The books we read as children had such a profound effect on us thanks to the memorable pictures of our favorite characters. We can easily reproduce the images of Dunno or Thumbelina in memory decades later. But now good book It's hard to choose with pictures. Entering the store, we just get lost and, as a result, we take a book with the most poisonous cover, from which the child becomes ill. What is the secret of a successful illustration and how to choose for a child a good book with pictures, Angelina Green and Ilya Markin were told by Alexandra Balashova, illustrator and teacher at the Veronika Kalacheva Drawing School.

For those who are preparing for the main school exam

3 rules for creating good children's drawings

There is no universal recipe for the perfect illustration. But there are three rules that allow artists to create attractive drawings for children's books.

1. Children's illustration should be contrasting. Otherwise, it is difficult for the child to focus on something. In children, the ability to concentrate is not very developed. They perceive colors and shapes, so this is especially important for children's illustration.

2. The composition should be clear, well thought out. The view should not go beyond the illustration. All attention should be concentrated within the picture.

3. Readers should recognize themselves in the characters. Well, for example, if the characters correspond to the age of the children, the proportions of the body.

As for the choice of books by parents, I advise children to instill good taste from childhood. We need to take the liberty of getting rid of all the books with plastic shaking eyes and nuclear colors. Choose the illustrations that you like yourself. So you step by step will acquaint your child with the world of beauty. We all limit our children in the consumption of sweets and instill a love for vegetables? The same should be done with book illustrations.

It is important to remember that it is more difficult to keep the attention of a child than the attention of an adult. To check if your illustration has enough contrast, do a simple test: take a photo of the illustration in black and white mode. It should turn out to be varied in tone, not look like a sticky gray mass.

Many adults, especially grandmothers, believe that animals in children's books should be drawn realistically. Otherwise, the child will have a wrong idea of ​​what, for example, a cat looks like. As practice shows, very young children react better just to a more symbolic image of an animal. They recognize him immediately. In addition, this symbolism develops fantasy. Don't be afraid of simplified forms. Save realistic illustrations (like Ingpen's) for older kids.

If you don’t know how to choose something worthwhile from the variety of books, and you get lost among the assortment of bookstores, pay attention to small publishing houses (Polyandria, Scooter, Pink Giraffe). Smaller publishers often take a more careful approach to the choice of books and the quality of illustrations.

What are children's illustrations

There is no single classification of illustrations, everything is individual and depends on the author. For parents who still want to understand the assortment of children's picture books, we have prepared a small guide to the techniques, approaches and styles of drawing illustrations.

Start with what is different materials. Someone draws with paints, someone with pencils, someone combines techniques or uses collages, someone cuts out of paper. Some illustrators draw straight from the head, and someone draws a lot of sketches and selects references.

The main thing in the illustration is the unifying principle for a series of pictures. Most often it will be a plot, it is divided into key scenes, for each of which the artist creates illustrations. The figures depict the characters in the story.

As an example of illustrations united by the plot, one can cite the drawings of Frederic Piyo in the books “Lulu and the Scattered Stork” or “Lulu and the Feast of Lovers”. In the figures we see just those situations that are described in the text.

Illustrated by Frederic Piyo

Illustrated by Frederic Piyo

Some artists combine series of pictures according to the principle of the scene: for example, illustrations of scenes from village life. According to this principle, many Wimmelbuchs are designed - developing books for viewing, training attention and memory. These are large-format editions, in which each spread is a detailed picture that children can look at endlessly.

Wimmelbuch - perfect option for younger readers: children learn by playing and reading. A striking example is the book "In the Circus" by Doro Goebel and Peter Knorr. Several plots, each of which takes place on the territory of the circus.

Illustration by Doro Goebel and Peter Knorr

Pictures are sometimes combined according to the stylistic principle. The illustrator draws already familiar images, adapting them to his unique style. For example, he redraws the characters of a book, a series of books, a series of films or cartoons so that they, while remaining recognizable characters, reflect the vision of the artist. In the drawings of the Finnish graphic designer Jirki Vaatainen can be recognized Disney princesses even though they look strange. Children who love Frozen and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs will love this picture book.

Illustrations by Jirka Väätäinen

The peculiarity of technology can also be a unifying principle. For example, if the author only uses geometric figures like Oleg Beresnev in drawings of animals. Illustrations like this are great for training. creative thinking children and teach them to perceive simplified forms.

There are many such unifying principles. There are no restrictions, everything depends only on the artist himself and the possibilities of his imagination.

Illustration by Oleg Beresnev

Now live techniques and materials are very popular - watercolor, gouache, colored pencils, collages. Vector illustrations are also popular, but most often the artist's handwriting is much more difficult to recognize in them.

Here a prime example watercolor illustrations by Tokyo-based artist Mateusz Urbanowicz.

Illustrations Mateusz Urbanowicz

And here are the gouache drawings from Dinara Mirtalipova.

Illustrations by Dinara Mirtalipova

Some artists cut out illustrations from paper or fabric, such as the Czech artist Mihaela Mihailova. Such experiments with forms always occupy children.

Illustrations by Michaela Mihalyiova

Illustration by Tatiana Devayeva, Elena Erlikh and Alexei Lyapunov

Original works are obtained from those who work with linocut. As an example - a drawing by Olga Ezhova-Denisova from Yekaterinburg.

