If you’re into black and white dotwork art that feels quiet, intense, and a little haunting, you’ll probably find yourself stuck staring at the work of Rostislaw Tsarenko. He’s a Ukrainian ink artist from Poltava who taught himself how to turn tiny dots into entire emotional worlds—and honestly, it’s hard to look away.
Rostislaw Tsarenko works almost exclusively in ink, using dotwork and stippling to slowly build up highly detailed images. From afar, his drawings feel realistic. Step closer, and they start to slip into something more surreal. Skeletons wear crowns. Forest guardians stand watch. Human figures split open to reveal fire, birds, or entirely different worlds inside them. This mix of realism and symbolism is what makes his surreal ink art so powerful.
A lot of his work circles around inner states we don’t always have words for—grief, guilt, transformation, and our fragile connection to nature. Pieces like Forgiveness, Heat Inside, and What Is Real And What Is Not? don’t tell you what to feel, but they definitely ask you to feel something. His recurring kings and queens, animal-human hybrids, and myth-like figures give the sense that these drawings belong to a larger, ongoing story.
Alongside personal series such as Human and Nature, this Ukrainian ink artist has also shown his work in international group exhibitions, including Silver Linings, where his drawing Light of Truth was featured. Today, Rostislaw Tsarenko sells original works and prints through platforms like Artmajeur and Myartisreal, while sharing process videos and archived pieces on Instagram.
If you’re drawn to black and white dotwork art that’s emotional, symbolic, and deeply human, Rostislaw Tsarenko is absolutely an artist worth following.
