INSIDE OUT: Sveta Dorosheva X The British Library

Written by Garrick Webster

LONDON – The word ‘epic’ is much over-used but it’s the perfect way to describe the artwork illustrator Sveta Dorosheva has created for the British Library’s winter 2023 exhibition, entitled Fantasy: Realms of the Imagination. From Tolkien to Neil Gaiman, and from Queen Mab to the Baba Yaga, the image contains references to every strain of fantasy, fairy tale and legend you can imagine… and then some.

The artwork is imbued with a sense of wonder, packed with creatures, characters and objects inspired by the fantasy books and artefacts that form the content of the exhibition. It transports us to an impossible world, layered with magic, mystery, intrigue and curiosity, where stories from various ages and cultures are entwined, demonstrating the breadth of the fantasy genre and how it reflects on the real world.

"I’ve illustrated fairy tales and fantasy stories throughout my career, but here the challenge was to weave all the elements together to form a coherent composition. I wanted the world-building to have an inner logic, which begins with the cosmic myths. I started with the legendary world elephant and worked clockwise, eventually bringing in the Discworld turtle and ending with a mouse escaping the snake out of the labyrinth," says Sveta Dorosheva.

HAND-DRAWN DRAGONS

Every elf, fairy, dragon and wizard has been hand-drawn in Sveta’s individual style, which itself reflects her lifelong immersion in fantasy art. Despite the theme, her work has a very natural and human feel to it, influenced by Golden Age storybook artists such as Arthur Rackham, Edmund Dulac and Kay Nielsen, alongside her love of medieval manuscripts. 

Commissioned by the creative agency The Storycatchers, the key visual integrates four main areas of fantasy including fairy tales and folklore; worlds and portals; epics and quests; and the weird and uncanny. The British Library’s famous Euston Street portal is one of several doors and gateways within the image – entry points to a subterranean library, hinting at the stories, myths and legends that make up the exhibition.

"As a creative agency, we especially valued Sveta’s understanding of the client process from her time as a creative director in the past. It’s an incredibly complex piece with a lot of parameters to work within, and a lot of stakeholder feedback to navigate. Sveta was very much part of our creative team in brainstorming solutions that wouldn’t take away from the artistic integrity of the piece," says Katy Baker, account director at The Storycatchers.

THE CREATIVE PROCESS

During the first stage of the project, Sveta researched the stories, characters and elements in the brief, gathering references in order to understand what has gone before. Given the scale of the undertaking, this took the most time, with Sveta sorting through the ideas in the brief alongside her own thoughts, procrastinating, scrawling down notes and eventually sketching some thumbnails.

"The initial composition was difficult to put together. Because everything is so closely interwoven, moving one element entailed redoing half the composition. Including so much in one image might seem like a challenge, but I was greedy – I wanted to draw everything in the brief, and more. So really the artwork was a labour of love," says Sveta.

Her first draft was drawn by hand, in pencil, on A2 paper. The brief was for a black and white piece, and here the purpose was to figure out the tonal scheme. Keeping within the technical parameters of the project – covering the four realms and considering the formats the final artwork would be used in – Sveta had full creative freedom. Most of the revisions made related to the portals and secret passages going into the image. 

Meticulously, Sveta drew the final artwork with a dip drawing nib at A2 size.

THE HAPPY ACCIDENT

Exercising the freedom she had, Sveta brought additional layers of meaning to the artwork. She inserted characters reading books throughout the composition, such as a stone giant reading The Divine Comedy as he reclines across the entrance to Hell, with Dante and Virgil exiting the underworld beneath him. There is a fish reading about the water spirit Mélusine, and a huge librarian figure made out of books reading John Crowley.

 

"Having seen the work from the very first sneak peek draft to the finished product has been a privilege. I’ve been so close to the work throughout but still find something new every time I see it," says Katy Baker at The Storycatchers. With elements both frightening and playful, and ranging from the depths of the Hell right into the cosmos, there was plenty of scope for happy accidents and curiosities. When Sveta’s son asked why a fish was reading a book, he insisted a reading dinosaur be added to the image, and Sveta obliged, placing it in one of the library’s secret passages.

"This artwork was a dream commission for me, and the response has been genuinely awesome. The illustration keeps people looking and finding, which is what I intended, and they always ask for a list of all the references. My favourite reaction is the joy of recognition and then seeing people look for more within the artwork," says Sveta.

Read more on the exhibition.

An interview with Sveta by The British Library.

Storycatchers talk about the commission.