First, can you tell us a few things about yourself?
Hi, my name is Fil Dunsky and I am working as a freelance illustrator for last 10 years drawing advertising, web and children books illustrations. During past years I was lucky enough to work with lot's of famous brands all over the world such as ASUS, Blackberry, Bounty, Danone, Heinz, Kinder, McDonald's, Orion, Panasonic, Pepsi, Wrigley (list goes on). I worked not only with big agencies like BBDO, DDB, JWT, LeoBurnett, Lowe Adventa, Prior, Saatchi&Saatchi, Y&R etc... but also with many private clients.
Sometimes I am gathering people to draw together and learn something new from each other. It may look more official as an illustration lectures with lights and cameras or just as a sketching sessions in cafes. I love such an events for the different reasons. First I learn a lot of new things there. Second is life conversations with other people. This inspires me to continue and the third is when you are telling to others how cool you are showing your works and sharing your achivements you are really starting to feel that. You see and realize "Oh God is that really my works? Am I really lucky to work with such a big client?.." This motivates a lot.
In a free time I am trying to be useful for the society as a Sri Sri Yoga teacher in the Art of Living. Yoga is helping me to develop human qualities and values, to become better and to do my work in a free, calm and efficient way. This practice is opening the source of life - love inside all of us and it is worth it to share this path with others.
What was your childhood like? Do you think your experiences from childhood have influenced your present creative endeavors?
I was born in a family of artists and was appreciated by my father everytime I was drawing. He was working as an illustrator in local Soviet publishing house and sometimes he was asking me and my sister to draw some particular things for some children books he had to illustrate. He even payed us some salaries. We bought pirate copy of ZX Spectrum computer from the first earnings. I've started to learn Basic language from that time at the age of 6.
We had lot's of exhibitions with our father. In the black and white photo you can see winter fisherman piece which he done inspired with my drawings you can see below. He just copied my work actually. I draw him fishing on the ice.
I loved animals and different creatures from the childhood. My father influenced that so much. He was always telling me about how beautiful and interesting the nature was. We had lot's of different kinds of animals in my childhood. Fishes, hamsters, cats, dogs, pigeons, crows, turtles, hedgehogs, hares plus cocroaches which every Soviet family had that time.
And the most inspiring thing was every night before sleep I saw how my father was working sitting at his working desk. Drawing something. Making the collages, cutting, correcting, taking photos and printing that. It was something I really would like to do. When I was drawing I had a feeling that I am doing the most important thing in my life. And I wanted to be like my father. He was so big, smart and kind for me that days. Now, when I grow up, he is not that big anymore but still smart and kind. He is always helping other people and he is very humble person. He afraid I will stuck in photorealism and he taught me to draw freely showing different artists who worked in naive and simple styles stylizing and distorting reality. He always said why do you have to draw in real style if you can take a photo of that?
What did you wanted to be as a grown up?
After sometime my drawing passion fade away. I guess this is because creativity moved and transformed into procreative things... At that moment I loved maths and programming so I thought I will go and study programmer stuff in university or architecture. We've done some applications and games with my friend together when I was in school. Learned programming languages from books. There was no internet that time.
Luckily my parents reminded me of my child passion to draw and softly convinced me to go for an arts and graphic design since I started to design some simple flyers and advertisings in school earning good money for that.
So I can not tell that I was thinking about my future seriously that time. I was serious about girls only. In my hometown you have to choose a university at the age of 16-17 usually. At that time I was unable to think at all. Now I am so grateful to my parens they've guided me to choose the right place for education.
How does your workstation look like?
Since I am travelling a lot as a yoga teacher and just to see different countries my working place may vary. From the airport or plane/train chair to the cafe, friends house or luggage bag. 8 years I've worked with Macbook Pros and Wacom Intuos 3 tablet (without a screen) but even that was pretty heavy setup. So last two years I've switche to Microsoft Surface Pro 4 and now I am using new Surface Pro 2017 model these are nice devices. I've got all in one in just 700 gramms weight. I can draw right on the screen and easy to use in the planes now during long flights.
Do you have a work style? How would you describe it?
