Anastasia Sennik, illustrator: “Yekaterinburg is a completely fabulous city”
On New Year’s Eve, people wait for fairy tales and live a sense of wonder. Drawings by the illustrator from Yekaterinburg Anastasia Sennik are full of magic, secrets and mysteries.
"Personal guide" spoke with Anastasia Sennik about miracles, creativity, the city of Yekaterinburg, past and future travel.
Anastasia, please tell us about yourself. How did you start painting?
My name is Anastasia Sennik, I am an illustrator. But I did not come to the realization of myself as an artist whose vocation is to paint immediately.
After graduating from art school, and then the Academy of Architecture, I worked for many years as a designer in printing.
For a while, design took all my energy, attention, and time—and I almost forgot about drawing.
Only then – gradually – did I come back to him again – did I paint more and more, and a few years ago I completely left design and plunged into pure creativity. Now I paint again and share my skills and knowledge with others.
You teach the creativity of other people. According to your observations, everyone is an artist at heart and can learn to draw? How do you get rid of the fear of possible failure?
Everyone is a whole universe and I want to see it. It fascinates me how differently we all see and perceive reality. Everyone is an artist, even if they don’t know it yet.
My job is to help you open up and share your vision. Getting rid of the fear of failure is very simple: remember that our view of the world is subjective, there is no right or wrong vision, you just need to trust yourself, and remember that each of us is a creator!
You paint a fairy tale and create magic. Can you share the recipe?
My recipe is simple: I paint the world as I see it. Mine is fabulous, it has many secrets and mysteries, animals exist on a par with people, houses have their own character, trees can talk. I have recently started writing and illustrating fairy tales, so my world may soon have a voice. I often advise students to come up with their story first and then start putting it on paper.
In what technique are illustrations magical?
I work in mixed technology - it's watercolor, and colored pencils, all kinds of liners and pens, gouache, and sometimes acrylic. I consider myself more to be a graphic artist than a painter: after all, the line remains my favorite.
In your works there are different houses and houses, castles and estates. What buildings in Yekaterinburg are the most interesting? Which streets are pleasant to walk on?
Oh! I love it. ekaterinburgHe's so diverse, multifaceted, alive. Since the age of 13, I live in the city center, near the park of the Kharitonov-Rastorguev estate, I love these streets dearly. Literary quarter with its toy houses, Karl Liebknecht Street, Belinsky Street, March 8, Lunacharsky, Sacco and Vanzetti.
I often wander aimlessly around the city and photograph some details, windows, entrances, sometimes these details appear in my drawings.
Yekaterinburg has the image and status of an industrial city, a tough metropolis. Where do miracles live in our city and how do they survive here?
In fact, we have a completely fabulous city. Real "houses from a fairy tale" - the houses of merchants Agafurov, carved casings, curly windows, turrets. The estate of Filitz on Lunacharsky, being in itself very interesting from an architectural point of view, it is shrouded in long-standing secrets and legends.
Of course, the Kharitonov Manor and the park adjacent to it! - how many stories are told about its abandoned underground passages, dungeons and cellars! When I was young, my friends and I tried to explore some secret passageway or door.
In the area of Shartash still preserved part of the pre-revolutionary cottages - old houses in the forest, bent window frames, secret rooms, gloomy mansions that keep their secrets. All these mysteries and mysteries inspire new stories.
The miracle always lives nearby - you just need to want to see it: in the interweaving of branches, in the reflection of puddles, in lines of unusually shaped shadow, in rain and in snow. You need to stop and look around!
This is the first step – to develop the ability not just to look, but to see: beauty and wonder surround us from all sides!
Yekaterinburg, as a picture - what or who can be on it? What color scheme?
I have long been planning to paint a series of paintings about Yekaterinburg. My city, of course, will be fabulous, magical and mysterious. The colors seem to me a little muted, pastel. Clear lines, carved details, modern and constructivism.
Yekaterinburg is very graphic, I as an artist is very interesting and even a little scary to draw it, because our city is a very complex character. At times he is gloomy and thoughtful, and sometimes even obstinate.
The most magical city you’ve been lucky enough to visit? What travel inspires you?
I'm not going to be original, I was struck by European cities: Paris. AmsterdamBrussels. How well they treat the old hearts of the city! You walk through these streets and freeze with delight!
And this year I was captivated by Gurzuf - narrow streets, stone stairs, creeping houses on each other, from the upper streets you can see a piercing blue sea. Chekhov’s dacha and the bay, where rocks hang over a tiny island of beach. The steep streets go up and down. The atmosphere is absolutely magical: I will definitely return to this city!
I confess that I am more inspired by leisurely travel, with the opportunity to plunge into the ordinary life of cities and villages. It is such a miracle when an unfamiliar place opens before you and, albeit briefly, reveals its secrets!
I try to live my life as an exciting journey, where at every turn there is something unknown and undoubtedly interesting!
I wish everyone a fabulous mood in the coming year, just believe in a miracle, and it will definitely happen to you!
Read more articles about Ekaterinburg:
Where to begin acquaintance with the city to the guests of the Ural capital?
Yekaterinburg for romantics. Part one
Yekaterinburg for romantics (part two, evening)
Where to go in your free time in Yekaterinburg? Interesting places and walks around the city