Illustration by Olga Yezhova-Denisova

Some artists use collages, as does the artist Morgana Wallace. Children often try to imitate such illustrations, being inspired to create their own crafts and collages.

Illustration by Morgana Meredith Wallace

The classic vector illustration, as in the work of the Irish illustrator Peter Donnelly, is notable primarily for the fact that it resembles a cartoon.

Illustration by Peter Donnelly

Best Illustrators

If you do not quite trust your own taste, refer to the works of famous artists. There are a lot of illustration gurus, and each person has his own list of favorites. I have compiled a list of my favorite authors. All of them influenced children's illustration, and many even stood at its origins.

Miroslav Shasek - children's writer and an illustrator from the Czech Republic, known for his colorful travel guides. A series of vibrant publications includes guides "This is New York", "This is Paris", "This is London" and many others.

Zdenek Miler- Another one Czech artist, who often worked with animation. Known as the author of cartoons about Mole, which many enjoyed watching in childhood.

Beatrice Potter is an English artist and author of children's books. She mainly painted animals and plants.

Lev Tokmakov - soviet artist-illustrator who collaborated with the magazine "Murzilka". His work is kept in Tretyakov Gallery and the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts.

Viktor Chizhikov- the artist who gave the world the image of the bear cub Mishka, the mascot of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.

Yuri Vasnetsov- Soviet artist, painter, graphic artist, theater artist, book illustrator and laureate state awards. His drawings can be found in most of the books we know from childhood.

Olga and Andrey Dugin - Russian artists who moved to Stuttgart. Their works are reminiscent of medieval miniatures. In 2007, the couple were awarded the Gold Medal of the Society of Illustrators of the United States for drawings for the fairy tale "The Brave Little Tailor".

Robert Ingpen- Australian-born illustrator. Among his works are drawings for "Alice in Wonderland", "Treasure Island", "Tom Sawyer", "Peter Pan and Wendy", Kipling's fairy tales and many others. classical works. For some, Robert Ingpen's illustrations seem too mature, serious and even gloomy, while for others they delight.

Eric Karl- illustrator, for a long time worked in the advertising department of the prestigious New York Times. One day, a children's writer liked the logo drawn by the artist so much that Eric Karl was offered to create an illustration for the book. Soon the artist himself began to write for young readers.

Rebecca Dotremer- French illustrator and author of his own children's books. Works in children's print media and creates posters with illustrations.

Ernest Shepard - English artist and an illustrator who worked as a cartoonist for the satirical magazine Punch. Known for his illustrations to the fairy tales of Winnie the Pooh.

Quentin Blake- English illustrator. His drawings adorn more than 300 books of recognized classics: Lewis Carroll, Rudyard Kipling, Jules Verne, Sylvia Plath, Roald Dahl and many others.

When you see these drawings, you want to take it and get inside - like Alice through the Looking Glass. The artists who illustrated the favorite books of our childhood were real wizards. Here we argue - now you will not only see in bright colors the room where your crib was, but also hear the voice of your mother reading a bedtime story!

Vladimir Suteev

Vladimir Suteev himself was the author of many fairy tales (for example, "Who said "MEW"?", Known for a wonderful cartoon). But most of all, we love him for all these inimitable hedgehogs, bears and bunnies - books with Suteev's animals looked literally to the holes!

Leonid Vladimirsky

Leonid Vladimirsky is the cutest in the world Scarecrow the Wise, the Tin Woodman and the Cowardly Lion, as well as the rest of the company, stomping to the Emerald City along the road paved with yellow bricks. And no less cute Pinocchio!

Viktor Chizhikov

Not a single issue of "Murzilka" and "Funny Pictures" could do without drawings by Viktor Chizhikov. He painted the world of Dragoonsky and Uspensky - and once he took and painted the immortal Olympic Bear.

Aminadav Kanevsky

Actually, Murzilka himself was created by an artist with unusual name Aminadav Kanevsky. In addition to Murzilka, he owns a lot of recognizable illustrations by Marshak, Chukovsky, Agniya Barto.

Ivan Semenov

The pencil from "Funny Pictures", as well as a lot of cartoon stories for this magazine, were drawn by Ivan Semenov. In addition to our first comics, he also created a lot of excellent drawings for Nosov's stories about Kolya and Mishka and the story of "Bobik visiting Barbos".

Vladimir Zarubin

The coolest postcards in the world are drawn by Vladimir Zarubin. He also illustrated books, but collectors now collect these cute New Year's squirrels and eight-March bunnies separately. And they do it right.

Elena Afanasyeva

Very characteristic (and so correct!) Soviet kids were produced by the artist Elena Afanasyeva. It's impossible to watch without nostalgia.

Evgeny Charushin

When the word "cute" did not yet exist, the cutest artist already existed: this is Evgeny Charushin, the chief specialist in animal life. Impossible fluffy kittens, furry cubs and disheveled sparrows - I just wanted to strangle them all ... well, in my arms.

Anatoly Savchenko

And Anatoly Savchenko turned out the most cheerful and mischievous creatures in the world: the prodigal parrot Kesha, the lazy Vovka in distant kingdom- and the same Carlson! Other Carlsons are just wrong, that's all.

Valery Dmitryuk

Another king of enthusiasm and hooliganism is Dunno Valery Dmitryuk. And this artist equally successfully decorated adult Crocodiles.

