The painting of Ukrainian artist Olena Shkliaruk became the cover of American musician Chris Brown’s newest music album “Royalty.”
Two months ago the pop musician invited
artists from all over the world to make a visual artwork dedicated to both his
music and his love for street art through Talenthouse, an art networking website.
For a couple of weeks hundreds of artists sent Brown their artwork and on
Feb. 3 the singer chose the winner.
Brown praised Shkliaruk’s piece the most.
“Love the style & level of detail plus a close likeness has really
been captured,” Brown wrote on his Facebook page on Feb. 4.
Brown, 26, an American singer, dancer and actor, has already released
six successful music albums. His songs repeatedly entered the top-ten lists in
leading US and global charts.
For Shkliaruk, 27, the victory was a complete surprise. “I accidently came
across the announcement to create a work for Brown’s album,” Shkliaruk says,
adding that she had to look through many of Brown’s photos online since she is
not one of his fans. “Everything went on very easy. It took me just one night
to draw the picture.”
It was not only Brown but also 48,000 other Facebook users who liked
Shkliaruk’s illustration posted on Brown’s Facebook page.
At first Shkliaruk did not even think she could win. “But when I saw so
many people put their likes under my work I started to have hope,” she recalls.
Shkliaruk received $1,000 as a reward for her picture. Yet, she seems to
be happy not about the money but about her professional success. “I am very
pleased that my picture will be featured in Notion Magazine soon,” she says.
Shkliaruk is a freshman at Shag Computer Academy in Odesa, Ukraine’s
Black Sea port city located 475 kilometers south of Kyiv.
She is a professional artist who likes painting in watercolors and
recently became very interested in graphic arts.
In January, Shkliaruk won another international painting competition organized
by the Dell Computer Corporation in London. Her illustration of a black cat on
a yellow background beat more than a thousand rivals. Now her illustration
enters the standard set of laptop wallpapers developed by Mashable and Dell
companies.