Definitely! All that I have in my portfolio is done in the same style. It is hard to see from aside but I guess key words might be: bright, colorful, whymsical and smiling volume with illogical distortion breaking perspective laws. I've heard somebody called that Marmalade illustrations because they are so tasty you wanna eat them. For each and every of my new illustration my best friend always says this is you! Look! You've drawn yourself.
Can you share with us how your creative process works?
I don't know how it works for sure but it works :) Daily morning breathing and meditation is the main inspiration for me. Then I just researching or studying the subject I have to work on, searching for some beautiful references, photos or illustrations on similar theme and start sketching. After some time I am realising all I do is weak and helpless and I nearly forgot how to draw. Then I am opening my portfolio and thinking alright, I am sure I am Fil Dunsky and I am drawing like that. And I am copying myself realizing I can do really cool and new things. If this is not helping then I go for a walk or just do something else. I may draw something just for myself as a warm up and then for a client. Then goes coloring. Usually I do it in on Mac or PC with Adobe Photoshop, sometimes on iPad with Procreate. I am writing about the process in details in my Steemit blog.
I love to invent something new. I am just trying to relax somehow and when the process become unserious like a play everything goes simple. If there is no time and the client rushes to do faster I am thinking okay so what will happen if I will fail the deadline? Nothing special. I will still have cool work in my portfolio. I am not saying you should not do everything on time but if you will shift the stressed focus from that then you will create something much more valuable.
What is your favorite work you have done so far?
I work for a long period of time and leared a lot since 2008 but still in my oppinion I've never created something better than these works. There was much more sincerity and uniquness in the beginning when I knew nothing. Looks like it's time to come back to the roots.
Who do you follow for inspiration?
Modern: Oksana Grivina, Andrey Gordeev, Max Kostenko. Classic: Van Gogh and Renoir.
What advice could you give to someone starting out in the creative field of work?
Any creative field is connected with self expression. If you don't know yourself, if you don't have the way to achieve that Self then you will have nothing to express. This is like you have a window but you are not allowing the light to enter closing the curtains all the time. Try to create something else rather than a child in such a darkness. You will still have something to express but this will be not deep. It will be on a surface. And what we have on the surface? Our botherations of chattering mind and negative emotions. So it's good to develop and strengthen your inner faculties spending some time with yourself alone. Listening to yourself. What is that what you really want to tell? What is your message? Is it really important? Will it be useful? Will it help others?
If you would have a super power, what would it be?
Making others feel as good as I feel. I feel good, you know?
Can you recommend a book, a song and a movie for our readers?
Book: Patanjali Yoga Sutras commentary by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Song: Alexi Murdoch - Some Day Soon
Movie: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
If you could throw any kind of party, what would it be like and what would it be for?
Meditation party. Spend some time together in a company of good people for the peace and love, to share positive vibes and knowledge with each other.
What famous people would you invite to the party and why?
I am thinking of Jim Kerry. He is a nice guy with good sence of humor. I like all his movies and I know he is a vegetarian doing yoga. So I think we will find themes to talk or laugh about. Also I would invite Sri Sri. He is really famous master these days doing good job for this planet. Making people happy and smile again. He had conducted yoga in Europarliament few times and gathered millions of people to celebrate happiness in diversity in World Culture Festival in Delhi in 2016. I had been there right on the stage. It was spectacular. We had been doing yoga dance for thousands of people on the stage which we had been preparing via internet only with one final real rehearsal!
welcome to steemit comunity i hope you enjoy it :-)
Very inspirational interview, thank you for sharing! I love how you found that game you made as a kid, that is so cool! And I also love the drawings you made when you were young, you can see you already had a style of your own back then.
Haha! In that game we even have few Easter eggs. If you enter your player name as special code it can open hidden copters. We had done even flying back forward cow with 💩 instead of rockets there 😂
Haha, wow! It's so cool that you even thought of Easter eggs! Very creative :) Sometimes I wish I could program games as well. Guess I don't have time to learn everything 🤔
Thank you, Fil, for such a wonderful longread. I took me some time to read it, but it was worth. By the way, I can't tell is it just me or other steemians too, but after reading your post I feel so calm and in peace with myself. Like I'm a little baby and mom gave me a pacifier. All the problems and things that bugged me throughout the day are gone. At the moment I feel really tranquil. Anyway, thank you one again for this post.
