Step into the exotic, dystopian world of Alex Andreev’s digital art series: A Separate Reality and be prepared for street light serpents, floating cities, octopus airlines, and domesticated giant spiders. Alex Andreev, a St. Petersburg-based artist, creates these intricate sci-fi paintings using childhood memories and Soviet-era literature, music, and movies.
Andreev’s collection showcases haunting yet beautiful environments that combine real-life elements with disturbing undertones, leaving the audience captivated with a quiet sense of horror. Andreev is calling his illustrations a “hermetic art.” A Separate Reality paintings are primarily made using Adobe Photoshop and Corel Paint programs.Andreev says, “I tried various techniques, including traditional inks, pens, brushes and also experimented with digital art. Now I use Adobe Photoshop and Corel Painter, just brushes, no fancy stuff or filters. By using limited toolset I am able to achieve stylistic consistency throughout my artwork.”
Courtesy of Alex Andreev
Andreev’s paintings can be viewed in his recently published art book “A Separate Reality,” where you can view any of the paintings in the collection. Andreev prides himself on his digital art abilities, stating, “I focus more on expression of my creative concepts than on technology or tools. While working in digital medium, I am free of limitations of traditional tools, such as drying of oil paint, changing of gouache color or etching line width.” A Separate Reality is truly a sight to see and a peek into the mind of horrific and creative individual.
