Today you get two posts because I am too excited to wait any longer to share the incredible sketchbooks of Yelena Bryksenkova. Her drawings are beautiful and nostalgic feeling. Her line work is detailed and interesting and her palettes warm and subdued yet sophisticated. If you couldn’t tell I am completely in love with her work! Her sketchbooks have lots of pretty writing surrounding her paintings and I imagine this style working really well for a fancy children’s book. Yelena is a recent grad of MICA and just beginning her freelance illustration career. Here’s what she had to say about her sketchbooks: “Despite warnings not to, I have always treated my sketchbooks as precious objects rather than a place for unfinished ideas. I suppose this can be limiting, but I can’t help it! The beauty of certain objects, places, people, and moments fills me a frustrated kind of awe and drawing them – carefully, so completely absorbed that I sometimes dip my paintbrush in my tea – helps me make peace with that feeling. It’s a way for me to catalog the beautiful things I have seen and how they make me feel. Writing alongside the drawings is important, too; when I revisit the pages, I revisit emotions. It’s a great comfort to me that there is no shortage of precious, inspiring things in the world.” Be sure to check out more of her work on her site here or follow her on her blog here. She also sells prints on etsy!

© Julia Rothman 2007