Exceptional Illustrations of Youthful Girls by Carivna – with Interview

A: Hi! I am a 28 years old free-lance illustrator from Kiev, Ukraine. Lately reside in Cyprus. To be honest, I can’t really say that art was my passion for my whole life and surely I never thought of illustration as my professional career. I was doodling all the time, especially during school and then university classes, but that’s all about it. It hit me about four years ago when I was a photo editor in Hello! magazine. Surrounded with amazing creative professionals I got into design and was introduced to the world of illustration. That’s when I understood that this is the thing I want to do, so I am living out my dream as a freelance illustrator.

A: I use mostly digital media for my illustrations; it gives you so much freedom, you know. I love textures and use scanned bits of paper and photos of fabric. I often use patterns which I seriously love to create! It’s a very relaxing and meditative process for me. About inspiration… I constantly have a feeling that I’m still an amateur, and I can do better. I see so many other amazingly talented artists, creating truly stunning pieces, and it pushes me to work harder. I challenge myself with new technics, different and more interesting composition and colors.

A: Yes, I work on a series of illustrations for a 365 holiday project recently. And there’s always some personal work going on of course.

A: There’s enough negativity in the world these days. So dark, violent subjects is something you’ll never see in my art. I guess I want to do is to bring good, tender, sparkling emotions, remind of magic and mystery.

A: Oh, there are many! I get carried away so easily. One day I buy tools for carpeting because I see some beautiful handmade furniture. Then I start to sew. I’m grateful so much to my husband for being understanding and patient with me, especially when I decide to paint our fridge, or bring huge pieces of old furniture from the street for restoration. One of the biggest obsession of mine lately is doll making. I’m totally blown away by custom made ball-jointed dolls. And I make my own of course. It’s a long and complicated process, because you need to understand about sculpting itself, about materials you want to use, then the mechanics of joints. It took me more than a year to almost complete the prototype, but I’m very happy with the results! Oh, I can’t talk about my dolly a lot, really.

A: Did someone discover the secret of success? :)Please, I would like to get to know the person ? Seriously though, this can be a very simple and straight answer but also a very lengthy one. One way of answering is work, work, work. This is a very competitive field and talent alone will not do the job unless you are really lucky. There is always room for new ideas and artists but you have to be ready to work hard on a daily basis and make sacrifices from your life. Having said this, the most important factor in order to achieve your goals is to be positive and stay positive. If you believe in yourself and what you do, then at the end people will believe in you too, and that will make it a lot easier achieving your goals. As for the secret of success, I guest from all the quotes that I heard about this word my favorite would be “There is only one success. To be able to spend your life in your own way”.