Originally from the Russian area of Sakha – likewise called Yakutia – Ilya Kazakov is one of the most northern illustrators we’ve included in a while. Over 40% of his homeland sits in the Arctic Circle, close adequate to the North Pole that we’re prepared to accept Ilya as an professional on the subject of Santa Claus, a character he’s highlighted many times. He even created a set of Santa setups for a Moscow shopping shoppingcenter back in 2020.
However, there’s a lot more than snow and long white beards to this artist’s story. With his army of adorable characters, Ilya hasactually endedupbeing a leader in NFTs, catering to a neighborhood of advocates who back jobs like his current Fake Trading Card Game (FTCG) on the Ethereum L2 platform. People can purchase loads of 5 digital character cards to trade and ask for particular artwork from Ilya.
“The special function of my NFT jobs is that they are developed on cooperation,” states Ilya. “Anyone can demand or come up with, for example, a character, and I will draw it. This makes my jobs even more varied duetothefactthat one individual alone might neverever come up with as numerous variations as anumberof hundred individuals.”
Speculative endeavors like this make earnings streams alongwith Ilya’s customer tasks – such as his previouslymentioned Christmas project for the Avenue South-West shopping centre in Moscow. Here, he concepted a range of Santas, each of which was associated with a brandname operating in the shoppingcenter. “It was my veryfirst experience creating physical items,” states Ilya. “I worked with a group of carvers who produced these big Santa Claus figures. The procedure had lotsof technical subtleties and restraints, however whatever turned out well.”
When the OFFF Festival came to Moscow in 2021, Ilya had the honour of developing the opening titles – a task numerous illustrators and animators would envy. Directing and stimulating the job took 6 months, with noise style by Daruma Audio, and it’s one of his preferred jobs to date.
Like numerous illustrators, Ilya takes motivation from nature and people-watching, however deep inside him is a fascination with ancient individuals, their art and architecture. It goes back to his earliest years in Sakha, where his grandpa taught him to draw a