Featured Artist - Oksancia

It's been a while since we sat down for a chat in the Vector Goodness Lounge, but I'm glad we've waited for this one, it's worth it! Winner of the Promote Yourself challenge at the VGL and prevously blogged here, is the fantastic Ukrainian artist living in the Netherlands: Oksancia!! We sat down in the red velvet chaises in the lounge, sipped some freshly squeezed orange juice and had a chat...

Where do you get your inspiration from?

As most of people, I get inspired by the beauty around me. Going for a walk, looking through wonderful picture books at the bookstore, or simply gazing around at home, helps me to get those little ideas for my illustrations. I’ve set up my illustration wire (http://tinyurl.com/57lv76) near my working table with bits of beauty, that whisper new ideas in my ear every time I look at them.

Being very web-based, I adore browsing through beautiful photo’s and artworks on the Internet. For that purpose I have my trusty RSS Reader, where I collect all the subscriptions to various artistic blogs (far too many in fact). One of my favorite artistic websites is, of course, Redbubble with its amazing community of very talented and supportive artists, whose feedback gives me creative energy every single day.

“Cooking the Weather” is a vector illustration created totally in Adobe Illustrator. Another name for this work is “Rainbow Recipe” as it shows a girl-chef cooking the rainbow from the sun and the rain that come from the clouds. I got the idea after seeing the theme “Weather” of the Monthly Vector Challenge on Istock. So this bright piece was born. It was one of the first works with an oval form, which I use a lot in my later illustrations.

What is your design process?
The typical working process for me is to sit back and let the illustration appear on the blank piece of paper or white Adobe Illustrator page Funnily enough, there is also a particular order for the parts of the picture to be born. As most of my illustrations have characters in them, everything starts from the eyes of the character, then his or her nose comes to life, then head and so on… The background appears in the last place.

Most of my digital artworks were born directly in Illustrator without any prior sketches. I work a lot with pen tool and brushes. Trying out new styles and techniques is one of my passions. Another one is to experiment with colors. Can’t get enough of all the shades of blue…My way of creating works fine for me, but I try to improve my working process at the moment with making sketches first and then transfer them to vector illustrations. It takes more time, but helps to express my ideas better.

“Making Friends” came to life as an experiment of style in Adobe Illustrator. It has a lot more details and brushstrokes than my other illustrations. This kitty is one of a million different cats that I painted in my life. If I sit down to paint “something”, it would be a cat! After the cat was finished, I decided to make him some friends to play with in the tall grass. They are still playing, I suppose!

When did you decide that this is what you wanted to do with your creative self?

I was painting and drawing for all my life, but only a year ago I understood that creating is what I like to do the most. It is a bit of a fairytale: I suddenly got the idea what to do, the time when to do it and the place where J Happens really rarely! Mostly, you get only two or even only one of these things at once. I had them all and I still do That’s why I consider myself very lucky!
Vector graphics happened to be the trigger to my artistic development. The idea of web marketing has always been interesting to me, and with small vector portfolio one can start exploring the world of microstock agencies like Shutterstock (http://tinyurl.com/6a9pdc) and Istockphoto (http://tinyurl.com/6m922a). This is a very nice way to get started as vector illustrator. Of course, I plan to develop my skills in vector and other media over time. My second favorite is colored pencils. I just love the look and the smell of them!

“Dreaming high...” is one of my favorite illustrations that reflects my mood after my husband Alex and I came from our honeymoon last August J This piece was made entirely in Illustrator. It took some time to finish because of the grass, but I enjoyed creating it so much and did some great dreaming while working on this one.

Who are your fav designers/illustrators on The Bub?
My watchlist is full of amazing artists that I like so much… Among my favorite are bright vector designs of Evelyn Howard , cute vectors of Anastasia Kucherenko , subtle drawings of Bec Winnel , bright paintings and drawings of Karin Taylor , amazing watercolors of Ujean1974 , funny vector characters of BubbleDoll , humorous vector cartoons of Jumpy , and stylish, bright vector works by Thickblackoutline .

“Moon Story” is very special for me, because it was my first vector illustration EVER! I made it first as watercolor pencil drawing and decided to make it in vector, when I was just starting out on digital graphics. It took me two days to finish, but I was very happy with the result in the end.

Thankyou so much for spending time with us on the chaises Oksancia! :) :D Be sure to check out more of Oksancia's work here at her website, and check out her blog also! :)