You made my day! 😍
Very cool to see the construction of a career (and consequently that of an artist) where a series of factors ranging from childhood to building a philosophy of life result in a better human being... beautiful description of life experience and even if you can reach it when synergy, passion for what you enjoy and dedication are one of your priorities in life. In fact we always have something to learn from other people when we stimulate human interaction - as you always suggest in your texts - Congratulations!
I love your comment :)
Mehn... @dunsky
You have inspired me so much.
You made everything look surreal, and beautiful
Find so much peace looking at your arts
Thanks for sharing.
Thank you very much! It's so nice to inspire you!
great art bro...thanks for shareing...
keep it up..:-)
Thanks!
welcome to steemit.
feel free to follow me @tachiraontop.
thanks for sharing your story!
You're welcome!
Your works are really great digital painting work man. @dunsky BTW I'm using the wacom tablet like you, when I drew something like that. :) Keep draw.. :)
Thanks a lot! I was using Wacom tablet instead of mouse in all the tasks. Even when browsing. That helped me to get used to it in a week.
Really enjoyed reading this @dunsky. Your upbringing sounds fascinating. I look forward to reading more about your process.
Have you ever illustrated your meditation process?
Glad to hear that! Thank you! Well... I got some ideas from meditations, sometimes I can realize how to solve the problem of particular design or illustration during meditation but to illustrate the inner process of meditation is something which I can not imagine is possible because this is beyond words.
If you mean outer than I have drawn lot's of meditative yogies and characters :) I would like to write some posts about yoga and meditations with them in future.
I look forward to those posts too then :) @dunsky
Animasi
Animasi animasi :)
Great post, your biography is interesting, love the Smetana illustration.
Thank you! 🙏
hello hello friend today I could see your post I love them for the different reasons beautiful fun and I learn many new things it feels excellent to tell other people how well they do it. in your case I congratulate you for the beauty of your work is art in all its expression.
regards
do not forget to follow me
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Great and fascinating read! I love to hear your background story with your childhood and how you became an illustrator. You inspire me to become better at what I do. Thanks for that! :) Helen
Nice to hear that, thank you!
Hi! I’m super happy you joined Steemit! I’m brand new to Steemit and it’s wonderful to see other Steemian’s join the community. Keep posting. I’d love to see more ☺
Be sure to follow my account @zoewilliamson
Best of luck to you!
@zoewillamson I see you send this to everyone. Don't you afraid of flags? Someone may present it for you soon for that. Your comment was irrelevant here so I've spotted...
@dunsky I am brand new to Steemit. I was not aware that this was an issue. Thank you pointing this out to me.
I would suggest you to read the Steemit FAQ first. If you will be flagged your posts may become invisible to others so you will have to start from the beginning with new clean account. Spamming is not good in any social network and community so this is basic thing not for Steemit only.
Hi! We are @valhalla-hash nice to meet you. We like to welcome you to the amazing steemit! You will definitely LOVE IT.
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Hi guys, why do you send same mass messages to everyone? This may be interpreted as spam and flagged...
wow great effort you put into this!
your illustrations are great and i would also like to seem posts about yoga in the future! great, thanks for sharing.
Thank you! Will write something interesting about that soon :)
I love your work so much!! Keep up the great work!!
Thanks a lot! Are you developing that game with characters you've posted on your account? Very nice designs!
nice one
Thanks!
I can't call myself an artist seeing this
I appreciate it if this is a compliment. But please, never underestimate your abilities.
Hello, @dunsky!
This is a really great post an a magnificent biography!
We on @Mundo-Steem will be posting contest for artists, designers, photographers and more. We'll really apreciated seeing you there!
Mundo-Steem crew
this is so awesome.
Welcome @dunsky to Steemit! Great introduction and thanks for sharing. I added and followed you on Steemit, will be awesome if you check out my contents and follow me as well, and hope we can stay connected and support each other~ :)!
Thank you, Miss Kat :)
All good @dunsky! Looking forward to your upcoming posts~
I liked that pillow =･ω･=
he follow and upvote I follow and upvote back
he follow and upvote I follow and upvote back