Drawing and Painting for Textile Design

This summer I took a course “Drawing and Painting for Textile Design” at the University of the Arts London, Central Saint Martins.

We were exploring various traditional techniques from painting to stenciling, block printing, and stamping.

I love experimenting with various mediums, so it still felt more like a comfort zone for me. But creating my own stamps and stamping with various types of paints was really exciting as the results were unexpected most of the time.

Here is a little presentation I created using my favorite designs from this course.

Textile Design presentation

Dancing vase Gelli print

This time I was aiming to create a more dynamic composition. So this Dancing Vase print was born. I would say that with the Gelli Plate printmaking it’s only half about planning and another half about lucky (or not so lucky) accidents. No matter how much I plan, I typically end up with something a bit or a lot different. It’s just a part of the process and I like it.

Dancing Vase Gelli print

Ikebana Gelli print

This year I was planning to take a course on Ikebana, the ancient Japanese art of flower arrangement, but all in-person classes were canceled in our area. So I read a bit about the fundamental principles of Ikebana and decided to create my very own virtual arrangement in the form of a Gelli Plate print.

I layered paint for the background, then printed florals on top, and added some shading with colored pencils.

Ikebana Gelli Print

Experimenting with Gelli Plate printing

Here is a Rustic Bouquet print that I created using the Gelli Plate, acrylic gouache, and various acrylic mediums. This method doesn’t really allow for precision and fine details, so I finished my design with acrylic markers (yellow dots) and colored pencils (shading).

Rustic Bouquet Gelli print

Infinite Sketch - Under The Sea

Infinite Sketch is a collaborative project created by the Brooklyn Art Library.

Participating artists were asked to create an 'Under the sea' themed drawing within the sea markings on the template card. This way each sketch will be aligned with the next artist’s sketch, and so on to form a giant ocean scene.

There supposed to be an online exhibition this fall, and all artwork submitted on time should be included into a zine.

Here is my illustration created in Procreate.

Infinite Sketch, Under The Sea illustration

Ida Bell Wells-Barnett

Today is the birthday of Ida Bell Wells-Barnett who, according to the Wikipedia, “was an American investigative journalist, educator, and an early leader in the civil rights movement”.

Portrait of Ida B. Wells

Entering JIA Illustration Award

Call for entries is open from April 1 to June 30. So there’s still one week left to enter Japan Illustrators’ Association Illustration Award.

Here is my Mermaid illustration

Mermaid illustration

Golden Pinwheel Young Illustrators Competition

There’s still time to participate in this year’s Golden Pinwheel Young Illustrators Competition.

Here is the project I have submitted.

“Alphabetical order” is a self-initiated project, an exploration of the concept of order and its importance in some instances. Illustrations were rendered in pigment ink pens and markers and finished in Adobe Photoshop.

Sometimes the order is really important. It helps us to create and decode messages and organize information. Anagrams help to illustrate how changing the position of one letter can dramatically affect the word and its meaning.

Alphabetical Order, Ampersand

Alphabetical order, Chaos

Alphabetical order, Who Is Who?

Alphabetical order, Wired

Alphabetical order, Weird

Mapping this moment for They Draw & Travel

Nate and Sally at They Draw & Travel have asked artists, illustrators, and other creatives to document our life during the quarantine and create an illustration that represents how our world and everyday life has changed these last few months.

I went for creating this multi-paneled comic narrative depicting some scenes from our everyday life. In other words – our Quarantine Routine. Life during quarantine gets tricky sometimes, but we are trying to stay positive.

Quarantine Routine illustration

This illustration has partly evolved from my Macro Map of Micro Commute.

Kitchen Table Mini Film Festival

I’ve just taken a class on stop motion animation with Kara Kramer called Kitchen Table Animation. I had so much fun and learned about using storyboards, animating simple movements, and various emotions. All students were invited to participate in the Kitchen Table Mini Film Festival, and here is my entry:

Stop motion film by Regina Kareev

Macro Map of Micro Commute

New York Times Travel has asked readers to illustrate maps of their immediate world during the lockdown. We've been staying at home for 7 weeks, and my Macro Map of Micro Commute shows how our world has narrowed down these days. I hope you can relate, and maybe it will even make you smile.

Macro Map of Micro Commute

Illustrators Virtual Wall is now live

The Illustrators Virtual Wall is a part of the Bologna Children's Book Fair Online Special Edition this year.

Usually, it's an actual Illustrators Wall covered with posters, drawings, and photographs, where illustrators can live their contacts and promotional materials like postcards or stickers for art directors, agents, and potential clients.

This year it's entirely virtual with 2,500 participants from 5 continents and will be accessible to all online for four days (4 - 7 May).

Every illustrator was allowed to submit only one image (illustration or poster) in advance. Here is my poster among the illustrations of other artists.

BCBF’ 2020 Illustrators Virtual Wall

Abstract Seascapes featured in the UPPERCASE magazine

Three watercolor paintings from my Abstract Seascapes series are featured in the current issue of the UPPERCASE magazine.

In December I painted a little series of abstract seascapes in response to a call for submissions from UPPERCASE magazine. The theme was “fluid, floating, watery and oceanic“. I love everything about water and we are currently living in the Bay Area between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, so this theme felt really close to my heart.

I see Ocean as something constant and ever-changing at the same time. It’s always there, but every time you come to the shore it will be different. I tried to capture these impressions in my watercolor paintings.

Abstract Seascapes, UPPERCASE magazine, issue 45, page 72

These seascapes are painted without using brushes, just by pouring watercolors on paper. I mixed the colors I needed in little ceramic bowls and then poured those mixtures on paper at different angles trying to capture seaside scenes I envisioned.

The UPPERCASE magazine is always a great source of inspiration for me, and I am honored to see my watercolor seascapes featured on its’ pages.

UPPERCASE magazine, issue 45, cover

Susan B. Anthony

It’s the birthday of Susan B. Anthony today. She was an American social reformer and women's rights activist, who played a significant role in the women's suffrage movement.

Portrait of Susan B. Anthony

MATS Manifesto Competition

Make Art That Sells is running a Manifesto Competition for the chance to win a free spot in their raved-about course – Assignment Bootcamp.

Here is my entry:

Artist’s Manifesto illustration