About me: Yelena Shabrova, an artist and web designer who lives and works in Silicon Valley, Ca. See more of my art at shabrova.com or visit duskowl.com for everything that has to do with graphic design and web development.As it turned out, you can fit quite a lot into 3.5″ x 2.5″, more than I hoped to. If I planned a little more carefully, there would even be more space for the water at the bottom. Instead, I ran with the clouds first and fitted the rest into what little space remained. Morale: even for a tiny piece, start with thumbnails. I would love to do something with cloud reflections.
colored pencil on canvas, 3.5″ x 2.5″
About two months ago I received a rather unusual request to create an illustration for a book that was not finished yet and didn’t have a title. All I had to go by was a short foreword and a few more details from the author. The interpretation and medium was left up to me. On one hand, it was very enticing to have that much creative freedom, on the other, it was as reassuring as walking through a thick fog. The temptation prevailed.
To make myself feel a little better, I sent the author a rough sketch of what I had in mind, and to my surprise she enthusiastically approved it. Since I didn’t know which parts of the storyline are going to be the most prominent in the book, I went with the main theme of an abrupt change from a farm teen to raising the son on her own in a city. The shadow in the illustration is the girl’s son in the end of the book, grown up and capable of supporting herself, her concern for years and a final reward. Today I turned the illustration to to the author. Thankfully, she loved the finished work which made me happy. She is till working on the book, hopefully the illustration will give her an extra creativity nudge.
colored pencil on drawing paper, 9″ x 12″
I think my search for perfect travel-friendly fiber-tip pen is over. It’s been over a year since I started to look for something that could replace my trusted Rapidograph.
The dream pen that draws in pitch black is Staedtler Lumocolor permanent universal pen. The funny part is that I found it while cleaning art supplies bough at the last super sale at University Art. Somehow I never gave it a try after purchasing.
The ink is so opaque that areas of flat black look completely even, no cross-hatch effect, no distinguishable pen strokes. I am very happy.
colored pencil on colored paper, 4″ x 6″
We were hiking at the Shoreline Open Space today, watching egrets, ducks and sandpipers of all kinds, a pheasant even, but the best sighting happened when it was too dark for shooting. And by too dark I don’t mean my coffee hands that can fail even in the broad daylight. Slava said he would not even try either. There was a ruffled up small white egret on a tree stump, just a silhouette of her backed by glowing water. She looked totally like an evil spirit who felt safe enough in the dusk to show up while people were still walking around, and a very beautiful spirit at that. Since shooting was not an option, the sketch from memory will have to do.
Updates: March 14, 2010 | June 3, 2010 | September 5, 2010 | December 20, 2010 | January 10, 2011
One thing that I kind of miss from the times when kids were small is packing them into the car along with everything else and going places. About 10 year ago we did an especially long trip through Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and Wisconsin, and the fondest memory for me were incredible rock formations that we never saw before. This piece is about Utah. It is not ant particular place there, just something that makes me think of it. I am going to plant something below the towering cliff; not sure what it is going to be yet, and that slope at the right decided to be steeper than I wanted, leaving too little space for a tree… We’ll see.
Update June 3, 2010
SVOS and preparations to it kept me busy through the most of April and May, but I am now back to a somewhat normal drawing schedule. “Memories of Utah” are moving forward finally. I started to define rock formations. They will probably change somewhat as I make more progress with the cliff. Good thing this is not a depiction of any actual place and I am free to experiment and reshape rocks as I see fit 
Update September 5, 2010
Finished almost all dark areas which are the most time consuming. The rest should go easier, provided I won’t catch a rock-reshaping bug again. I really need to refrain from doing that before I ruin the piece.
December 20, 2010
Ok, it’s been a while since the last update, but the rocks are almost done now. All that’s left is the ground below and the furs. There are going to be furs growing behind the slope. Shaping them is going to be as much fun as building the rocks. No, seriously, I have tons of reference photos for both, and not a single one looks like what I want, so for the most part this piece is coming from imagination that suggests dozens of different versions for every detail. That probably explains why it takes forever to finish it.
January 10, 2011
And it’s finally done. A few things I learned while working on this one:
I think that if I ever venture into the world of abstractions, and I really want to, rock formations are likely to be an intermediate step for me.
I am a big fan of Linda’s art and have to say that her every series of photos have a meaning to me, but this one is very special. These images have an eery (in a good way) feeling to them, with details disappearing as if in the dusk, sky looking like it is going to snow heavily any time, and silhouettes that leave a lot to imagination.
Linda Plaisted – Dark Horse
