{"id":162029,"date":"2017-11-14T10:06:57","date_gmt":"2017-11-14T10:06:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=162029"},"modified":"2017-11-14T10:06:57","modified_gmt":"2017-11-14T10:06:57","slug":"interview-illustrators-bicycles-inspiration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2017\/11\/14\/interview-illustrators-bicycles-inspiration\/","title":{"rendered":"INTERVIEW: Illustrators with Bicycles for Inspiration"},"content":{"rendered":"

You can hardly find someone who can capture cycling with such a beauty, style, and genuineness as Czech painters Tomski&Polanski. Lukas Tomek and Ilona Polanska create paintings as a duo (not to be confused with a couple) and their works attracted such icons as the production of a Hollywood director Wes Anderson or the Eurosport Channel. What is behind their popularity?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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GALLERY: The British Guy Behind Pro Cyclists\u2019 LEGO Figurines<\/span><\/h3>\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n <\/article>\n<\/div>\n

I saw a lot of paintings and products with your drawings that included cycling motifs. What made you interested in the sport?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

It came naturally as we both used to cycle a lot when we were younger. Lukas comes from a part of the Czech Republic, which is called Vyso\u010dina (Bohemian-Moravian Highlands) and his hometown of Nove Mesto na Morave annually hosts the UCI World Cup in XC mountain biking. During his studies at the University of Art, he had been doing roughly 30k every day on his MTB.<\/p>\n

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Do you still cycle?<\/strong><\/p>\n

To be honest, we’re more drawing than cycling. Lukas rides a mountain bike when he gets back home as he prefers cycling in the countryside to the busy roads. And I\u2019m (Ilona) actually more cycling pleasure-seeker than an athlete. I hop on my Bianchi and enjoy the outlooks from the saddle.<\/p>\n

Ilona, come on, you really own a Bianchi bike?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Of course! I know that this way I could resemble a real racer but, in fact, I’m more a cycling explorer. My boyfriend has a small company that builds handmade frames and so he says I also need to have the best as we’re both hanging around a lot of avid cyclists.<\/p>\n

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Do you watch big tours on TV?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Of course. When there are races like Giro d’Italia or the Tour de France on TV, we are happy to sit down and watch live broadcasting. As you look closer, you find incredible micro stories hidden in the background of the events. Especially, Paris-Roubaix is so fantastic that it inspired us to create two big posters of which one was chosen to illustrate a story published by the Eurosport’s official website.<\/p>\n

How did you get in touch with the Eurosport Channel?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

It was similar to what happened to us with the production of the director Wes Anderson for whom we created visuals promoting his movie The Grand Budapest Hotel at the Winter Olympic Games in Torino. Once again, somebody discovered our works posted on Behance.net and decided that our style of drawing would perfectly match the feature that was supposed to depict the legendary race from Paris to Roubaix.<\/p>\n