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Two years ago at NJ-SCBWI, someone mistook Tory Novikova for my daughter.

Eek! Am I that OLD? No, really, Tory is quite young, so let’s just say that if I were a teenage bride, it could be a possibility. I mean, look at those eyes and hair! Totally plausible.

While Tory’s definitely not my daughter, she does work with her mom, and that’s pretty cool.

Torynova’s adorbable Mushroom Fairy Print leggings.

Her mom played a heavy role in inspiring the styles for Tory’s own fashion company, Torynova Couture.

“The woman had me drawing as soon as possible, so kudos to that child-rearing dedication. She’s a fashion designer, graduated from Moscow’s Textile Institute and had worked for the top fashion houses there and also made costumes for theater and ballet. Even my great grandparents worked on costume and stage production for the Bolshoi Theater, so one could say appreciation for the classics runs through my blood.”

With Tory’s talent and drive—she also illustrates for video game, comic and apparel companies—I knew picture books couldn’t be far behind for this Pratt Institute 2010 BFA. Flash forward to NOW and her book TUKE THE SPECIALIST TURTLE is swimming your way!

Tory, how did you land the job illustrating TUKE?

I was approached really out of the blue (for me, anyway) by Jim Ritterhoff about illustrating this children’s book he had written and meant to publish through his company, Chowder Inc. Profits were to benefit CCMI, the Central Caribbean Marine Institute and the Central Reef Conservancy, a nonprofit dedicated to sustaining coral reefs in the Caribbean. He seemed really dedicated to the marine ecology of the reefs, being a diver himself. So I came on board and drew him Tuke.

Your illustrations for TUKE are so vibrant and fun. They really bring the ocean and Tuke’s personality to life. Could you give us a little background on your process for creating the art?

I think there is a natural juiciness to my color palette and aesthetic, no matter how far I try to run away from it. It must be a side effect from having my eyes stuck to the TV, growing up watching too many cartoons for it to be healthy. Thankfully, it came in very handy with Tuke because the story takes place in the Caribbean Reef. Though I’ve never seen it in person, I’ve researched enough about it to know that it’s riddled with colors beyond imagination. In fact, the very first spread I finished in full color was the entire reef, which comes in right after the introduction. The reaction I got from Jim, who is an avid diver and knows the reef so well, was pretty much like—YES! This totally works! So after that point, there were no doubts about color constraints. Though, I did get to play around with different depths of blues, which was lovely.

As far as my process goes. The entire book, 60+ pages, was laid out in clean pencil sketches like a storyboard. And for me, clean is a relative term…since my lines are pretty gestural and loose (I really dislike the look of pencil lines that have been traced over lovely loose sketches). Anyway! After each page or spread was drawn, I went over it with an ink brush, picking up and adding textures that I could snap up and use later for the finish. Eventually these were all scanned and saved for later. Then came the flat vector shapes. I really enjoy drawing freehand in Illustrator – is that strange? There is a satisfying gravity about a solid mass that contorts to form the daintiest of details. The expressions of the animals were probably my most favorite parts to draw!

And finally, the image is completed in Photoshop, all the bits are assembled, and the color is fully applied. It may be a little tedious of a process, but it lent itself a lot to the look of the book, and Tuke! And of course there were many moments of going back into inks, rescanning, and altering the finished pages by administering bits of texture for the final polish.

So, what’s next for you, Tory?

Hmmm…what IS next?!?! Well for starters, I’m about as knee-deep into education and new media as I’ll ever be. In fact, I’m currently involved in the creation of an entire educational game world revolving around children’s books and characters due for release in 2014. So I’m definitely still deep in pursuit of creating for kids—video games, books, products, cartoons—you name it! But it’s always been a dream to illustrate picture books. So I’m very much looking forward to the next opportunity that comes my way! Any takers?!

Well, I’ll bet there will be plenty of takers for our special TUKE giveaway! 

One lucky blog reader will win a custom sketch of Tuke made especially for them! You can even enter twice!

Comment or leave a question for Tory here on the blog for one entry, then Tweet or Instagram an image of the book with hashtag #TuketheSpecialistTurtle and tag @torynova for another entry. Contest ends September 21st and a winner will be announced shortly thereafter.

For more about Tory and her various projects, visit ToryNova.com.

I met Tory at one of the Networking Dinners in June and immediately was impressed with her talent and all she has accomplished in her first 22 years of life.  She is full of creative ideas and pushes the envelope on how she can make money and show off her art.  I think you will also be impressed. 

At age 22, Tory Novikova has graduated in May 2010 from Pratt Institute’s school of Art and Design. There she studied a mixture of illustration, children’s illustration, and graphic design as part of her BFA in Communications Design.

She had immigrated to the United States with her parents from Moscow, Russia, in the early 90′s shortly after yet another revolution took place there. It’s not a surprise that Tory is enamored with art, after all, she was practically destined for it. Her ancestry links back to even the great Bolshoi Theater in Moscow where her great grandparents worked as production artists. Though, if it wasn’t for her mother – a renowned Muscovite fashion designer herself – Tory would have never picked up those pastels, water colors, or pencils at age 3 and let her imagination run wild ever since.

In the US, Tory was exposed to a mixture art culture – but cartoons and comics always had the greatest effect on her. She has been making short comics and characters since high school (her 2006 high school yearbook is proof). 

Recently she had the opportunity to publish one of her 8-page stories with Dark Horse Comics (MDHP anthology issue #4), and to the credit of her editor, Scott Allie, it came out  looking even better than expected. The process for creating Face of Evil was simple: first came the original script, then came the second draft, rough layouts, pencils, and the digital color. The lettering was done by Nate Peikos of Blambot.

She’s also working on a personal project called Count Dorkula – dedicated to her little 7 year old cousin’s unnatural obsession with all things dark and creepy. Though Count Dorkula doesn’t really fit the stereotype of the average vampire, he is very reminiscent of a human adolescent boy.

With the helping guidance of her esteemed professors Pat Cummings and Tom Graham, Tory created two original stories titled Calamity strikes Fumyumia and J∅rgen the Norwegian Forest Cat, that she hopes to some day publish with the children’s book market. 

2 Comments on Illustrator Saturday – Tory Novikova, last added: 7/26/2010