Heinrich Walk

Another famous "crocodile" - Heinrich Valk - was remarkably able to grasp the characters of boys and girls, as well as their parents. It is in his performance that we present "Dunno on the Moon", "Vitya Maleev at school and at home", "Hottabych" and the heroes of Mikhalkov.

Konstantin Rotov

Cartoonist Konstantin Rotov depicted the most cheerful and bright (despite the fact that black and white) "The Adventures of Captain Vrungel".

Ivan Bilibin

Ivan Tsarevich and gray wolves, firebirds and frog princesses, golden cockerels and golden fish ... In general, everything folk tales and Pushkin's fairy tales are forever Ivan Bilibin. Each detail of this intricate and patterned witchcraft can be considered indefinitely.

Yuri Vasnetsov

And even before Pushkin, we were entertained by riddles, nursery rhymes, white-sided magpies, "Cat's House" and "Teremok". And all this cheerful carousel shimmered with the colors of Yuri Vasnetsov.

Boris Dekhterev

When we grew up to "Thumbelina", "Puss in Boots" and Perrault and Andersen, Boris Dekhterev transferred us to their countries - with the help of several magic wands: colored pencils and watercolor brushes.

Edward Nazarov

The most chic Winnie the Pooh is at all with Shepard (although he is also good, what is there), but still with Eduard Nazarov! He illustrated the book and worked on our favorite cartoons. Speaking of cartoons, it was Nazarov who drew the funny heroes of the fairy tales "The Journey of the Ant" and "Once Upon a Time There Was a Dog."

Vyacheslav Nazaruk

Smiling Little Raccoon, friendly cat Leopold and an insidious couple of mice, as well as a sad Mammoth who was looking for his mother - all this is the work of the artist Vyacheslav Nazaruk.

Nikolai Radlov

Serious artist Nikolai Radlov successfully illustrated children's books: Barto, Marshak, Mikhalkov, Volkov - and illustrated them in such a way that they were reprinted a hundred times. His own book, Stories in Pictures, was especially famous.

Gennady Kalinovsky

Gennady Kalinovsky - the author of very bizarre and unusual graphic drawings. His style of drawing was in perfect harmony with the mood English fairy tales- "Mary Poppins" and "Alice in Wonderland" were just that "weirder and weirder"! No less original are Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox and other funny lads from Uncle Remus' Tales.

G.A.V. Traugot

The mysterious "G.A.V. Traugot sounded like the name of some magical Andersen hero. In fact, it was a whole family contract of artists: father Georgy and his sons Alexander and Valery. And the heroes of the same Andersen they turned out to be so light, slightly careless - they are about to take off and melt!

Evgeny Migunov

Our adored Alisa Kira Bulycheva is also Alisa Evgeny Migunova: this artist illustrated literally all the books of the great science fiction writer.

Natalia Orlova

However, there was another Alice in our life - from the world cartoon "The Secret of the Third Planet". Created by Natalia Orlova. And main character the artist painted from her own daughter, and the pessimist Zeleny from her husband!

All children love fairy tales: they love to listen to their grandmothers and mothers tell them, and those who can read read them themselves. They read and look at interesting, colorful pictures - illustrations that tell about the heroes of the book no less than the text of the fairy tale itself. Who creates these illustrations? Well, of course, artists, artists - illustrators.

Who are illustrators? These are artists who draw illustrations for books, helping to understand the content of the book, better imagine its characters, their appearance, characters, actions, the environment in which they live...

From the drawing of the fairy tale illustrator, you can guess without even reading it, evil heroes Fairy tales are either kind, smart or stupid. There is always a lot of fantasy and humor in fairy tales, so an artist illustrating a fairy tale must be a bit of a magician, have a sense of humor, love and understand folk art.

Let's meet some children's book illustrators.

Yuri Alekseevich Vasnetsov (1900 - 1973)

He began illustrating children's books in 1929. His book "Ladushki" in 1964 was awarded the highest award - the Diploma of Ivan Fedorov, and at the International Exhibition in Leipzig she received a silver medal. Yuri Alekseevich was wonderful artist- a storyteller, his work was characterized by kindness, calmness, humor. From childhood, he fell in love with a bright, cheerful Dymkovo toy and did not part with the images inspired by it, transferring them to the pages of books.

In Vasnetsov's illustrations, the ingenuous perception of the world, brightness and immediacy live: cats in pink skirts and hares in felt boots are walking, a round-eyed hare is dancing, lights are burning comfortably in huts where mice are not afraid of a cat, where there is such an elegant sun and clouds that look like fluffy pancakes. All the kids like his pictures for folk songs, nursery rhymes and jokes (“Ladushki”, “Rainbow-arc”). He illustrated folk tales, tales of Leo Tolstoy, Pyotr Ershov, Samuil Marshak, Vitaly Bianchi and other classics of Russian literature.

Evgeny Mikhailovich Rachev (1906-1997)

It is probably difficult to find a person who loves children's books and is not familiar with the illustrations of Evgeny Mikhailovich Rachev. He can rightly be called one of the most famous children's book artists of the last century.
Yevgeny Mikhailovich - animal painter, author of illustrations for Russian, Ukrainian, Romanian, Belarusian and other folk tales, fairy tales of the peoples of the North, fables by Ivan Krylov and Sergei Mikhalkov, fairy tales by Dmitry Mamin-Sibiryak, works by Mikhail Prishvin, Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, Leo Tolstoy , Vitalia Bianchi, etc.

