Katerina Gorelik’s textural illustrations mix the everyday with the dramatic

Freelance illustrator Katerina Gorelik has created this series of illustrations that depict everyday occurrences, sprinkled with more dramatic moments. Part of a personal project, these illustrations have been made for a book, but out of context and in their singular panels they feel like odd snapshots of unknown characters, as though we’ve stumbled across a stranger’s photographs in an old house.

Distantly similar in style to illustrations that would grace The New Yorker but also flat and unmoving like figures on a tapestry, the Russian illustrator’s vignettes tell wordless stories in an array of patterns and textures. There’s an elegance to Katerina’s illustrations, through her choice of an unassuming colour palette. Her thin-limbed, non-plussed characters remain unfazed by the challenges that face them whether its a game of solitaire, an exchange on concrete stairs, or even a room blazing with fire.