The artist told Bored Panda that after graduating from the School of Arts in 1996, he decided to try drawing people on the streets. The first place he started his "street art" was the central amusement park, which was right in the center of town.
Nikolay decided to draw people on the streets to earn some money. "I realized that things were going well and that inspired me to continue and I do that until this very day."
It takes around one hour to draw a portrait of a person. Most of the time, when people see their portrait, they are satisfied with the result of Nikolay's work. "I can see that from the smile on their faces."
During the Covid-19 pandemic, the artist couldn't work much on the streets. However, people were ordering portraits of themselves online. Nikolay was receiving pictures of people and turning them into hand-drawn portraits. "The online orders were wonderful, I worked very hard."
Nikolay revealed that after the portraits were featured on Bored Panda, people started to recognize his artwork all around the world. "It was amazing. I really enjoyed the first article about my art and I am very happy that I got this opportunity to feature my works again. I am blessed."
According to Nikolay, the secret of his realistic-looking portraits is hiding in the way he sees a figure. He was taught to look at the figure as a whole, rather than a set of details.
"I would like to give this advice to aspiring artists: to start with the simplest study of the construction of the human head. Believe me, this is essential for the realistic drawing."
