Dina Usmandi
Dina Usmandi is a freelance, self-taught illustrator from Ufa, Russia. Although she received a law degree, her true passion and inspiration lie in illustrating children’s books.
Despite no formal training in illustration, she has been painting since childhood and has always had a significant love and appreciation for children’s book illustration. When raising her daughter, she was given the opportunity to take a fresh look at illustration, learning much from the artworks of artists from the Italian illustration schools.
Dina works with coloured pencils and other traditional materials, as well as leveraging graphics applications for digital illustration. In 2019, one of her pieces won a children’s book illustration contest organised by the famous English illustrator, Elina Ellis.