Self-taught artist Andrey Mukhin humorous illustrations that cheer up

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

We are always curious about creative people who are original in their field, and especially self-taught people who, through their own searches, as well as by trial and error, found their way to themselves, developed a style and found their author's face. And today we will introduce our reader to a Moscow cartoonist with many years of experience in cooperation with well-known metropolitan publications, who has not studied the art of drawing anywhere for a single day. And, I think, a virtual gallery of works self-taught artist Andrey Mukhin will definitely cheer you up. Laugh for health, they say, laughter prolongs life.

Surely I won't be mistaken if I say that most people start reading the press from the last page. As a rule, there you can always find several drawn funny pictures on the topic of the day, or simply, saturated with good humor with notes of satire. But rarely does any of us think about the creative path of those authors who are behind them.

Today we will open the curtain and find out how they become these very cartoonists, without whose creativity we cannot imagine the work of publishing houses. As a rule, they are very secretive and do not tend to make personal things public. Nevertheless, reporters from Sevastopolskaya Gazeta managed to talk to Andrei Mukhin and shed light on some issues.

Caricature - a state of mind, understandable without words

The artist said that he started drawing cartoons at the age of four. And then he explained why exactly the cartoons: not only those at home, but also everyone who saw his drawings, laughed heartily from his krakazabrikov. In 1998, the author already had a series of 60 drawings, which he took to the experts to judge the editorial office of the Burda publishing house. They told the aspiring self-taught cartoonist that his work was very interesting and took them to work. The debut was successful. Andrey received the first fee, and he was also offered further cooperation.

Of course, success inspires, and our hero soon begins to draw for the well-known magazines "Relax!", "That's it" and "Autoworld". And in 2000 he won the cartoon competition and became the third in the list of cartoonists in the CIS.

Curiously, the author is not stuck in one direction, he is constantly improving himself, without fear of failure. In his practice, there was something: the publishing house "Interlocutor" turned, stating that he intends to publish collections of Sudoku, which have become popular in many countries of the world and are published in large editions. It also turned out that the client would like to see a semblance of Japanese prints of the 15th century on the covers of his collections.

Without having the slightest idea what these prints look like, Andrei immediately delved into this topic and for two years, while these collections of Sudoku were published, he made first-class covers in this style.

Once Mukhin got a call and was told that in the Zurab Tsereteli gallery there would be a big party dedicated to the Gastronom magazine and that there would be the entire beau monde of the capital. Looking for friendly cartoons. Despite the fact that the cartoonist had never worked in this direction in his practice, he immediately began to master a new artistic technique: he acquired the necessary book, studied the isolation of the main facial features. And two weeks later, our hero was sitting in the gallery and masterfully drawing caricatures, incredibly entertaining visitors, '' Mukhin always declares when it comes to creativity.

Moreover, working simultaneously in different publications, Mukhin managed to perform work for each of them in different techniques, so that it was not clear that the same person was working. … And then he adds that he never draws gross and does not touch upon the topics of religion and faith.

Although now, unlike in past years, there are practically no official bans on cartoons. Each cartoonist himself defines forbidden topics for himself:

There was a time that the artist worked in politics, and he had to draw cartoons for many politicians. And, of course, not everyone perceived this adequately. Apparently, this is why Andrei Mukhin has one more fad: he never even draws friendly cartoons on his friends and his wife, with whom he has been together for many years.

The artist says that the days when you had to walk with a notebook and pencil to capture interesting moments are long gone. Now, for these purposes, he is served by a telephone with a dictaphone, which he speaks into.

One of Andrey Mukhin's favorite topics is animals. He skillfully shifts all the sins and achievements of people onto animals and in the language of fables shows the flaws and vices of people.

A cheerful character, great diligence, original craftsmanship, energy and incredible positive allows Andrey to always remain at the peak of popularity. To date, the cartoonist collaborates with fifty publications at the same time. And we just have to wish the artist further creative discoveries.

By and large, masters come to the genre of caricatures at the call of the soul and according to their mind and character. At the same time, many do not have a special art education. Such was at one time Oleg Tesler - a master of a rare and very complex direction in the caricature genre, who became one of the world's best cartoonists of the 20th century. You can see the gallery of his works in the publication: Stories in pictures "grandfathers of Russian cartoons": Humorous illustrations by Oleg Tesler.