages that are 95% text.
But once I've got the idea, composition becomes a whole other ball game sometimes, and it'll take pages before I land on something satisfying. I've given up on this one for now.
I feel strongly about post-it notes and use them for everything. Even once I have hit digital space, I still come back to the traditional when I need to problem solve certain things.
The underpainting is still foundational to me in digital work, but I also get more room to play with color early on. Some of the traditional lines are still visible, I'm not interested in deliberately covering them up or deleting the layer. The digital isn't always just a trace of the traditional work, sometimes it becomes clearer what needs to be fixed.