Powerful Lines

L'azienda del campo, 1924, via Chaudron

For my second post dedicated to the Italian artist Duilio Cambellotti, I wanted to focus on his draughtsman's skill

and the beauty of his expressive line work, as shown in his illustrations, sketches, woodcuts, prints and ceramics.

In the near future I am planning to share some of his beautiful illustrations for the Arabian Nights 

and other striking colorful artworks.

illustration for Canzoncine, 1918

illustrations for La siepe di smeraldo, 1920

illustrations for the school textbook Allegretto e Serenella, 1921

Albero e Aquile, 1929

Il Serpente, 1930

Corvi, 1931

Leggende romane, 1935

1935

Leopard Jug

I scanned these two pages from one of my books, but now I can't locate it ...

will update the info as soon as I find it!

Carezzando il gatto, 1946

Joyous Carousel

How ant hurried home, 1967

I discovered the illustrations of Lev Tokmakov a few years ago, 
thanks (unsurprisingly) to 50 Watts, and was recently very pleased to stumble 
upon a large treasury of his children's books on a Russian website. 

 What looks like the Moon, 1961

Tokmakov was a Russian artist born in 1928 who produced lithographs and paintings

 and illustrated almost 300 children's books. His bright, cheerful, witty and graceful illustrations
 graced the pages of books by most of the important authors of Russian children's literature, 

as well as Gianni Rodari and Astrid Lindgren. He also worked on a large number of Russian folk tales,
and other tales from Italy and China. 

Boris Zakhoder, School for Baby Birds, poems for children, 1970

Tokmakov taught for many years illustration at the Russian State Children's Library. 
He believed that it's harder to illustrate children's books than books for adults, 
"because you have to use more life force energy". In 1958 he began to collaborate
 with the famous children's magazine Murzilka, and became one of its best artists. 

Irina Tokmakova, Carousel, poems for children, 1971 

Moldavian folk songs, 1987 

About furry and feathered, 1989 

In his later books, sometimes Tokmakov revisited his subjects using a different technique,
 as you can see from the turtle below. In 2010, the same year he died, he was awarded a special diploma
 for outstanding achievement for his book Amusing walks across Moscow at the Moscow book festival. 
His works are in the collections of numerous museums, including the State Tretyakov Gallery, 
the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts and the National Gallery of Bratislava.

As always, I invite my dear Russian readers to correct 

any terribly translated title you find in this post!

Strong as a Bear

This year, as you may know, I was unable to attend the Bologna Children's Book Fair.

But thanks to the generosity of friends and publishers, and a trip to the very well stocked

Florentine children's book store Cuccumeo, I do have some wonderful new books

to share with you over the next weeks. First of all, once again I am very grateful 

to Topipittori for introducing into our country some of my favorite European illustrators

(besides working with some excellent Italian ones). This new beautiful new volume is a reprint

of Stark wie ein Bär, the 2012 award winning book by the German illustrator Katrin Stangl.

I first took notice of Stangl in 2009 when another invaluable Italian publisher, 

Corraini, published The Musicians of Brehem. I saw her work again at the 2011 Illustrators Exhibition

 in Bologna, and her striking, bold style and two-color linocut technique again made an impression.

Forte comme un orso is an explosion of colorful vitality. The simple text enunciates 

a list of animal qualities that children will easily identify with, and the full page

 illustrations will easily delight adults too. The book's vibrant chromatic quality

was achieved thanks to a printing process using four different pantone colors. 

Spiral Living

Maurizio Quarello

Leo Lionni

Birmanian Folk Tales, E. Matveeva, M. Shevchenko, 1978, thanks to polny_shkaf

David Klein, thanks to Matt Hinrichs

Heinz Valk, illustration for children's poem book by Helvi Jurisson, thanks to 50 Watts

Celestino Piatti

Calef Brown

Janik Coat

Carson Ellis

Anne Crausaz

Maria Mikhalskaya

Mignon Kargie

twoems

Pino Pascali