Interview with Great Vector Artist Alexey Oglushevich

posted by: Iaroslav Lazunov, in Articles / Interview/ Comments: 2

Today our guest is a great Russian vector artist, Alexey Oglushevich who won a Grand Prize of CorelDraw International Design Contest in 2009. You would probably be surprised to know that Alexey is a metalworker by education, but he reached success and got recognition in the vector art world. Alexey is a bright example of the phrase "nothing is impossible”. Learn more about Alexey, his thoughts and illustrations after the jump.

Hello Alexey, welcome to Vectortuts+! Tell us a little about yourself. Where are you from? Do you have a basic design education? When and why did you get carried away by vector graphics?

I was born and I grew up in the city of Magnitogorsk, in Russia. I liked drawing since childhood, but unfortunately I couldn’t get an artistic education. So you can consider me to be a self-taught person.

Of course I began drawing on paper and canvas. I used to draw using watercolors and oils, since the computer era was not there yet. The new stage of my creative work started when I bought a computer and learned vector software. I tried to draw in Adobe Illustrator, in Xara and CorelDraw. CorelDraw seemed the most convenient for me then, exactly that’s why I use it until now.

Were you counting on your victory when you sent your works to the twentieth anniversary CorelDraw International Design Contest? Which of your works won a Grand Prix?

I sent three works that we have chosen with my wife and my daughter. These three works took part in three different nominations. Honestly, I hoped to win. I have experience already and my colleagues inspired and supported me.

I wanted my works to be appreciated; I wanted them to be compared with the works of other hundreds of artists and designers from all over the world who also took part in this artistic competition. Two of my works won the first place in different nominations, and the portrait with a rose won a Grand Prix.