His bright, kind and funny drawings remembered immediately and forever. The very first fairy tales of childhood - "Gingerbread Man", "Ryaba Hen", "Three Bears", "Zayushkina's Hut", "Goat Dereza" - remain in memory with the illustrations of Evgeny Rachev.

“In order to make drawings for fairy tales about animals, of course, one must know nature well. You need to know well how those animals and birds that you are going to draw look like, ”the artist wrote about his work.

But the animals that Evgeny Mikhailovich painted are not just foxes and wolves, hares and bears. Their images reflect human emotions, characters, mood. "Because in fairy tales, animals are like different people: good or evil, smart or stupid, mischievous, funny, funny ”(E. Rachev).

Evgeny Ivanovich Charushin (1901 - 1965)

Evgeny Charushin is a famous artist and writer. In addition to his own books "Volchishko and Others", "Vaska", "About the Magpie", he illustrated the works of Vitaly Bianchi, Samuil Marshak, Korney Chukovsky, Mikhail Prishvin and others.

Charushin knew the habits and images of animals well. In his illustrations, he painted them with extraordinary precision and character. Each illustration is individual, each depicts a character with an individual character corresponding to a particular situation. “If there is no image, there is nothing to depict,” said Evgeny Charushin. “I want to understand the animal, convey its habit, the nature of the movement. I'm interested in his fur. When a child wants to feel my little animal, I am glad. I want to convey the mood of the animal, fear, joy, sleep, etc. All this must be observed and felt.

The artist has his own method of illustration - purely pictorial. He draws not contour, but unusually skillfully, with spots and strokes. The animal can be depicted simply as a “shaggy” spot, but in this spot one can feel the alertness of the pose, and the specificity of the movement, and the peculiarity of the texture - the elasticity of the long and stiff hair raised on end, together with the downy softness of the thick undercoat.

The last book of E.I. Charushin became “Children in a Cage” by S.Ya. Marshak. And in 1965 he was posthumously awarded Golden medal at the International Children's Book Fair in Leipzig.

Mai Petrovich Miturich (1925 - 2008)

Mai Miturich is famous, first of all, as a great graphic artist and book illustrator. He is not just an artist, but also a traveler. Most big success brought him cooperation with Gennady Snegirev. Together they made trips to the North, the Far East, after which stories and drawings appeared for them. The most successful books "About Penguins" and "Pinagor" were awarded diplomas for the best design.

May Petrovich is an excellent draftsman. He's drawing wax crayons, watercolor. Miturich chooses this type of illustration, in which neither color, nor volume, nor shadows violate the overall harmony of the drawing and the white sheet. He carefully chooses 2-3 colors yellow, blue, black and paints without mixing colors. Avoids direct similarity of color with nature, its color is conditional.

In stories about nature, soft tones, transparent watercolors enhance the feeling of silence, calmness that a person experiences in nature.

The artist designed about 100 books for children. Among them are illustrations for the works of Korney Chukovsky, Samuil Marshak, Gennady Snegirev, Agnia Barto, Sergei Mikhalkov, Rudyard Kipling, Lewis Carroll, Sergei Aksakov, Homer's Odyssey, and Japanese Folk Tales.

Lev Alekseevich Tokmakov (1928 - 2010)

The creative activity of Lev Alekseevich Tokmakov is diverse: he not only devotes a lot of time to working with children's books, but also works in easel graphics- he created several dozen autolithographs and many drawings, he often appears in print as a journalist, critic and children's writer. And yet, the main place in the artist's work is occupied by book illustration - for more than forty years he has been drawing children's books. On the pages of books appear very strange creatures. Isn't this a toy? A silver wolf, a bear with balls instead of ears? The artist paints with a silhouette, a color spot, consciously uses the "man-made" technique. His drawings are completely devoid of everyday details and descriptiveness. A little bit of blue paint - a lake, a little bit of dark green - a forest. More interesting trick artist - his characters do not move, they are frozen in place. They are similar to their prototypes on popular prints and spinning wheels, from where the Tokmakov animals come from.

A true discovery in the field of children's book art was the illustrations he created for books: Gianni Rodari "Tales on the Phone", Astrid Lindgren "Pippi long stocking”, Irina Tokmakova “Rostik and Kesha”, Vitaly Bianchi “Like an ant hurried home”, to the works of Valentin Berestov, Boris Zakhoder, Sergey Mikhalkov and many others.

Vladimir Grigorievich Suteev (1903 - 1993)

Vladimir Suteev is one of the first Soviet animators, director and screenwriter of cartoons. From the mid-40s, he turned to children's books as the author of drawings and texts. Animation has left its mark on the artist's work: his animals have become comical, funny, amusing. We see a wealth of action. The main thing for him is to show the character of the hero, his mood. The drawings are filled interesting details emphasizing the soft humor of fairy tales. Most often, the artist uses part of the page for illustration, organically combining drawing and text.

Thanks to his pen, the reader received beautiful illustrations of the books by Gianni Rodari "The Adventures of Cipollino", Norwegian writer Alpha Preisen "Merry New Year”, Hungarian writer Agnes Balint “Dwarf Gnomych and Izyumka”, American writer Lilian Muur “Little Raccoon and the one who sits in the pond”.

