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In the world of illustration art, few have been as successful as Anton Gudim from Moscow, Russia. His illustrations frequently end up as memes, they're constantly shared, and from time to time, they go viral in one way or another. Naturally, a question of why they're so popular would come up. There's many reasons. For starters, his illustrations have a strange mix of humor that's very unique to the artist: the illustrations have a lit bit of irony, sarcasm, eeriness, randomness, and witty commentary on modern society. Another thing is that their style is very easy to recognize, and if you've seen them, you can easily tell them apart from other artists' works.

We love Anton's illustrations. So much so that it's the sixth part of his ongoing comic series here on Bored Panda. In case you want to see what you missed, you may find them here (I, II, III, IV, V, VI).

More info: Instagram | patreon.com

By taking a brief look, you'll notice that there's little to no dialog. The artist explained this in an interview of his previous post. "It's just the format that I came to and which I consciously chose. Why? Firstly, any reasonable restrictions contribute to the development of creativity. Secondly, I like it from an aesthetic point of view. Thirdly, I do not need to translate text for my international audience. Fourthly, captions usually come to the fore and drawings become just an addition to dialogues and text descriptions, and I always prefer the visual side. At the end of the day, you can just tell the dialogue from the comic and that will be enough. In my case, you need to look, no description can replace what I draw."

#4

78 New Illustrations By An Artist From Moscow That Cast An Ironic Look At Our Everyday Life

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Tyler Six
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Say how much of a sinner do I need to be to get into this hellish resort

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Anton also went in depth about the evolution of the comedic aspect of his illustrations. "At first, I just told jokes (these were almost classic comics with dialogue), puns. Then the jokes became more absurd and dialogue almost disappeared from the comics. I liked to draw comics about objects, without characters in the frame. Over time, humor began disappearing from some works but did not disappear altogether. It seems strange that some artists do not use humor in their works, because a layer of humor is a large layer of creativity. Life is not only serious and dark, but also funny at times, but often it is a tragicomedy. In the end, I began to focus on playing on the unexpected properties of things and events. Now it was interesting for me to try to go to genres adjacent to just digital drawings: such as video, sculpture, or street art."

When considering where Anton Gudim stands as an illustrator, one needs to take his popularity into consideration. Though Anton shies away from being called popular, he is exactly that, and a million followers on Instagram is a testament to that. "Of course, 7 years ago, when I'd just started drawing under the Gudim brand, I could not have imagined such a thing. After a while, seeing how my work was developing, I could assume that one day the figure of 1 million would be surpassed. It took a long time to reach it, it was not an explosion of popularity, so it seems to be quite normal, considering how much effort was invested in the creation of each work. But even with that number, I absolutely don't feel popular. I remember the day this number appeared on the screen of the Instagram application, and it was not the day when I felt famous, it was the day of accepting that my work was appreciated and I need to move on. Thanks to my subscribers, I am very grateful that I have them."

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No matter the originality and the creativity, all artists are inspired by something. Anton is no different in this regard, and he gladly shared what influenced him. "Someone constantly influences me and I always discover new artists. At this stage, it is more interesting for me to discover new artists outside the comics world, although many people who draw comics (such as Perry Bible Fellowship, Poorly Drawn Lines, False Knees, Jeroom, and others) still inspire me. I like artists (Rustam QBic, Slava Ptrk, Seth Globepainter, Jason Limon, and others), I like video content creators (Pablo Rochat, Romain Laurent, Oliver Latta, Scorpion Dagger, Kevin Lustgarten, and others), I recently discovered an interesting Russian cartoonist Andrei Popov. There are a lot of talented people around!"

#11

78 New Illustrations By An Artist From Moscow That Cast An Ironic Look At Our Everyday Life

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Jessica Allred
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Because they're impossible to get over your heel. So it makes sense to go the other way, right?

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Even though Anton is really good at what he does, the illustrator has his own gripes about the process. "The most difficult thing, of course, is to come up with what to draw about. Moreover, the flow of ideas can be quite strong (I take notes with ideas every day), but the most difficult thing is to separate a good idea from a bad one, see the potential in one and understand that, for example, another idea will not work." Of course, there are things that are more easy to him too. "The simplest thing is to draw (after you have chosen an idea, decomposed it into frames, and come up with a composition). Here you need to clarify that good and neat way to draw what you came up with. Choosing a color palette is also not easy, but still, for me, this is an easier stage than coming up with and selecting ideas."

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#17

78 New Illustrations By An Artist From Moscow That Cast An Ironic Look At Our Everyday Life

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Seabeast
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

A department store clerk once told me that people will actually steal single shoes, for reasons known only to themselves.

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#20

78 New Illustrations By An Artist From Moscow That Cast An Ironic Look At Our Everyday Life

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Ann Coffman
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2 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My smile is my makeup I wear since my breakup with you. - The Tracks of My Tears by The Miracles w/Smokey Robinson

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#28

78 New Illustrations By An Artist From Moscow That Cast An Ironic Look At Our Everyday Life

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LiamTheBot
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I’m gonna take my horse to the old t8me ride I’m gonna ride till I can’t no more!

#30

78 New Illustrations By An Artist From Moscow That Cast An Ironic Look At Our Everyday Life

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Note: this post originally had 33 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.

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