🎨 Graphic Artist · Absurdism vs Dadaism · Analog and digital drawings

"My black is never absolute: underneath it there is always a color tone that enriches it and gives depth."

These are traces of the time we live in. There is enough absurdity and illogicality around. I assemble compositions from lines and dots — from thin and delicate to rough and angular.

My graphics are an attempt to speak the language of today. I construct a message from rectangular dots — from small to large, and lines — from the finest to the coarsest. Black goes over color.

Up close, a chaotic scattering of details is visible. From a distance, they come together into a picture that can be viewed as an illustration for an unwritten novel about our days.

Mixed technique: hatching with variable line thickness + color underpainting. Work on optical mixing. Discrete shape modeling. Squinting as a way to control the whole.

Optical effect: the eye averages small dots, creating a smooth tone. The composition is divided into 4–5 tonal zones. For each zone, a pattern of rectangular elements (bricks) is manually assembled. Pattern density determines tone.

This is not just a mechanical application of texture, but a system of tonal modeling with discrete elements, where each component (dot, line) works towards the overall volume.

The color substrate is not just a background, but a full participant in the image. When black bricks lie on top of color, it shines through the gaps, enriches them, and prevents them from being flat. The substrate unites disparate spots and gives integrity.

I work in Adobe Illustrator, drawing multi-layered elements and their compositions. I draw with a stylus on a tablet. But more often — with a mouse. Digital environment, manual technique.

Manual creation of patterns from rectangular dots (bricks). Pattern density = tone. Where it needs to be darker, I increase the density; where lighter, I decrease it. Tone becomes manageable and flexible.

My works could be called illustrations for non-existent literary works. The time is difficult and largely absurd — so the works can be classified in the genre of absurdism.

Lines and spots — from the finest, delicate and rounded to rough and angular. I love looking at them at high magnification. And from a distance, the details merge into a single, complete composition.

➡️ didenko.ru — my imaginary exhibition

• Imaginary Exhibition — main gallery
• Detail — close-ups, fragments, magnification (53 fragments with descriptions)
• Etc — sketches, studies, experiments

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“The Ghost of the Photobooth”
I call this composition “The Ghost of the Photobooth”. I prepared a stencil and filled it with a pattern. Do you see these faces? They are all unique, and the pattern adds to their variety. If you look at the image from a distance, these faces gradually emerge. I often see faces among spots. This quality seems to be called pareidolia. I find the image pleasing, although somewhat mysterious, and for some — even repulsive. Although it reminds me of Munch’s “The Scream”, it seems to me that there is an abyss of humor here — unlike Munch. The filling is done not with lines and dots, but with a random pattern.

“Male, Female, Butterfly”
The world appears as a space where familiar foundations crumble and labels replace essence. Absurdism becomes the only language to express alienation when the living ceases to be valuable in itself. A fragile creature, deprived of the ability to move, reminds us: freedom disappears when it is controlled.

“Old Photo”
This is an old photo of me and my sister, once taken by our father, which I filled with a pattern as rough as time. From a distance, the eye ceases to distinguish individual components, the brain sums up these particles, creating the illusion of a smooth tonal transition. The lines remain discrete but are perceived as a solid surface.

“Buveuse d’absinthe”
Or, it seems, “La femme au verre d’absinthe”. I call this picture “The Absinthe Drinker”. I like this work by Picasso from 1901. I reproduced it in a smaller size with colored pencils on kraft paper. So now it is kept at my home, in a tiny A4 format.

“Van Gogh’s Self-Portrait with a Pipe”
The picture “Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear and Pipe” by Vincent van Gogh was painted in January 1889 in Arles, after the famous quarrel with Paul Gauguin and the incident in which the artist cut off his earlobe. The original now belongs to the Niarchos collection (Chicago, USA). And this drawing in colored pencils is at my home, in A4 format.

“Good Mood”
This is a small A4 etude on kraft paper, done in graphite with the addition of a little white and blue. A portrait of a young man of our time, after a successful working day — before or after the holidays. Someone seems to have told him something cheerful. On the pencil it is written: “Life has turned out well”.

More works at didenko.ru

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