Vladimir Grigorievich Suteev composed his own fairy tales. "I am writing right hand, and I draw with my left hand. So the right one is mostly free, so I came up with an occupation for it. In 1952, the first book was published, authored by Suteev himself, "Two fairy tales about a pencil and paints." Since then, he has been writing scripts for cartoons, illustrating books, acting as a director and screenwriter.

Among the published books with illustrations by Vladimir Suteev, such as: “What kind of bird is this?”, “Chicken and duckling”, “Lifesaver”, “Mustache-striped”, “Uncle Styopa”, “ Happy summer"," Happy New Year", "The Adventures of Pif", "Aibolit", "Apple", "Cockroach", "Ignorant Bear", "Stubborn Frog", "Kitten who forgot how to ask for food", "Alone Trouble", "It's easier to go down", "Where is it better to be afraid?", "The middle of a sausage", "It's not fair", "A well-hidden cutlet", "Shadow understands everything", "Secret language", "One morning", "Daisies in January", "How a Puppy Tyavka Learned to Crow", etc.

Viktor Aleksandrovich Chizhikov (b. 26 September 1935)

The artist turned his drawing into some kind of game where there is not a real, but a conditional world, allowing him to build his own fairyland. It is impossible not to succumb to the charm of his characters.

Viktor Alexandrovich says: “You won’t interest me in color, I am color blind, I am only human.”

The heroes of his drawings always bring a smile - kind and ironic. Easily recognizable, full of good humor and warmth, Chizhikov's drawings became known to millions of readers of all ages, and in 1980 he invented and drew a bear cub Misha - the mascot of the Moscow Olympic Games, who immediately became one of the most popular cartoon characters in the country.

His illustrations adorned the books of almost all the classics of Soviet children's literature - Agnia Barto, Sergei Mikhalkov, Boris Zakhoder, Samuil Marshak, Nikolai Nosov, Eduard Uspensky and many other domestic and foreign authors.

Tatyana Alekseevna Mavrina (1902-1996)

Born in Nizhny Novgorod, in 1921 she studied in Moscow at the higher art and technical workshops and the institute. The only Soviet artist who was awarded in 1976 the G. Kh. Andersen Prize for creativity in the field of children's illustration.

A talented and original artist has developed her own pictorial language. Its essence is in the open sound of color, in the ability to see the world broadly and decoratively, in the boldness of drawing and composition, and the introduction of fairy-tale-fantastic elements. Since childhood, seeing painted spoons and boxes, brightly colored toys, she was fascinated by a completely different, unknown technique, a completely different way of dyeing. Mavrina even includes text in the illustration (the first and last lines are written by hand, the characters are highlighted, outlined with a bright line). He paints with gouache.

A special place in her work was occupied by illustrating books for children. The most famous design of the fairy tales of A. S. Pushkin: “The Tale of the Dead Princess and the Seven Bogatyrs”, “Ruslan and Lyudmila”, “Tales”, as well as the collections “According to pike command”,“ Russian fairy tales ”,“ For distant lands ”. Tatyana Alekseevna Mavrina also acted as an illustrator of her own books: “ fairy beasts”,“ Gingerbreads are baked, they are not given into the paws of a cat”, “Fairytale alphabet”.

Vladimir Mikhailovich Konashevich (1888-1963)

The story interested him all his life. He fantasized easily and with pleasure, he could illustrate the same fairy tale several times and each time in a new way.

Vladimir Konashevich drew illustrations for fairy tales different peoples: Russian, English, German, Chinese, African.

The first book with his illustrations, The ABC in Pictures, was published in 1918. She got it by accident. The artist drew various funny pictures for his little daughter. Then he began to draw pictures for each letter of the alphabet. Some of the publishers saw these drawings, they liked them and were printed.

Looking at his drawings, you feel how the artist himself laughs with the children.

He handles the book page very boldly, without destroying its plane, he makes it boundless, depicts real and most fantastic scenes with amazing skill. The text does not exist separately from the drawing, it lives in the composition. In one case, it is marked with a frame of flower garlands, in another it is surrounded by a transparent small pattern, in the third it is subtly connected with surrounding color spots on a colored background. His drawings evoke not only imagination, humor, but also form an aesthetic sense and artistic taste. There is no deep space in Konashevich's illustrations, the drawing is always close to the viewer.

The books designed by Konashevich were bright, festive and brought great joy to children.

Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin (1876-1942)

The artist paid much attention to the art of book design. He was one of the first who began to draw illustrations for Russian folk tales and epics.

He worked on books small volume, the so-called "books-notebooks", and designed them so that everything in these books: text, drawings, ornament, cover - formed a single whole. And the illustrations in them were given as much space as the text.

Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin developed a system of graphic techniques that made it possible to combine illustrations and design in one style, subordinating them to the plane of a book page.

Character traits Bilibino style: the beauty of the patterned pattern, the exquisite decorativeness of color combinations, the subtle visual embodiment of the world, the combination of bright fabulousness with a sense of folk humor, etc.

He made illustrations for Russian folk tales “The Frog Princess”, “Feather Finist-Yasna Sokol”, “Vasilisa the Beautiful”, “Marya Morevna”, “Sister Alyonushka and Brother Ivanushka”, “ white duck”, to the tales of A. S. Pushkin - “The Tale of Tsar Saltan”, “The Tale of the Golden Cockerel”, “The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish” and many others.

