Illustrator Katya Dorokhina contrasts textured jewel tones against dark palettes

Moscow-based illustrator Katya Dorokhina has dabbled in a few aesthetics over her career, but it’s her latest work with its nighttime palettes and neon colours that caught our attention. Featuring elements of her past works, with grainy texture, flat perspective scenes and comic-style characters, the latest additions take a darker turn to great impact.

“I like contrast, bright neon colours, glitchy effects,” Katya describes. “I try to keep shapes simple, but compensate with colour and details – I’m obsessed with details and can spend a lot of time on tiny little pieces. In my opinion they create a mood for the whole piece.”

Katya’s portfolio includes illustration commissions for Interview Magazine, Esquire Russia and H&M, as well as fashion-themed gifs for The Blueprint, illustrations for online women’s magazine Wonderzine, and comics for Sputnikat Press and Colorama. Her piece for H&M’s Kenzo collection was designed as a panel comic telling “a noir story about the love, rebellion and freedom of art”. “I was inspired by the bright, floral patterns, wild colours and cool ambassadors of the collection,” she explains.

A recent work for Wonderzine tackled the subject of sexual harassment in the family. “Working with such difficult material is not easy, but I think it’s important to discuss these problems, share the experience and support the heroins of the articles,” Katya comments.

To make her illustrations, Katya sketches compositions before scanning them into Photoshop to finish digitally. This allows her to play with different brushes, textures, light and colour. “Analysing my past work I can say my visual language has its roots in my childhood. I just have this nostalgic feeling of pop culture in the 90s.”