Glowing Fantasy’s story began in 1991. Back then, young Valery Shatunov worked as an intern for his father, and simultaneously worked on his paintings in search of creating his own effects and colour combinations. These styles and combinations were later on used by both painters in their collaborative works presented in the form of books for children. Today, they have illustrated over 90 books.

They had a whole apartment turned into a workshop and equipped it with all the necessary tools. Every room was set to have its’ own specific function. For example, the kitchen turned out to be an excellent place for airbrushing. The dust in this place switched from one colour to another every single day. The apartment gave Valery full access to all the existing tools, so he never lost an opportunity to experiment in mixing all materials and techniques in search of his own unique variations. Between commercial projects that were carried out almost non-stop in a conveyor way where each illustrator performed his sequential part. And everytime Valery had a short break, he filled up his hunger by taking a piece of paper and drew something new.

All illustrations in the books are supported by textual stories composed by the whole Shatunov family, and Natalia Shipilova, Valery’s mother, acted as the author of these stories by bringing them into final textual formats for publication. Thanks to this, Valery took first steps in expanding his imagination and developing himself as an artist. At the time, all work was exclusively carried out by hand using airbrushes and other tools like paper, pencils, watercolors, gouache, mascara, etc..

One day, Valery’s father walking by and accidentally caught the edge of a painting Valery was working on making it turn upside down right on his lap. He apologised and said that the son could continue his work. Valery continued his work without turning his painting back into its initial position. After all, at the time, his work was not focused on creating an image, but creating patterns, ornaments and colour combinations. Later on, to complete the general appearance of the drawing, Valery filled out the rest of the space and realised the picture can be viewed from both sides by turning it upside down. He found the connecting points of the images right in the epicentre of the drawing. Eyes served as the base of all the paintings. This illustrator’s dual lasted for the next 10 years until 2001. However, right after global crisis, Valery had to put this practice aside. Back then, apart from having illustrated books, he had already created 13 different paintings that could be viewed by turning them upside down as well as at their initial position.

Every painting took around 8 – 12 months to draw because Valery worked on them only when he had free time or developed an unstoppable inspiration that called for it. Some paintings were created during unbelievable emotional shocks, and, as Valery tells us, later they received mystical good stories from life. The Shatunovs often had visitors like world-famous artists and writers who were amazed by these strange paintings and strongly recommended that Valery dedicatevely continued his work. They were truly surprised by the unusualness of what they saw.

Back in the 90s, the family decided that these paintings will bring together the very first book of its own kind, which would have no other analogues in this world, due to constant monitorization of new trends and movements in the field. Thus, this gave birth to a whole new direction of 12 paintings – UPSIDE DOWN illustrations.

Sometimes, when friends and acquaintances came to visit and entered the room with all the paintings, they would freeze and not understand what had changed. All the objects and furniture were in place, but they would gradually come to a realization that these paintings had previously been in a different position, giving the whole atmosphere a different character and mood.

After leaving the illustrative book business in 2001, Valery began studying graphic design using computer technology. As a result of that, when he came into the animation business, he applied his skills and knowledge in creating backgrounds for cartoons and series. Later on, having changed his niche once again, Valery took upon work in advertising for the world’s largest companies as an illustrator.

With time, everyone forgot about the paintings and for some time the original works were considered irrevocably lost. However, in the beginning of 2015, when Valery was already 40 years-old, his father found the original works amongst a huge number of sketches. His father made digital copies of the works and transmitted information through a medium with a message saying “You probably want to continue this.” Obviously Valery answered with thirst and proceeded his works once again. Having many years of professional experience in computer graphics, he completely changed the original images because the paintings had to be adapted to use as illustrations for children’s books.

Simultaneously with these events, Valery was working on a project called Entertainment City where he needed to collect the most interesting and unusual things/places from all corners of the Earth and put it all in one location. These unusual things/places included: museums, restaurants, night clubs, cafes, casinos, amusement parks, etc.. One day, quite unexpectedly, one of his close friends brought a huge full box of fluorescent and cumulative colour samples that magically glowed in ultraviolet light. Valery planned to use them for painting city facades and streets to create a unique atmosphere in the city. But when  the project was paused and then permanently stopped the construction of the city, Valery started boldly applying paints on top of his paintings and the effect was stunning. The audience, who came in to watch these paintings shine and glow differently in various lighting conditions, weren’t indifferent, but were rather delighted, asking for permission to come back again and see the project’s progression. Valery had to think this work through in every detail, so he classified the whole project which made the progress extremely slow, but effective. Drawing an image wasn’t the only important thing. The technical integration of the image in the book was as important.