Every actor dreams of filming own movie, and each children's illustrator- write your own book. Or vice versa - every children's writer would like to illustrate his own book. Whatever the case, some people are pretty damn good at it.

We at "Little Stories" understand how important it is for the writer's idea and the artist's vision to resonate - otherwise it will turn out to be a falsehood that children will recognize only in this way. To prevent such sadness, we carefully write down each character and each scene in the task for the artist - even the movements and facial expressions of the characters. If you follow our pages in Facebook And In contact with you know how serious we are.

Today we will show the work of children's writers who illustrated their books themselves.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Everyone knows the "Little Prince" and a recognizable romantic image - a boy with straw hair stands on a small ball of his own planet. And this, meanwhile, is an illustration created by the author himself.

Exupery was a test pilot, war correspondent, received a number of literary prizes for the “adult” novels he wrote, but we will always remember the image of this young philosopher:

Sven Nordqvist

The care and love with which the Swedish writer draws illustrations for his own books is truly admirable. Look at the amount of detail in old Petson's workshop!

Books Nurdqvist, perhaps, you can not even read at all - but only endlessly look at these amazing drawings with a million details. And be sure to look for a little Findus kitten on each!

Lewis Carroll

Scandinavian writers probably have a special gift for illustration. So, if you didn’t know, Tove Jansson herself invented and drew the famous Moomin trolls (and all the drawings in her own books).

In the near future, her books began to be adapted for the theater, to produce souvenirs and toys of characters based on the illustrations of the writer. This gave Tove Jansson huge incomes, and soon made him one of the richest people in Finland. The writer was even able to buy her own island, where she subsequently hid from annoying journalists.

Joanne Rowling

The same "Tale of the Three Brothers" that appeared in latest book cycle about Harry Potter, and four more fairy tales are included in the book "Tales of the Bard Beedle", which the writer herself illustrated. Maybe she didn't do it as colorfully as Professor Tolkien's, but you have to give her credit.

A famous scene from books and films: three brothers meet Death, who was outwitted:

John R.R. Tolkien

Today, Tolkien's books are no longer so striking in the scale and sophistication of the world, but the writer became the ancestor of classical fantasy and at one time made a real revolution.

Professor's illustrations, whether light watercolors or pencil sketches, and today look stunningly in keeping with the spirit of Middle-earth:

The writer worked out in detail not only languages, culture, maps and landscape, but also made sketches of characters.

Beatrice Potter

Beatrice was originally an illustrator, and only then took up writing. I must say, she does both fantastically well.

Cressida Cowell

Everyone famous cartoon"How to Train Your Dragon" would not have become so charming if it were not for the visual style laid down by the writer herself. Her illustrations are naive, childish, but incredibly charming.

Do you recognize Hiccup and the Night Fury?

Tomi Wingerer

The first book of the writer "The Adventures of the Hryullops Family" with very stylish and funny author's illustrations, was published in Russia only in 2010, but has already managed to win its fans.

Chris Riddell

Illustrations for The Emperor of the Absurd and other works

Chris Riddell is not only a famous British illustrator and author, but also a political cartoonist for the London newspaper The Observer.

An illustration for the "Air Pirates" series, written by Chris in collaboration with another writer, showing the local world called "The End":

Conclusion

As we see multifaceted talent children's writers are often crowded within literature only. It is for the best - after all, the author's own drawings give the most reliable reflection of his intention.

As always, our little illustrated (and animated!) stories can be downloaded here:

(1918-1998)

Graphic artist, poster artist, cartoonist, in "Crocodile" since 1938, master of the nursery book illustration. He illustrated a huge number of books for children, his drawings for the works of N. Nosov were especially remembered (in particular, "Dunno on the Moon")

Vedernikov Evgeny Alimpievich (1918, Perm province)

People's Artist RSFSR, cartoonist and poster artist. He studied in the workshop of S.M. Seidenberg in Leningrad (1935 - 1938), at the Institute for Advanced Studies of Artists in Moscow (1940 - 1941) with N.N. Vysheslavtseva, M.A. Dobrova. Participated in exhibitions since 1941. Even before the war, he was known as the author of political and everyday cartoons for the magazines Krokodil, Smena, Ogonyok and the newspaper Pravda. During the war years, he worked in the front-line newspaper "To defeat the enemy." In peacetime, he continued his work as an illustrator of printed publications: "Funny Pictures", etc., many books, incl. "The Adventures of the Good Soldier Schweik".

Vinokur Vladimir Isaakovich (b. 1927, Moscow).

He studied at the Moscow secondary art school (1939-1946) and the Moscow state institute them. V. I. Surikov (1946-1952) with B. A. Dekhterev and M. S. Rodionov.

