Nataliya Green

Nataliya Green is an illustrator based in Cambridge, England. A graduate of the Cambridge School of Visual & Performing Arts with BA (Hons) in Graphic Design and Illustration, she specialised in illustration. Her practice comprises mainly observational drawings of people in situ and their surroundings which include cityscapes and nature. Ink on paper is Nataliya’s preferred material, though she also uses mixed media including watercolour, coloured pencils, gouache, oil and soft pastels in her process. The final illustrations are arranged and finished results rendered digitally.

Nataliya was born in Moscow, Russia. Although she has now lived the majority of her life in the UK, her influences take the best from each, and she maintains a strong connection with Russia and its culture.

Ideas of time, people, humanity, wellbeing, interactions and feelings are quintessential to her practice. Her recent editorial self-initiated projects included themes of ‘mental health among teens’, ‘mother’s safe delivery’, and ‘people without politics’. Although the subjects can be serious and poignant, the way she prefers to portray them is in an uplifting, colourful, life-affirming way using loose brush strokes, a gestural style of drawing.

In the future, she plans to travel with her work, observing, collecting on-site references and depicting people and places all over the world, telling their stories. Also, she is planning to collaborate with animators to develop her illustrations into moving images.