During his time in the advertising field, Valery studied all the technical aspects of printing and applying images on various surfaces, and due to the fact that he already had the skills, he began to boldly experiment printing files in a very specific way to be able to work out the technology of printing books. Thus, printing technology was created for testing which took more than 3 years. Parallel to working with illustrations, the work with paintings was carried out in full swing and in May 9, 2016, the “Factum” agency registered Valrey’s works in the Lithuanian Records (LIETUVOS REKORDAS) for having the largest number of images in one work; to be more exact, 4 different images in one drawing. Valery Shatunov presented 3 paintings for commission’s consideration and all 3 paintings were included in the LITHUANIA Records.

Due to Valery’s excitement and ignition to creating this project, he decided to expand his exhibition. And to enhance the effect, Valery decided to create a controlled mechanism for flipping pictures with the help of electric motors with a microprocessors.

An electrician, Dmitry Snegin, was hired for this particular work, who diligently started working on this unique project. In October 14, 2018, Valery presented his three paintings at his very first exhibition in relation to this project. Thanks to the installed mechanisms within, these three paintings rotated independently around its’ axis. They also stopped when needed and switched to various light compositions. A specially-made lighting mechanism was built into the picture frames, too. This exhibition immediately received great feedback and was vigorously noted by the press.

By August 24, 2019 the first tales were ready. These paintings are constantly undergoing work, and 8 out of 12 painting have already received their secondary luminous look whilst other 4 are yet to be prepared.

On June 8, 2019 Valery Shatunov presents 7 of his paintings as the (UPSIDE DOWN paintings with electric motors) “Illusion Show” at the grand event called “GO Red” at “Grand Hotel Kempinski”. A large number of Lithuanian VIPs were present including former President of Lithuania Valdas Adamkus. The event is widely noted by the press.

Images in these 12 UPSIDE DOWN paintings (of flip-flops) served as the core for creating smart colouring pillow toys for kids. Currently the project is preparing to launch itself at the Crowdfunding platforms like INDIOGOGO and KICKSTARTER. This is an independent SMART MAGICAL GLOWING TOY PILLOW FOR COLORING project was created and led by Valery’s GLOWING FANTASY LTD

TRANSITION TO THE TOY PRESENTATION PAGE

WWW.GLOWINGFANTASY.COM

Moreover, these images in the paintings will lead into creation of two completely new projects: Glowing Backpacks and Glowing Clothes for children. They are planned to be launched in Spring 2020.

Several new projects that are unprecedented in scale are currently being prepared; here’s one of them:

AN EXHIBITION OF 12 PAINTINGS WITH REVOLUTIONARY KINETIC UPSIDE DOWN MECHANISMS

Each painting from the collection of 12 Changeling / UPSIDE DOWNERS paintings will receive its own unique mechanism, composed from a wide range of different materials: wood, crystal, non-ferrous metals, graphite, ceramics, amber, etc.. Every mechanism will have its own material. A special glowing mechanism will be built into every picture frame. It will work on freight traction in conjunction with an autonomous microcomputer that will start its rotation after a certain time; whilst the painting is in rotation, musical mechanical instruments will be played supporting mechanism of the picture. Thus, a completely unique exposition of 12 paintings and 12 flipping mechanisms will be created.

A large world-wide exhibition tour is planned in the future. Sketches and visualisations of initial mechanisms are currently being prepared for production. It is planned to present these mechanisms to the largest world companies and corporations that work with all kinds of materials. The project is still partially classified and information will be available as the project progresses. Once the world tour is done, it is planned  the works will be auctioned.

The second project is unprecedented in scale and uniqueness:

THE VERY FIRST GLOWING BOOK FOR CHILDREN THAT CAN BE TURNED UPSIDE DOWN.

The Illustrations in this book can be viewed both upside down and in their original position. In addition, one of the books will glow in complete darkness due to cumulative colours of light. The book is expected to be written by celebrities from the music industry: 24 different fairy tales will be told by the representatives of different countries; before the passing of ROXETE’s lead singer, first round of negotiations had begun and representatives of the ROXETE group have already given their preliminary consent participation in the project.

It is assumed that the book will have two different editions: 25 countries Western Europe + North America in English; 25 countries Eastern Europe and Post-Soviet in Russian. Both editions will bring together representatives of 49 states.

There was never anything like it in the children’s books industry.

A grand interest is expected for this project.

The auspices of the book is planning to expand this project to a world-wide scale to help children battling cancer.

TRANSITION TO THE BOOK PRESENTATION PAGE

https://glowingfantasy.com/ru/o-proekte/

Along with book releases, a large number of additional products are also anticipated. In fact, some products will be on store shelves for the very first time. For example, glowing carpets for children, puzzles that glow in the dark, various material construction kits, children’s clothes, glowing board games, and many more. All items will have their own fairy tales and drawing tutorials attached to them and available on a special digital platform.

I will be glad to receive any suggestions about the project and its elements, as well as your comments the section below. Pre-orders will be available for some products very soon. Stay tuned!

MORE INFO AVAILABLE ON THE PROJECT PAGE (VIA LINK BELOW):

https://glowingfantasy.com/ru/legenda/