Lebedev Vladimir Vasilievich (1891 - 1967)

1891, 14(27) May.
Born in St. Petersburg.
1910
For the first time he exhibits his works at the "Exhibition of Graphics and Drawing" at the Academy of Arts.
1910- 1911
Draws animals in the battle workshop of F. Roubaud. 1912-1915
He studies in the private studio of the artist M. D. Bernshtein. 1912
Admitted to the Academy of Arts.
1911- 1913
Print your drawings in children's magazine"Galchonok". Since that time, he has been working in the satirical magazines "Satyricon", "New Satyricon", "Argus", etc.
1914-1916
Military service - drawing work in the aeronautic park.
1917
Illustrates the first book for children - Arabian tale"The Lion and the Bull" (Ed. "Lights", Pg. 1918). 1918
Participates in the festive decoration of Petrograd - the project of decorating the Police Bridge.
1918-1921 Professor at the Petrograd Vkhutemas.
1920-1921
Deputy Head of the Propaganda and Poster Department of the ROSTA Bureau Northern region. Performed by "ROSTA Windows". Graphic series "Washerwomen". "1921
He illustrates R. Kipling's Baby Elephant and writes the book The Adventures of Chuch-lo with his own text (both published in Epoch, Pg., 1922).
1923
Illustrates Russian folk tales for the publishing house "Thought" (Pg., 1924).
1924-1926
The beginning of joint work with the poet S. Marshak on children's books "Circus", "Ice Cream", "Yesterday and Today", "Poodle" and others for the publishing house "Rainbow".
1924-1933
Editor-artist of the Leningrad branch of the State Publishing House, heads the art editorial of the children's department. 1924-1927
Satirical drawings for the magazines "Smekhach", "Beach", "Buzoter-Beach".
1928
Personal exhibition in the halls of the Russian Museum in Leningrad. Works of 1920-1928 are exhibited - painting, easel and magazine graphics, original illustrations for children's books, "ROSTA Windows".
1933-1941
Chief artist of the Leningrad branch of Detgiz.
1941- 1942
Responsible editor of Izogiz. Working on posters.
1942-1945 Works in Moscow at TASS Windows.
1945, December 6
Awarded the title of Honored Artist of the RSFSR.
1947
Drawings for " colorful book» S. Marshak.
1948 - 1950s-1960s New (watercolor) versions of illustrations for children's books by S. Marshak ("Luggage", "The Tale of stupid little mouse" and etc.).
April 30, 1966
Awarded the title of People's Artist of the RSFSR.
1967, November 21 Died in Leningrad

Lemkul Fedor Viktorovich (1914-1995)

Fedor Lemkul received his initial art education at the Moscow Polygraphic College, which at that time produced book artists - this was on the eve of the war; then went to the army, where he also worked as an artist. He considers the remarkable Soviet graphic artist P. A. Alyakrinsky to be his main teacher, who gave the young artist a lot both in the sense of professional excellence as well as in the understanding of art.
The artist began with work in the children's magazines "Murzilka" and "Pioneer". The first works that attracted attention were the design of the books by S. Baruzdin "The Tale of the Tram" and M. Karem "My Serpent" (1956 - 1958). big luck Lemkul was the design of the book by K. Chukovsky "Jack the Giant Slayer" (M., 1966).
One of the first, after a long break, Lemkul illustrates the children's poems of Daniil Kharms. The artist gave a lot of effort to the design of the works of the classics of children's literature - S. Marshak and S. Mikhalkov. In the work on books illustrated by many of our artists, Lemkuhl finds his individual colors. A notable milestone in the work of F. Lemkuhl was the design of "Tales" in the processing of A. Nechaev (M., 1977). First of all, the book attracts with its intense colorfulness. The artist gives close-up figures of heroes. With great humor, he draws funny and stupid kings, obsequious and cunning courtiers, rustic peasants, and teases the naive princess. The characters are portrayed vividly and convincingly. The artist's manner is free and uninhibited, the color sounds in full force, the style is expressed and easily recognizable. With inexhaustible sparkling humor and imagination framed and little fairy tale Polish writer K. Makushinsky "Pan Thread" (M., 1973).

Migunov Evgeny Tikhonovich (1921-2004)

In 1939 he entered the art department of VGIK.
In 1941, after the start of the Great Patriotic War went to the militia. In the autumn of 1941 he resumed his studies.
In 1943 he graduated from VGIK and joined the Soyuzmultfilm film studio. He worked as a production designer (until 1946 - together with A.P. Sazonov) in film crews groups of I. P. Ivanov-Vano, A. V. Ivanov, sisters Brumberg, M. S. Pashchenko, V. G. Suteev, L. A. Amalrik, and V. I. Polkovnikov. For about a year he headed the drawing shop.
In 1949 and 1951, for the first time in animation, he applied oil paints for making backgrounds (films "Polkan and Shavka", "Forest Travelers"). Was a co-author methodological program teaching animators and draftsmen in courses at the studio, taught character design.
In 1954 he made his debut as a director, standing at the origins of the resumption of the production of puppet animated films in the USSR. Together with the mechanic S. I. Etlis, he patented and applied new techniques in the production of cartoons - original way fixing the doll to the model, making a shell from foamy latex, improving the hinged frames of the doll. Participated in the organization of the technical base for frame-by-frame shooting of 3D objects, created a technological note on the basics of the production process of shooting a puppet cartoon.
Participated in the development of the satirical animated film magazine "Woodpecker", equipped with poetic texts and reworked the proposed plots.
Prepared titles and design for a number of games feature films. He was a member of the artistic council of the Soyuzmultfilm film studio, from which he was fired in 1960. During his work at Soyuzmultfilm, he made 343,000 drawings, which amounted to 22 films, four of which received international awards.
In 1961-1966 he worked under a contract in the editorial offices of the magazines "Funny Pictures", "Crocodile", edited a series of brochures "Crocodile Library", later worked in book and magazine graphics, drew cartoons, filmstrips.
He illustrated Alexander Volkov's series about the Emerald City, Kir Bulychev's series about Alisa Selezneva, Evgeny Veltistov's series about Electronics and the Strugatskys' book "Monday starts on Saturday". He transferred from animation to printing one of the main properties of his illustrations - dynamism: almost all the characters are in motion.
Author of memoirs and essays on caricature, caricature and animation.
He was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War II degree, medals.
In 1983 he was awarded the Gold Medal for participating in the exhibition "Satire in the Struggle for Peace".

