I would like to express my gratitude to my friend Charles Mandel, who inspired me to watercolor painting, and my mom, who makes my work possible.
I did not choose watercolor painting. But watercolor painting chose me.
I am a Belarusian artist. I studied at the Belarusian State Pedagogical University. By education I am an artist-teacher. After graduating from university, I worked in a printing house as a designer for several years. I did computer sketches for covers, labels, albums and many other printing products. I was successful at my workplace, but the office atmosphere did not match my freedom-loving nature. I quit my job and became a freelancer.
I independently studied three-dimensional programs and for 15 years I worked in the computer games industry. I made many three-dimensional houses, monsters, ruins, and crumpled tanks.
My child grew up. I saw that he plays a lot of computer games. My work began to bother me. I was not sure that I was doing something good for the children.
I left my work. It was a shock to my family. I started retouching and colorize old photos remotely.
I met one excellent customer from the USA. For several years we restored old photos of American baseball players. It was a great interesting work. Some of my colorizations are in National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. You can find my colorings in the online magazine Daily Mail. 1150 BST, 26 May 2017. The Daily Mail is a British daily. And you can find my colorings in magazines Baseball History Art.
We did a great job. But my dear customer began to encourage me to paint watercolors of American baseball players.
Watercolor portrait Its impossible. Do you know a lot of good watercolor portraitists Watercolor is not an excellent environment for portraits. I was sure that it was impossible.
But I did not want to lose this job. I had to agree. I had some of the most difficult months in my life. I forced myself to learn to paint with watercolor. I did not believe that I would succeed, but still I hoped that I could manage.
A few months later I had a product for my dear customer. We made 96 excellent watercolor portraits. Almost all of them were purchased by collectors. I look forward to a series of baseball cards made from these watercolors.
I received touching letters from the relatives of the baseball players. I think that we did an excellent job.
I had a very sharp transition to traditional artists. Painting is an element that has a very powerful effect on a person. It took me away and I had to use all my willpower to control it. I do not need additional incentives for inspiration. But I have to make an effort to focus on everyday things. I immerse myself in the process of painting. I love the characters I draw. I feel their joys and problems. It is amazing. But sometimes it scares me.
I started painting with watercolor in June 2017.
A year later I started painting for my portfolio. I showed this in international groups. My work received hundreds of positive reviews. I am working now on paintings for international exhibitions. And yes, I have a lot of new ideas.