Decade heads to the printer

Dear supporter,

We’re pleased to announce that the files of the completed book are being prepared for the printers, with copies expected to arrive this winter. To mark the occasion we asked Waneella to give us some insight into her creative process and points of inspiration. First of all however, a personal message from Waneella to you all:

A few months have passed since the successful funding of the campaign, and I think it is important to mention that we’ve been working hard on the book since then. This is my first book of this scale, and a lot of things are very new to me. Making books is a complex process, which requires a lot of time and attention. I really want this art book to be good, after all, this book is something that’s supposed to serve readers for many years ahead! Thank you again for your incredible support, and even though there’s still some time to wait, I really hope that you’ll be happy with the end result.

↑ Spreads from Waneella: Decade

What inspires your colour palette?

I was significantly inspired by Blade Runner (1982) when I started drawing cityscapes, and before that, films by Wong Kar-Wai, such as Chungking Express and Fallen Angels, which feature the incredible work of cinematographer Christopher Doyle. Right now, I’m a big fan of Wim Wenders’ Tokyo-Ga (1985) and Notebook on Cities and Clothes (1989). I really love vivid and rich colours, and like to mix them with dark tones to make everything look mysterious.

How has growing up in Russia had an influence on your work?

I think being raised in the Northern Hemisphere affected me a lot – the nights are very long in the winter, and in the summer, the incredibly beautiful colours of the sun slowly setting create pink, violet and green skies. I can’t say I’m a big fan of mornings or noon but sunrises, sunsets, twilight and evenings are my favourite times of the day.

What are some of your favourite subjects to reference?

It’s difficult to pick my favourite subjects, but I can say that I don’t like drawing bicycles, chairs or glass objects. It might sound strange because I usually add a lot of glass into my drawings, but each time I’m so nervous about getting the reflection right and rendering the distortions correctly (if the object is big). To stop being afraid of these subjects, I think I’d need to study them for some time; for some reason, I haven’t yet.

Which piece has taken the longest to complete, and which has the most pixels?

This is a difficult question! I recently finished an artwork that I started in 2020 – there’s nothing especially hard about it, I just stopped drawing it in 2020 and started up again in 2024. In my experience, sometimes a big inspiration hits, and it’s possible to draw incredibly difficult and detailed artwork very fast, and sometimes the easiest piece can take an eternity. The same goes for pixels – small drawings require more attention because there aren’t many pixels to work with. With a large piece, you can always skip some areas on the canvas because it’s so big that nobody will ever notice.

Are there any Easter eggs in your artworks to keep an eye out for?

I always try to add ‘WANEELLA’ somewhere, or at least a few letters of it. When the canvas is too small, I add the tiny hare that I use as my avatar. I think I may have added a few spontaneous Easter eggs in the past but it’s not a particular goal of mine, so I can’t say for sure where to look for them.

↑ I tried to make this illustration a bit more decorative than usual, maybe even a bit surreal! I aimed not to worry too much about the perspective and the scale, and to just draw something that would look good and harmonious.

↑ This image was created after I returned from my first trip to Japan. I had very mixed feelings because I experienced so many new things, and decided that I wanted to draw something simple – so I chose a random place on Google Street View. The illustration turned out surprisingly well. I rarely draw this time of day, or extreme weather, and I’m still very happy with the result!

↑ This represents a rare occasion of when I created a story behind the illustration. I tried to depict a world in the future where different languages mixed together; this is a market somewhere on the outskirts of that world. It might look a bit gloomy, but for some reason I find it quite cosy….

↑ I used Google Street View to draw this one too. I think this is an interesting illustration because it was drawn with no emotion. I always wonder if it's possible to draw an illustration without feeling something towards it, and if it would be noticeable from the viewer’s perspective.

Thanks again for supporting Waneella: Decade. We look forward to showing you more from the production of the book in our next update.

The Volume team