Welcome to my blog!

My name name is Marina Kharkover and I'm a freelance illustrator. You can see more of my work on my portfolio site marinakharkover.com

All images on this blog are © MARINA KHARKOVER 2011.Please do not use any of these images without my permission.

Masquerade


Here is the new digital collage, in the theme of  Masquerade.

Chiller



I have been looking at  skull art  recently and decided to do my own version. 

Zen Zine


A quick illustration I did on the topic of being zen and how hard it is to maintain that, because of the constant freaking out about not being zen enough. I may actually turn this into an full length zine in the future, but for now this will do.

The Rapture





working out the kinks of my psyche through doing this artwork..... Digital on  hand made textures.


Conversations with Myself


Lately I have been feeling kind of torn and inadequate about myself. I think this piece comes  out of those feelings. Its comprised of digital doodling and digital collage.

It's Good to be King


This is another digital collage I did recently. Is you can probably tell I have been lookign at alot of Basquiat lately.

Evil Lurks Here


I quick digital collage involving had lettering 

Tribal Leader Part 2


I am continuing the masked tribal leader series as I have posted a few heads before.... here is a new image from that series

Dancing Maven


Here I am again exploring tribal  tendencies in my work. These are my tribal leaders immersed in a dance ritual  of neon body heat.  

Tribal Leaders

For those of you who fallow my blog by now you might have realized that I'm obsessed with creating my own tribe and cultivating its identity. Here are the mask of tribal leaders in my society. I am considering making a tribal zine that will fully illustrate the history of my created tribe. This illustrations were inspired by Tube Yards song "Bizness." her Music videos and song in a way lead me in the right direction.

Lana Del Ray


Lately I have been listening to lots of Lana Del Ray. She has been getting pretty mixed reviews form the critics, but i feel like they are unjustified. There is a finesse about her music that makes me feel like I'm drowning in thick poignant honey, it smoothes my rickety nerves and takes me to a place of faded Americana. As a tribute he her loveliness I made a small portrait collage of her.

Floral Studies


I decided to do some flowers in pen and ink after looking extensively at Jillian Tamaki's and Marjane Satrapi's work. Both ladies convey their Pen & Ink  images with such intuitive grace that I could not help but feel inspired.

Parks and Recreation

I absolutely love this show and i watch it religiously. However I find the logo they have quite boring so I redesigned it as I envisioned  it in my mind. 

Love Triangle

I wanted to create something whimsical  that deals with the subject of love. I enjoy Film Noir so I wanted to create a small narrative that deals with a film noir love triangle. Here is a nerd and a gangster both in love with the same women who mysteriously turns up dead. The question is : who did it?

Thailand

A few years ago I visited Thailand.  While I was there I made a number of small sketches documenting  my adventures there. However a few years later I still recall the trip fondly and wanted to recapture those moments visually once again. So i painted a  few pen and ink painting from  the photographs I have of my trip. 

Manic Energy

The other night I was watching a documentary on Keith Haring and I got really inspired  by his work process. There is a part of the video where he works so furiously that  he starts out painting on the floor and paints himself into the corner leaving almost no standing room. I was inspired by this manic energy he seem to have and began painting on tiny color -aid pieces of paper as I watched this documentary. The results were quite spontaneous this process allowed me to work quite intuitively and bits and pieces of my subconscious  began to surface. Lately I am thinking  a lot  about  my lack of money and my  prolonged  unnemployement. I am  feel this lack of money and stability is like this big monster thats eating away at me. I think the faces in this piece represent that monster and the writing is almost like a chant to get rid of my financial problems. Primarily however this piece is an act of self healing it is almost like a prayer sent out to the world.

Hand Lettering Craze



Lately I have really been into hand lettering, here are some typefaces I designed.

Jam Sessions


I thought it would be fun to do a mini sketch comic on the topic of music. I wanted this comic to feel quiet  and intimate. Basically this is a representation of my sister playing her guitar while a group of people and my mother listen to her.

Music For the Broken Heart

Just some  hand lettering I did to cheer someone up if their feeling all torn up inside.  

Gender Bender


I haven't done Hand lettering in a while and decided to make a little phrase. I  was reading a newspaper article recently and saw this phrase there and it kinda stuck it my mind so I decided that I need to illustrate it.