Artist Feature – Valerya Milovanova Sep 20 2024

This month we are highlighting Valerya Milovanova as our Featured Artist. While she has only been with Advocate for a year, she has already worked on beautiful projects all around the world!

Working as an artist and illustrator based in London, Valerya is constantly testing her creativity. Not only is she busy with book commissions, but in her spare time she is a university lecturer and even works on printmaking. 

“I am usually busy making picture books and commissions, being represented by Advocate Art, but in my spare time, I love making RISO prints! Ever since I graduated and became a lecturer at the University of Hertfordshire I've been spending many afternoons creating prints from my ink drawings. I like experimenting with textures, fun shapes, inks, and watercolors, frequently using negative space as a narrative tool. My works are often inspired by my love for vintage pieces and their stories; I am a frequent museum and thrift shop visitor, and I can't turn down a good period drama.”

Her passion for creating is clear in the beautiful artistry and detail she brings to her work. You can see the influences of old and new coming together and shining in her stories.

Valerya also has an interest in history and the world around her, so she is very excited about one of her current projects, A Place Called Galveston, about Russian–Jewish immigration to the US in the early 20th century.

“It's an illustrated nonfiction book with a brilliant and uplifting story about several families of workers who are torn apart by their circumstances and then reunited when they find  a new home. I really love working with real historical events, researching photographs and documents, costumes, and accessories for the characters and places, so I spend lots of time looking for exact references for my illustrations.”

Her efforts and research always pay off! In another project of Valerya’s, Your Marvellous Masterpiece, which she calls her most important work so far, she talks about the amount of detail that went into the illustration:

“The artwork in the book is completely customizable and personalized. It has been an incredible experience working on a project that can appeal to everyone, and represent and empower anyone. This book was drawn with ink and pencils and then coloured digitally. As the characters in the book are customisable, I had to create nine boy and nine girl variations with different hair and skin colors, and then the support artist had to implement all the variations into the spreads. We even had different versions of the background characters for the UK and US copies. The process was involved but definitely worth the effort in the end!”

We at Advocate are all so thrilled to see Valerya’s career take off with such beautiful projects like these. When asked about working with the agents, she said:

“Advocate Art agents have helped me set up a portfolio, suggesting aspects to work on and urging me to try out new themes and topics, which really helped me reach a new audience and attract more projects.”

It has been great to help her reach new audiences this past year and we can’t wait for many more great years like this to come!

Interested in seeing more? Click HERE to see Valerya's full portfolio!

Awards:

Batsford Prize 2023 shortlist

Bologna Book Fair, Unpublished Picture Book 2023 shortlist

MORS Festival 2023 shortlist

Neverwhere v2, Kupher Gallery 2024

Advocate Art illustration agency specializes in art licensing and children’s book illustrations. We represent leading illustrators who produce children's and decorative illustrations to commission or license.