Since childhood I loved animals, even favorite toys were animals, and in school time I was deeply involved in reading books such as Grzhimek, Durrell, Goodall, Corbett, Anderson, Sladkov, Bianki, Drozdov etc. Many of these books were illustrated by great wildlife artists such as Charushin, Kapustina, Vatagin, Gorbatov and others. Their works were a big inspiration for me. I started drawing on my own when my mother gave me pen and paper in early childhood, and later I dedicated my drawings mostly to animals of all kinds both real and fantastical ones. In the beginning these even included microbes and active molecules such as ferments and antibodies which were as much imaginary as dragons!
Most of the time I was drawing on my own, following only own imagination or living nature. I am from St. Petersburg where I live and work. While attending school outing classes in Leningrad Zoo I was totally involved in watching and drawing my dear animals. My favorite ones were horses, big cats, big birds and baby birds.
There in Leningrad zoo for the first time I met a true wildlife artist Vladimir Chernoglazov. He worked as an artist in the zoo for 40 years. A zoo artist’s job in old time required a lot of various skills such as making fully handmade info boards for hundreds of animal enclosures, wall painting and decorating, illustration, decorating of the park, buildings and enclosures etc. Despite of loads of routinely technical work, Chernoglazov managed to draw on his own and he was an amazing artist. Although he never gave me any class or workshop, a part of several valuable advices, it was he who introduced me into understanding of animal drawing, their anatomy, behavior and drawing techniques.
Later I attended art school and then went to study zoology in St Petersburg State University, and a fellow zoologist introduced me to another famous wildlife artist Tatiana Kapustina. Kapustina was creating illustrated books since 1960’s, and several generations of Soviet children (including me) grew up on her wonderful illustrations. Her unique style is easily recognizable even for people in foreign countries such as India where soviet books used to be translated and published in local languages. Her warm works of fluffy and kind animals done in watercolor or lithography are a great inspiration for me.
At the end of my university study I understood that I needed to study academic drawing and went to study in Fine Arts Academy as well. Although academic teachers did not understand and support my passion to draw animals, they gave me a lot in drawing and painting techniques. After completing all my studies I got a job as an artist in Leningrad zoo. This work was a great opportunity for me to stay in everyday contact with my favorite wildlife although it was mostly about designing advertisements and info boards and not drawing real animals. I was doing animal drawings for illustrations and info boards.
It was while travelling in India when I started drawing wildlife from wild nature. In Russia it is almost not possible to see large animals in wild as they are shy and often rare. India amazed me for the possibilities to go and watch in a forest a lot of exciting wildlife, not only tropical birds but also large mammals like tigers, gaurs, deer, wild dogs etc. This rich and blooming nature inspired me a lot to travel in different parts of India to see as much places and animals as possible. It was interesting to meet compatriot zoologists in India, many of them were very helpful and heartily shared their knowledge.
This also inspired me to submit for ICCR* stipend for studying in India. I was very grateful to India for this opportunity to study and live in the surrounding of Indian nature. I studied for two years in Santiniketan University in West Bengal. Santiniketan is not only highly cultural and historical place but also full of green trees and wonderful bird life. Its founder, Rabindranath Tagore started not only the university and the town but also rich gardens and parks. Gardens attract a lot of birds not seen otherwise in surrounding areas of Bengal villages and paddy fields. As well as travels these gardens gave me lot of inspiration for my art.
In 2017 I received an invitation to Nepal art workshop dedicated to art helping to save nature. I was very thankful to Harry Tyler for the invitation and with some friends managed to participate in it at Suklaphanta National Park. It was great to meet the forest again and experience drawing in open air with fellow artists.
Wildlife Art
My favorite citation on wildlife art is from a Russian artist Vasily Vatagin. “For wildlife artist the first and main condition is love to animal world, to its forms and life moments… The love gives him the sense of animal, which helps him to find its most characteristic lines, most impressive and attractive peculiarities. Deep knowledge of form, structure and anatomy, life and habits of animal is important condition for creation of really valuable image… “ (Vasily Vatagin,1957)
Vatagin was a great wildlife artist in the beginning of 20th century, who started and literally created State Darwin museum in Moscow. This museum is not only one of best contemporary biological museum but also a treasury for art of wildlife artists. Many exhibitions of paintings, sculptures and applied arts on wildlife are going on in Darwin museum all year round.
I was lucky to participate in an exhibition there in 2017 along with my mentors Tatiana Kapustina, Irina Makoveyeva and other wonderful artists.
Being a graphic artist I love to work with watercolor. It allows to use many different techniques including a unique one taught to me by Tatiana Kapustina. Drawings are usually based on field and zoo and imaginary sketches, where oil pastels are favorite medium for me. Capturing sketches from nature is very important for creating lively work on movement, mood and shape of animals.
As a follower of academic graphic art I don’t like drawings from photo. I consider copying from photo as a kind of craft similar to cross-stitching needlework using ready-made template picture. I strive to tell something important about life and expression of animals from my own sight and knowledge, not from a camera snap. But nevertheless I like to use my simple camera in travels as it lets me to capture and memorize quickly changing circumstances, landscapes and other details.
One of my projects was a big work on Animals of the World Map. It required me to work with speed and correctness of multiple animal images which were more than 300. So for quickness I was using some photos for correcting details and proportions, but I never copied from photo, because for every image I was composing best posture, shape and color and not refer on random captured moments.
My future plans are to illustrate a couple of children’s books of verses written by my friend and colleague, and also to write my own illustrated book on my experience with Indian birds and animals.
There is a website for my works with examples of my multiple interests and experiences in art, including not only illustrations, but also paintings, zoo works and handicraft.
