Rodion Kitaev’s dynamic illustrations have a strong foundation in good drawing but also experiment with more obscure ways of creating marks.
He talks to us about finding the left-field beauty in glitches and the instruments he uses.
Whether it’s piling on sumptuous layers of coloured pencil or intently scribbling in one tiny area, Rodion has a creative approach to finding unconventional ways to create depth and texture in his drawings.
But the components always come together with the end results having the strength of his drawings skills shine through.
He tells us more about how he creates his work and where he looks to find new ways of image making that excite him.
I work with magazines and newspapers as well as museums, theatres and parks. I work in mixed media. I draw using pencils, gouache and watercolors on paper.
Then I work with my drawing tablet and Photoshop. I like to use malfunctioning scanners for the interesting glitches and imperfections that they produce. I often use found objects and random images which I scan and include into my hand-drawn and Wacom-drawn images.
I work at home alone or with my friends at the Shuka Bureau in Moscow. I’ve relocated to Portugal recently and work from my apartment in the ancient city of Coimbra.
© Rodion Kitaev, 2015