Life routine as the Art by illustrator Anton Gudim

Modesty is the soul of wit. And no words are needed. The extraordinary irony in the art of Moscow illustrator Anton Gudim do it itself. The artist, who touched souls of thousands social networks users, transforms the daily routine into sardonic illustrations. By the way, more recently the number of Anton's subscribers in Instagram reached the mark of 100,000 followers! They say "it would be ridiculous if weren’t so sad." Now we can not only hear but also see the real meaning of this phrase. But Anton somehow makes people laugh at what in the depths of the soul disturbs absolutely every person. But it's easier to live with a smile, isn’t it? Not that often it possible to meet a talented and modest artist who put his creativity before personal life. SFG Magazine has talked with Anton and asked him a few questions.

— The Internet is full of your works! I think it's time for all social media users to find out more about the person, which literally illustrates their life. How do you get an idea of illustrations? After all, not everyone can turn, say, his morning routine into an art.

— I believe that I don’t have a special talent for inventing ideas. Everyone can find something interesting or strange in his surrounding, you just need to try to look at thing more accurate and move in this direction.

— As far as we know, you have a technical background. Your love for illustration appeared before you choose a specialty or it was born on pages of lecture notes?

— It's really nice that you are interested in my biography :-) My brother and I really loved to draw when we were younger. Later the school was started and then — a university. I also drew to amuse myself and my friends. But it was never for me a "matter of life". I had the skill to "draw something nice" and didn't develop it and didn't apply it outside of my circle. Maybe the fact that I have become an illustrator was influenced by my technical specialty, where everything was too uncreative. I began to draw to somehow compensate for the lack of creativity in my life.

— Tell us about your way as a professional illustrator and what was your first order?

— But I'm not a professional illustrator, so you can't draw blood out of a stone :-) As I already said, I've been drawing all my life, and if we are talking about drawing not for self-joy, it was started with drawings for my friends (which I usually did pretty bad) and my attempts to create decals for t-shirts. But I don’t really remember what was the first order that I was paid for.

— Are you familiar with modern trends in illustration?

— Um... Apparently, I'm not taking it too serious. If we are talking about trends, then I don’t really know what is going on there, but what goes to artists, I do follow some of them on social media.

— How does the illustration change with time? Do you see the difference between, say, today and 30 years ago?

— When I was little, I was surrounded by illustrated books, comics, cartoons and magazines of the 90's. And everything from that time was so different. I didn’t follow any particular style, and for me the main thing was realism. Actually, I don’t think I'm an expert in thing that go with art of illustration. Now there are a lot of different things around, and I can see only a small part, so I don’t have the whole picture.

— What about modern illustrators?

— I think that Rob Gonsalves and Pete Revonkorpi are pretty good. But I don’t think we can call them modern or trendy.

— You definitely have your own style. How would you describe it?

— My style was formed without my participation. I just draw, and it lives its own life. I started with prints, and drew them in a vector, so my style corresponds to this.

— Tell us about your most interesting project.

— My own :-) I just draw and sign Gudim at the bottom. The best thing about it — there are no boundaries.

— Despite the fact that people most likely to relate to your art, there are always those who can make you feel insecure. And I don’t mean constructive criticism, but the standard "I don’t like it", "It sucks", etc. Does it affect you and your desire to draw?

— Of course, it can drag anyone down. Whatever you do, there always will be dissatisfied people. But in general it does not affect my desire to draw, it would be foolish to give up on everything just because someone offended me on the Internet :-)

— Can you give an advice to beginners on how to stand out from the crowd and become a recognizable author, like you did?

— You just need to draw a lot. Everyone has period of life when you stop seeing the meaning of things you do. I think it's completely normal, just never stop and keep doing what you do.

To see more of Anton’s works check out his Instagram and Facebook.

Interview and translation: Ekaterina Palanchuk

2017