Sveta Dorosheva — Golden Age Fairy Tale Illustrator

With a classic fairytale style, and a willingness to explore everything from medieval legend through to wild psychedelia, Sveta Dorosheva is the artist to turn to for beautiful, meticulous and ornamental illustration with a hint of magic about it.

Born in Ukraine and now based in Israel, her work is imbued with the hand of the artist and everything is done by hand using traditional materials. You can feel the concentration and imagination that’s gone into every stroke in her fantastical illustrations. Harry Clarke, Kay Nielsen, Edmund Dulac and Arthur Rackham are some of her influences, alongside ancient costumes, medieval emblems, heraldic symbols and renaissance engravings.

Approach

Sveta writes her ideas down first, focusing on the concept. Then she chooses the best approach, creates her sketches and works out the tonal scheme. Line work is committed in ink, though sometimes she will go straight to her watercolour finish.

Styles

Sveta’s main style has been likened to Golden Age fairy tales – classic and vintage. When she brings modern themes and ideas into the work juxtaposition is created that makes it fresh, relevant and unique. Her second style involves light line art, drawn quickly and with more expression and less detail. A silhouette, a dance, a fantasy scene. Usually these images are done using ink, a spot colour, or in pencil.

Client list

Sveta’s clients include Usborne Publishing, JWT New York, Big Indie Pictures, LA Times, Capitol Records, Penguin, Harper Collins and Usborne Publishing.