Let me introduce to you the very talented, colourful, fruity, and self-taught Israeli illustrator, Lidia Tomashevskaya.

Lidia intertwines the poetic essence of metaphor, purpose, and intention within each of her illustration creations. Lidia's art is dancing with whimsical wonder, rich with layers of meanings and oozing with an invitation for the viewer to be welcomed into a world where anything is possible. So of course, we thought we'd interview her to share a little bit about what inspires her and her art journey.

We all know where we grow up and where we live have a massive effect on how we create and what we create from and for, especially the lens through which we view this beautiful world, and for Lidia this is no different.

Lidia is a Russian-born, Israeli illustrator. She believes that Israel makes her illustrations "brighter and fills them more with colours, flowers, and plants, also keeps them a bit weird and crazy". Lidia's mum had a massive impact and inspiration on her from a young age, her mother " never had a professional artist’s career but she draws incredibly well". Lidia started to draw by looking at her Mom’s drawings, and her mom’s positive reinforcement helped Lidia draw more often. Lidia's love of drawing started as a child, drawing animals, and princesses, to now illustrating an array of images that ember depths of wisdom and expansive ideas.

I especially love how Lidia sprinkles symbols of fruit and nature within her paintings, Lidia notes that she just "likes how they look, like the rich colours and feeling of abundance that they give". This got me thinking about the use of fruit within art in general and how often, artists use certain symbology like fruit to invoke certain feelings or ideas without having to say it directly, it's the subtleties that swing in depth. To me, the use of fruit in Lidia's work represents an offering from nature, an almost childlike playful energy, bringing it a vibrancy, that adds to the unique architecture of her style. So, next time you're looking at an art piece that piques your curiosity, maybe ask yourself what about it stands out the most and if it is due to certain symbology like fruit, animals, symbols, or words that the artist uses.

Every artist has a tale of not only how they found art but how art found them!

Many artists are either self-taught through experimentation, and curiosity or taught through traditional methods from fine art degrees.

Today, digital art is more available than ever for anyone to create art not just people with art degrees. With apps like Procreate, Adobe Illustrator, and Photoshop, we can combine multimedia, photos, illustrations, and graphic digital art to create our own unique hybrid styles of art. So, I was curious how Lidia’s love for passion and her unique style came about, considering how she, like myself is a self-taught artist

Here is a little sneak peek into our interview

Q: You mentioned you're self-taught so where did it all begin for you, did someone start off the journey? Your style is incredibly unique and feels incredibly inviting and authentic, how did you first develop your style? What artist inspired you? Who were your teachers?

"Thank you so much! As I’ve mentioned my mom was my first teacher, but I never took drawing seriously, mostly as a hobby, but once I opened Bechance for the first time I was overwhelmed by the beauty of the illustrations I saw there, then I bought my first "Illustration Now!" book during the lunch break at Zara clothing brand where I worked, and in the evening of that day I decided to try trace my drawing in adobe illustrator(I’ve made a graphic design course so I knew the program). I think other artists are my teachers as well because if not for them, I wouldn’t be interested in illustration. I think my style is the result of the fact that I had to develop my technique by myself, without professional help, I had to invent ways that helped me to draw what I had in my head."

Q: Why is this your favourite medium? Does your art start on a page and then turn digital? Maybe a concept of them or is it always digital?

I work in Adobe Illustrator and then I add textures and small details in Procreate, first I’ve always started with a sketch, but after I had a long period of only digital illustrationS, but now I am incorporating sketches into my process again, and I think it works better for me now, but I can definitely work without them.

Q: As an artist and poet myself, sometimes each art piece I create I have a poem that accompanies it. either I write the poem first or I write a poem after the art I created, which in poetry terms is called an ekphrastic poem! These two mediums intertwine in almost a tango. I know that you mentioned that it is very important to you that your illustrations have a meaning, and that they include metaphors as if it is editorial, you note that a lot of your art will still have a twist and will be deeper than just a decorative piece. Why do you feel like that is important for your artistic process? Are you also a writer? If so, how do you feel these two art forms weave within each other for you?

I think this is beautiful! I used to write too, but at some point, I’ve stopped, to concentrate more on illustration. It depends on the task that I have, usually if I draw for the client I include metaphors. Sometimes I draw decorative pieces ( for myself mostly) when I want to unwind and just have fun. But I myself prefer art with meaning so I want to create art with meaning as well, but sometimes beauty is the only meaning.

Q: I have a question about one of your art pieces that I would love for you to share what inspired it and a little into the deeper meaning and story behind it.

This is an illustration from 2019, when I started to make illustrations on topics that could be interesting, on social issues, articles, etc. This one is about difficulties that girls in India confront growing up, I wanted to show the contrast between the normal and destroyed childhood

Q:What is your favourite project you have worked on in the last 6 months or to date and why?

My favourite project is the illustrations that I created for Tales of Crowns and Thrones ( for Penguin Random House)
Q: What makes you create the work you do? What lights your fire and keeps it burning?
Art is the only thing I once felt I was good at doing, not that I have more self-confidence, but I still believe that this gives my life more meaning
I think art helps me to communicate with the world since I am an introvert.

I loved hearing all about the amalgamation of what made up Lidia's journey! It sparked curiosity in me, to truely think about what I am inspired by at the moment and what I crave to draw and why.

Until this interview with Lidia I was unaware what Behance was so, for those of you who also didn’t know like myself: Behance is part of the Adobe Creative Cloud and is used by creative specialists across the world to showcase their online portfolio of work from graphic design, illustration, fashion, photography, advertising, fine arts, game design, and much more. You can check out a lot of Lidia's work here on Behance.

You can also support this incredibly talented illustrator by following her artistry on instagram

For more portfolios from Chulo Creatives Artist click through here, also get in touch with Chulo Creative if you are interested in commissioning an artist for your next campaign.

Written and curated by Bella Abraham @Bella.bea.poetry