What Will Become of the People in Sandra Rilova’s Vast Illustrations?

Illus­tra­tor San­dra Rilo­va cap­tures qui­et moments in des­o­late scenes whose vast­ness is both visu­al­ly strik­ing and con­cep­tu­al­ly allur­ing. The com­po­si­tions fea­ture large swaths of land, from forests to moun­tains to paths carved deep below the Earth, as they engulf small peo­ple who are con­tem­plat­ing how to con­tend with such an expan­sive space. Although we can’t see their faces, their ges­tures com­mu­ni­cate feel­ings of both hope and sadness—sometimes simul­ta­ne­ous­ly. In doing this, San­dra is set­ting the stage for us to do a cou­ple of things: to con­tin­ue the sto­ry for her; or, to use the images as a ves­sel for con­nect­ing to sim­i­lar feelings.

Fol­low San­dra’s work on Insta­gram. And if you enjoy these illus­tra­tions, check out the work of Miren Asi­ain Lora.