Daily Inspiration: Meet Daria Rylova

Today we’d like to introduce you to Daria Rylova.

Hi Daria, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Sure!
I grew up in a small town in Siberia, Russia. As a child, I would spend a lot of time over at my grandparents’ house, we’d take trips to the forest, go fishing, and I would spend hours outside, observing nature and studying bugs. It’s safe to say that nature was and still is where I get the most inspiration from. In middle school, I had a biology class notebook full of drawings of everything I could find in the pages of my textbook. My teacher even asked to keep my notebook to show her future students, that was silly, I thought, but it made one thing clear to me at the time – I could draw, and I loved it. I’ve never thought of being an artist for a living, though. I didn’t know it was an option until high school. I loved cartoons, movies, comics, and art books growing up, but it all seemed so unreachable and almost magical. People made that? No way.

I moved to Los Angeles in 2018, and after graduating high school in 2020, I decided to try and pursue a career as an artist. I wanted to be a part of the creative community and help people tell unique stories, as well as tell my own. Now I am a concept and background artist, and I specialize in background design for animation and concept design for games.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It wasn’t too bad. I moved out of my family home when I was 16. Moved countries too. That in itself was a struggle. I had to learn how to live by myself fairly early and adapt to new surroundings. My family was supportive, but they were very far. At the time of my moving out, I started drawing even more than I normally would to express my worries. I started learning new techniques as well. I was mostly creating pencil drawings and fan art back then, on paper. Until I got my first digital tablet at the beginning of my senior year of high school and started to learn Photoshop. So my medium changed from traditional to digital, and while I was really good at sketching with pencil and painting, I wasn’t as good at drawing digitally. It took a little bit of getting used to. It felt unusual – only using one pen and a screen for everything.
By the time I needed to apply to art school, I had enough pieces in my portfolio and wasn’t worried about needing to build a portfolio from scratch. Of course, I had to add a couple of fresh artworks to showcase an understanding of basic art rules and concepts, but I definitely wasn’t stressed about it.
My life away from home only began getting better once I got to art school – I finally felt like I belonged somewhere. The future still seemed blurry, but I had something to focus on for the next 4 years, and so I did.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I specialize in background design and concept design for games and animation. I enjoy creating designs that tell a story and solving visual problems to make sure each idea fits seamlessly into the given world.

The colors that I choose to work with are low-saturated, and my color palette tends to be more limited. I am known for designing concepts that are more on the gloomy, grim side. My best pieces are highly detailed and done in black and white. More than polished, colorful illustrations, I love concept sketches that show how things are built and their function. Some of my biggest inspirations during my time in art school were games like Alice: Madness Returns and Little Nightmares. I love whimsical, but twisted designs that slightly disturb and excite the audience. That being said, I can design a concept for something completely opposite, too – a colorful world with donuts, little ducks, and candy hearts? sure. My preference for gloomy stuff doesn’t stop me from exploring different things, and that is what my strength is.
Despite mostly working digitally now, I am a versatile artist and am curious about different mediums. I’ve worked with clay, fabric, foam, and other set-building materials in the past. I take a lot of inspiration from LAIKA projects as well. I am fascinated with stop-motion animation and scenic design for animation. That is definitely something I would be interested in working on in the future.

Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
I have a website: dariarylova.com
instagram: stigmaxart

And I’m open to collaboration with artists, writers, and other creatives. Let’s connect!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.dariarylova.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dariarylova

Image Credits
All the images are my artwork that includes background paintings, background designs, and some sketch pages.