Lisa Mitrokhin

Help our followers get to know you. What does a typical day in the life of Lisa Mitrokhin involve?
My day starts with a delicious cup of black Colombian coffee brought to me in bed by my awesome husband. After I enjoy my morning brew while pulling on some clothes and finger brushing my messy blue hair, I proceed with my farm errands. We live on a 3 hectare piece land in Central Chile. We have two wonderful dogs, a cat, two peacocks and a bunch of chickens, a young orchard of every kind of fruit tree, blueberries, a small garden, a field of oats, and two wild rivers that frame our land. After I feed all the animals and play with them a bit, I return home to make breakfast, and only after that do I get to settle in my home studio and begin my art work. I usually spend most of the day in my room working on drawing, design, illustration or doll making. Living on a farm in the middle of nowhere often makes days unpredictable though. Sometimes things just come up and we have to deal with them immediately. So my work needs to be flexible enough to adjust to things like floods in winter and fires in summer, a chicken escaping, a dog catching a cat, or a fisherman stumbling across our yard.

When did you first become interested in illustrating?
I was always drawing, since the first day that I remember myself. My first drawing was of a dog. I was three. I was drawing everything and everywhere. If I didn't have pencils I scratched stick figures on the wallpaper. Mom was thrilled about that I'm sure. As an adult I became a tattoo artist in my early twenties and also took up doing commission illustration for individual clients. Stand-alone drawings or paintings mostly, but an occasional comic strip as well. It wasn't until my early thirties that I began putting together my own published works, like The Four Realms and My Merry Go Mind, as well as doing illustrations for other people's books. 

What are your favourite things to draw?
Animals! Undoubtedly animals. They have been such a huge part of my life and I have such a strong connection with almost any creature that I come in contact with. Animals are a significant source of inspiration for me. But I also draw a lot of fantasy. Many people find my art to be dark and spooky. In reality I am a very light-hearted and energetic person. It's quite an interesting paradox.

Where do you find inspiration?
After three decades of drawing, my mind is saturated with volumes of visual information, ranging from animal anatomy to the Renaissance frescos. At this point I can draw pretty much anything without doing additional research on it. I draw from the images that live in my head. Originally, all these images came from studying classical art a great deal, learning biology and anatomy, and also from observing nature.

If you weren't an illustrator what would you be?
I think of myself as an artist. I was born an artist and it's impossible for me to imagine myself without that characteristic. If I wasn't an illustrator I would just be practicing a different trade, but still in the realm of art. Actually, I would still be tattooing people if I wasn't doing illustration full time now.

Why do you think adult colouring books have become so huge?
Having been a member the coloring community for two years now I discovered that most of our members are people who use coloring as therapy. Many suffer from stress, depression, mental illness, or physical illness. Coloring is a fantastic stress relief for anyone, and in today's world there is no shortage of stress.
 
What does your working environment look like?
Hahahaha. As I shove a pile of pens and pencils aside to make room for my keyboard while I type this, I'd like to say that it's strategically organized, but in reality it's just usable chaos. I have a fairly large desk and a talent to fill up any horizontal surface with art supplies, so my actual work space shrinks to a few square inches until I get fed up with it and clean the whole desk. This is a never ending cycle. On my desk I have my computer and my 21" Wacom drawing screen. Since I do both digital and analogue work, I need to have my entire setup available to switch back and forth. I tend to work on at least five projects at once, so it's understandable that I just leave my materials lay where they are until I need them again.

Do you listen to music when you work? If so, who/what?
Yes. My husband is a DJ so we always have music playing in the house. His music library is seemingly endless and covers all imaginable genres. We usually set a BPM that matches our current mood and energy level and play all songs in that BPM on shuffle. Sometimes I listen to other things in my headphones. For instance, these days I am listening to lectures of a clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson, specifically his Maps of Meaning.
 
What are your favourite things in life?
The laughing fits that my husband and I share. My dogs. Drawing with a ballpoint pen. Flying an airplane. Black coffee. Learning new skills. Fuzzy pajama pants.  Hot showers. Training animals and also making animal shelters. Riding a bicycle. Good books. The color blue.

 Finally, please give 3 words that describe your work.
Ummmm... I was never good at things like that. I believe that art speaks for itself and also that people see what they want to see. So it's irrelevant if I describe my art as heartfelt while someone else may see it as demonic.
It's honest. I'll leave it at that.

You can find Lisa's colouring books on Amazon here, join her Facebook group here, and visit her website here.