yulia brodskaya

Posts tagged
with yulia brodskaya

Craft Illustration

Vivid Contours Conjure Hope and Resilience in Yulia Brodskaya’s Quilled Paper Compositions

In Greek mythology, the sacred phoenix, with its characteristically striking plumage in flaming yellow, orange, and red, is known for its ability to resurrect. When the bird’s long life is nearing an end, flames engulf its body, and the being is reborn as a chick in the ashes of its predecessor, giving it the distinction of resilience, regeneration, and immortality. As Yulia Brodskaya began to apply the curled and crimped tendrils of paper to her latest work, she tells Colossal that the firebird portrait “started as a visual representation of a powerful feeling rising from the deep,” adding that “it felt like this portrait has been ‘channelled’ through me.”

Brodskaya captures the subtleties of individual expression and character in her elaborate portraits (previously) and depictions of flora and fauna. Through boldly colored papers that are rolled, folded, and layered, she reveals a flurry of feathers or the contours of a face in intricate detail, like the sense of serene contemplation that permeates “Samurai Dreams.” She wants every piece to send a message, suggesting viewers “pay attention to what emotion or feeling comes up for you in the first moments you see it—until the mind begins to dissect the details and offer loud opinions about why you like or dislike it. That initial quiet voice is the whisper of intuition. That’s the place I create my best work from.”

You can find more information about Brodskaya’s work on her website, and she regularly shares videos of her process on Instagram.

 

 

Craft Illustration

Dark Backgrounds Dramatize Colorful Portraits of Quilled Paper by Yulia Brodskaya

For years Yulia Brodskaya (previously) has gravitated toward light backdrops for her densely quilled paper portraits. “It rarely even crossed my mind that I should choose any colour other than white. White allows all wonderful colour reflections and blended inter-reflections from paper strips to be visible and showcased at their fullest potential,” she tells Colossal.

In recent months, though, the United Kingdom-based artist has started to utilize dark canvases, which poses new challenges as some of her standard techniques, like composing portraits with thin strips, don’t translate well. “Black color is dense, dominating, it absorbs all reflections and most of the shadows; only top edges of paper strips are left to see,” she says.

Instead, Brodskaya has focused on thicker rolls and larger bends to create necessary contrast. Many of the vibrant portraits feature larger, three-dimensional swaths similar to brushstrokes, a nod to the artist’s method of “painting with paper,” that help to highlight distinct features. “I chose to leave plenty of empty dark space and blend in colored parts to gradually transition them into the black nothingness, so the background plays a crucial role in these new artworks,” she says.

To see Brodskaya’s paper-based works in progress, check out the video below and follow her on Instagram.

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Yulia Brodskaya (@yulia_brodskaya_artyulia) on Jun 10, 2020 at 7:40am PDT

Craft Illustration

Paper Quilling Process Shown Step-by-Step in New Video by Yulia Brodskaya

Known for her technique of “painting with paper,” Yulia Brodskaya (previously) has crafted a new piece titled “Jaguar,” a portrait blending human and cat features. In a recent video posted to her Facebook, the U.K.-based artist shares her creative process, starting with a sketched figure on a black board. Brodskaya then fills in small patches with neutral-toned paper, clipping them in place until she attaches the next piece. The artist even utilizes a tweezers to position some of the singular layers and shows her quilling technique up close as she bends strips of paper before wrapping the edge around the folds. For more of Brodskaya’s paper paintings, head to Instagram.

Craft Illustration

Yulia Brodskaya Reveals Her Process of ‘Painting With Paper’ in a New Book

We’ve featured the paper-centric work of Yulia Brodskaya several times on Colossal, and the U.K.-based artist continues to hone her craft with increasingly large-scale portraits. Three recent portraits, Seeing, Seeshall, and Pull to the Light, all feature larger-than-life busts of female subjects in a range of traditional dress. Each figure appears to be focused on a point in the distance, connecting with Brodskaya’s sight-themed titles.

Brodskaya’s signature technique of ‘painting with paper’ is a contemporary interpretation of quilling, wherein the artist folds, bends, and spirals strips of colored paper. Rather than densely filling the entire surface with the manipulated paper strips, Brodskaya also incorporates flat fields of color underneath and between each textural element. This two-part technique allows the viewer’s eye to take in the dramatic shapes and shadows.

After developing and evolving this technique over the last twelve years, Brodskaya has compiled a deep dive into her creative process in a forthcoming book, “Painting With Paper”. She shares with Colossal that her book is not a collection of DIY projects.

It’s an insight into my creative process with practical tips on how to work with my methods in various ways of your own. Learn how to work with colors, the importance of testing compositions, which part of the image to start with, and when to consider it complete. I hope you will find the book inspirational and full of practical ideas for artists and paper art enthusiasts who want to advance their creative thinking, or simply get a better understanding and discover inspirations behind my paper artworks.

You can order a copy of “Painting With Paper” and see more of the artist and author’s multi-dimensional work on Instagram, and peek behind the scenes in her time-lapse process videos on YouTube.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Yulia Brodskaya (@yulia_brodskaya_artyulia) on Jul 15, 2019 at 5:25am PDT

 

Craft Illustration

New Colorful Paper Portraits Comprised of Densely Quilled Paper by Yulia Brodskaya

Paper artist Yulia Brodskaya (previously) continues to produce elegant paper portraits, mixing geometric and organic forms through paper quilling to establish the details of each face. Over the last few years Brodskaya has been commissioned to create pieces for dozens of corporate clients from Starbucks to the New York Times, but still pauses to work on this portrait series that has slowly evolved over time. You can see new works and process photos on her Instagram and she’ll be speaking at the Reasons To: conference in Brighton this September.

Craft Illustration

Quilled Paper Portraits That Highlight the Beauty of Old Age by Yulia Brodskaya

Utilizing vibrantly colored paper, artist and illustrator Yulia Brodskaya (previously here and here), creates unique three-dimensional portraits that reflect the beauty found in old age. Each work contains a palette of colors that remain at the center of her focus, recently concentrating on precious jewel tones that also serve as the title for each portrait. Previously Brodskaya had referred to these quilled pieces as drawings, but the more expressionistic her style becomes, the more her work reflects a painterly approach.

“I used to say that I was drawing with paper, but I believe with this technique I’ve found a way to paint with paper,” said Brodskaya to Colossal. “I mix strips of paper as I would mix paints on a palette. These artworks are all about color and the unique, tactile feel that paper strips add to it. The portraits resemble oil and acrylic painting (especially from a distance), but with a textured paper twist.”

You can find more images of Brodskaya’s quilled paper paintings on her blog and Facebook, and see a step-by-step demonstration of her process in the video below.