Yelena Bryksenkova’s illustrations exude comfort. With interior landscapes front and center throughout her work, her art will inspire you to make peace with your home and yourself. “There is a recurring theme to my work,” explained Bryksenkova in an interview with Frankie, “usually scenes of domesticity and comfort. I love the variety of subjects that my professional clients bring to me, but for personal work I always go back to the same quiet scenes,” she admits.
Painted with Holbein Acryla gouache, her illustrations present everyday objects alongside more magical and mysterious settings. To get her creative juices flowing, Bryksenkova reads and spends ample time around art and nature. She also does what Virginia Woolf called “street haunting”. By the time she’s back at her desk, she’s excited to get started.
“I like to research a new project and prepare by collecting images on Pinterest or flipping through my reference books,” she adds, explaining the creative process itself. “Once I have some ideas, I sketch thumbnails to determine composition and then move on to a larger, more detailed sketch. I use a light box to lightly trace the sketch onto watercolor paper and then move on the final painting.”
“My gradual change in medium has affected my style more than anything else,” she notes. “Also, whereas my early work always defaulted to mostly blue tones, I’ve learned to incorporate a broader range of colors and create more interesting combinations by consciously limiting my palettes to just two or three hues.”
Take a look at some of her soothing depictions of home life in the gallery below:
