Her name is Anastasia Romanovna Shimshilashvili, however, everyone calls her Shima. After graduating from the Art Lyceum in 2005, Anastasia Shimshilashvili joined the Moscow V. I. Surikov State Academic Art Institute. She became part of the faculty of Fine Art and in her senior years, she started working within the department of Monumental Art, graduating with honours.

Along with easel painting and drawing, Shima masters a number of other techniques including frescoes, mosaics, icon painting, sgraffito, stained glass and modelling.

Anastasia loves teaching students online, based on her own methodology #shimamethod - which is proven to allow anyone, including beginners, to achieve a really high standard of drawing in a short time frame. Multiple award winner, Anastasia is also the author of the bestseller Learn How to Draw:  A simple Guide to All Techniques, published in Russian in 2017.