Liubov Salagaeva: Profile Image

Artist Profile

  • Liubov Salagaeva

  • Illustrator for more then 16 years.

  • Stylist / Fashion & Jewellery Designer, since 2018.

  • Photographer & Photo-artist, since 2013.

  • Current location: Moscow (Russian Federation).

  • Place of birth: Moldova, Chisinau (1989).

 
 
Превед, Медвед! По-русски н-нада?

Funny thing, I stopped in Russia on my way from Singapore to Moldova. But I couldn’t fly further because Russian-Ukrainian conflict blowed up and flights to Moldova were suspended. So… this is how I settled down in Moscow!

Liubov Salagaeva

2022 – Today, Moscow…

As I settled in Moscow, I opened my online sewing school (for a few months) and been working on my own fashion and jewelry brand to launch it soon, BUT… as usual, something went “wrong”, and being totally amused for recalling my childhood dream — I enrolled to Moscow Film School to become an actress (and I did!). During studies, though, I became quite popular and highly recommended, but as a casting-director…

  • Enrolled to Moscow Film School and became an actress.
  • At once, enrolled to Moscow Barista School and worked as a barista for 6 months (that was another my dream, lol).
  • Played at 30+ student short films and two commercials (Yandex).
  • In May of 2026 played my first episode role at feature film by Mariya Lukyanova.
  • Since 2024, built a decent portfolio as a casting director and later studied from Elizaveta Shmakova, as a casting director 🙂

2018 – 2021, Singapore.

In 2018 I moved to Singapore with a great plan to stay there forever. I got rid of all the stuff I had, took some art supplies and my 2 years young cat 🙂 It was the most difficult adventure among all I had…

  • Joined «CCMonstersArt» as a Contemporary Jewellery artist.

  • Graduated from Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA, Singapore) with Diploma in Fashion Design (Dean’s List Award 2018; Best Studentship Award).

  • Got experience in retail (shoes and jewellery stores) and as a shoe designer (15 weeks internship, Singapore).

2017 – 2018, Moldova.

I had a plan to move forward and got extra education in nail-art, but for a shameful reason, in 2017 I had to leave Russia and my plans to settle in Saint Petersburg for a beautician career were destroyed. I was depressed and confused, so, I enrolled to a local dancing school to stay sane after another pack of plans got shattered in dust~ But still, I passed some local courses of nail-art and kept practicing.

  • Accomplished education in Universal Express Pattern-Drafting Methods (УНИМЕКС), tailoring.

  • Participated in 3 latin dancing shows.

  • Quit job as an artist-designer at «MAKLER» LTD (11 years exp.)

  • Passed the full course of styling at «IDEA-CLASS» school of image and style of Olga Menshikova.

  • Changed my surname: from father’s to my grand-mother’s 🙂

  • Quit Russian Language course at «Slavic University of Republic of Moldova». I actually enjoyed it, but had some reasons…

  • Teamed up with group-mates and won a “Year 1 Student» contest: participated in a skit and a dance; made an awesome poster.

2014 – 2016, Russian Federation.

In 2014 I moved to Moscow, but got completely disappointed with school and went for a photo-trip to Iceland instead of the diploma project. My mom didn’t allow me to stay and work in Moscow, so, later in 2015, I moved to Saint Petersburg to live at my aunt’s and became a beautician.

  • Graduated from «НЕРА» (Saint Petersburg) as a high-class beautician (though, I mostly specialised in massages and eco-beauty).

  • Graduated from Roman Rybalyov’s School of Photography (Moldova), full course of photography and one level in videography.

  • Won at «Internet Short Film Festival» with a movie short «Once upon a night».

2012 – 2013, Moldova.

After a long time spent far from society, I decided to stop freelancing and have some fun… I joined Japanese classes and started exploring new medias of art (video and photo), so, I took hairstyling as an additional expertise to work with models. Actually, there was a plan to become a hairstylist ‘cause my absolutely genius hair-master liked my skill, but I got tired of his attitude and left, later in 2014.

  • Graduated as a universal hair stylist, «ArtStil» school (Moldova).

  • Showcased my first short movie «Once upon a night» at the local cinema (Moldova) during Autumn Movie Festival.

  • Took 2nd place in International Japanese Video Contest with a short animation.

  • Volunteered during «Bunkasai» Japanese Festival in Moldova: teamed up with a group to organise the festival; lead a lesson of Japanese language; lead henna-tattoo shop; danced a traditional «Soran Bushi» dance.

  • Visited more then 20 countries.

2004 – 2012, Moldova.

In 2004 I suddenly realised that instead of staring at rare beautiful pictures (we had no Pinterest or Instagram that time!) in the magazine, I can learn and draw same beautiful pictures! That is how my journey as a CG Artist started…

  • Quit tapestry course at «Academy of Music, Theatre and Fine Art» (Moldova), cause teachers were skipping classes, come on… :C

  • 300+ fully rendered illustrations in portfolio.

  • The «Temptation» illustration was featured in «The Most Beautiful CG Girls» magazine.

  • The «It’s gonna cold outside» illustration featured as an image of the day, CG Society.

  • Got several monthly awards at CGTalk.ru (Russian analog of CG Society).

I sincerely love studies and haven’t mentioned a lot of stuff I learnt, but still going to share some artworks in 3D or body-art, and etc. I also hope to focus more on my gallery and some extra projects, but really… as soon as I decide to stop studies, I find myself buying an online course or researching on some crafts at YouTube xD So… cross your fingers!

Liubov Salagaeva