KS4 Art and Design: Finding inspiration with artist Yulia Brodskaya

Yulia Brodskaya:
For inspiration, I usually go out to a local park and I like to sit there and sketch. I like to look at the flowers when I need inspiration for colours. Because the colours are wonderful there, combinations are already there, I just need to be observant. I believe nature is the best place to decide what colours go together. There are not just flowers, there are butterflies, or other insects, there are tropical fish. Just need to look around and you don't need to invent things, they're already there.

My advice would be to keep experimenting but make sure you know that the goal is to find your own style, not to imitate the artist that you like. When I got inspired by Gustav Klimt, I used his work too literally. I used lots of gold paint and I copied some of his motifs and shapes that he uses in his work. Lately, I've started to use this inspiration in a more abstract way. I do love the intricate details that he incorporates in his work, but I also want to make sure the overall image is striking and eye-catching.

I was in France in one of the parks, I saw an old man sitting on the bench and feeding pigeons. I decided to incorporate the dynamic mass of these pigeons coming towards him. I used an old man's face, because the theme of old people and age is one of the main ones in my personal work. To try and make a person's face, I think that's one of the most challenging things in general in art, not just for paper, and that's how I wanted to bring my paper art to a new level. I tried to show the crinkles, the way the wrinkles look when people squint. I tried to arrange the paper strips in a similar way. It took me quite long, probably the longest out of all of my artworks.