EXTRACTS: Illustrators issue 12 © 2015 The Book Palace (96 PAGES in Full edition)

34 Denis Zilber Enter the zany, madcapworldof this wildly entertaining Israeli artist and share his thoughts and experiences as he talks to Diego Cordoba Denis Zilber was born in Minsk (in the former Soviet Union) where he lived until the age of 15, beforemoving to Israel with his family. Both his parents are professional artists, but Denis opted to work as a digital illustrator instead. He has worked in a vast variety of artistic fields from advertising to illustrating children’s books, cartoon editorials, video and board games, and character designs for animation and movies. He speaks three languages (Russian, English and Hebrew) and paints exclusively with Photoshop. DC: Denis, you were born in Russia and yet your artwork seems to be heavily influenced by American animation and cartoons. I wonder what cartoons you saw as a child living in Russia? DZ: Yes, I was born in the Soviet Union, way before it collapsed. Have to say that there was no such thing as cartoons in the Soviet Union, or at least not as you know them. There were children’s book illustrations of a very particular kind, only one major illustrated magazine and also politically oriented cartoons for adults, which were rather popular. All that amazing plenitude of cartoons and illustrated materials of different styles that Western children had access to simply didn’t exist in the Soviet Union. So I grew up on classic art books. At some point, when I was 9 or 10 years old, my Dad brought home a marvellous book, ‘The Creation of The World’ written and drawn by French illustrator Jean Effel. It was a book of cartoons, hundreds of them. I’ve read it dozens of times. As for the American influence FACING PAGE: Private commission for a little girl’s room, supposed to be a painting on the wall opening like a window into a magical world. ABOVE: A personal project: Denis’ take on the Jack O’Lantern, created for Halloween two years ago. ABOVE TOP: Another personal project, exploring the idea of a bear trying to have his regular dinner in a fancy way.