It doesn’t take more than paper and glue for Yulia Brodskaya to create her lush, vibrant 3D artworks. Since 2006, she has solely focused her artistic practice on her paper art, abandoning the computer programs she had relied on during her days as a graphic artist and illustrator. “It took quite a while to find my own way of bringing together my love of paper with my experience in graphic design, especially in typography,” she says.
Brodskaya’s work can’t strictly be categorised as quilling. She’s taken her craft to a contemporary level, integrating strips of folded or bent pieces of paper to recreate the same effect as paint strokes. “This method of working with paper comes as close to painting as I can: I combine different colour paper strips as I would select and mix different paints on a palette, and then pack them tightly together into angular arrangements that mimic the look and feel of an Impressionist brushstroke,” she explains.
Though the creation of an artwork can be slow and meticulous (her biggest portrait took her 5 weeks to complete), she’s definitely crafted her way to international success. Brodskaya’s paper art has graced book covers and editorial features worldwide, and commissioned by clients and collectors including Hermés, Oprah Winfrey, Starbucks and Issey Miyake, among others.
Her new book, Painting With Paper, is available now. Visit her website and Instagram for more.
Images © Yulia Brodskaya / with permission