Miturich Mai Petrovich (1925 - 2009)

People's Artist of Russia, full member Russian Academy arts.
After participating in the Great Patriotic War and serving in the army, he entered the Moscow Polygraphic Institute.
After graduating in 1953, he began working in the field of book illustration.
From the mid-1950s to the end of the 1980s, Mai Miturich designed about 100 books for children. Among them are illustrations for the works of K. Chukovsky, D. Kharms, S. Marshak, G. Snegirev, A. Barto, S. Mikhalkov, R. Kipling, L. Carroll, S. Aksakov, Homer's "Odyssey", "Japanese Folk fairy tales." M. Miturich's illustrations were awarded numerous diplomas of the All-Union and All-Russian book art competitions, medals International Exhibition book art in Leipzig and international biennale illustrations in Bratislava, with an international diploma named after H. H. Andersen. The books designed by him were repeatedly published abroad.
For the design of the collection "Japanese folk tales" Mai Miturich was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun - the second most important state award Japan. Among other awards of the master are the State Prizes of the RSFSR and the Russian Federation.
The works of May Miturich-Khlebnikov, which received the highest appreciation from professionals and viewers, are kept in the collections of the State Tretyakov Gallery, the Russian Museum, State Museum Fine Arts named after A.S. Pushkin, the largest foreign museums and private collections in Russia and abroad.

Panov Vladimir Petrovich (1937 - 2007)

Graphic artist, book artist. He studied at the Moscow State Art Institute (1950s) with B.A. Dekhterev. Illustrated by S. Aksakov" The Scarlet Flower"(1961), H. K. Andersen "Tales" (1971, 1978, 2002), P. Bazhov " Ural tales(1957, six reprints), etc.

Skobelev Mikhail Alexandrovich (1930 - 2007)

Cartoonist, illustrator of children's books.
Born July 17, 1930. Worked for a short time at the Soyuzmultfilm film studio as a production designer (in the mid-1950s).
Studied with F. Bogorodsky, G. Shegal, Yu. Pimenov, A. Sazonov.
People's Artist Russian Federation (2000).
Painter, theater artist, book illustrator. Graduated from the Moscow Polygraphic Institute. Continued education in art department All-Union Institute of Cinematography. Designed performances at the Sovremennik Theater: Two Brothers, Always on Sale, Five Evenings, etc. Author of many popular cartoons Soviet period. Illustrated books until 1970. together with A. M. Eliseev. He worked at the film studio "Soyuzmultfilm", in the magazines "Crocodile", "Youth", "Murzilka", " Funny pictures". Illustrated by A. Tolstoy "The Golden Key or the Adventures of Pinocchio" (1980, in subsequent years - new versions), V. Mayakovsky, D. Kharms. M. Skobelev's works are kept in Russian museums, as well as in private collections in the USA, Israel, France, Russia.

Tauber Viktor Isaevich (1901 - 1990)

Graphic artist, book artist, studied at VHUTEIN (1922 - 1923). He drew for the magazine "Murzilka". Illustrated fairy tales by H.K. Andersen, the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm, created books - pictures and a number of excellent autolithographs based on the plots of fairy tales. In the 1950s, the book "Puss in Boots" by Charles Perrault with his amazing drawings survived numerous reprints. Last years life worked on illustrations for "Master and Margarita" M. Bulgakov.

Tokmakov Lev Alekseevich (1928 - 2010)

People's Artist of Russia (1998). Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1981)
Born in the city of Yekaterinburg (Sverdlovsk).
He studied from 1945 to 1951 at the Moscow Higher Institute of Art and Industry (named after Count Stroganov). His teachers were Pavel Kuznetsov and Alexander Kuprin.
Since 1958 he began to cooperate with the magazine "Murzilka".
1980 - the name of L. Tokmakov was included in the Honorary List of H. K. Andersen.
1984 - received a gold medal from the Yemeni government Arab Republic for a series of works on YAR.
1985 - gold medal at the BIB in Bratislava for illustrations for O. Preusler's book "Krabat".
1988 - honorary diploma of H.K. Andersen for illustrations to the book by I. Tokmakova "Carousel".

Traugot Valery Georgievich (1936-2009)

During the Great Patriotic War, he was evacuated from a boarding school in a Siberian village, where his first teacher was the sculptor G. A. Schultz, who accompanied the children, wounded on the Leningrad front; then Valery Traugot, together with other children of St. Petersburg artists (V.V. Proshkin, V.G. Petrov and K.I. Suvorova), returned to Leningrad.
Graduated from the Secondary art school(SHSH) at the Academy of Arts, continued his studies in Moscow, at the Surikov Institute (at the Department of Sculpture), then graduated from the Leningrad Higher Art and Industrial School. IN AND. Mukhina (1960). He considered his father, Georgy Nikolaevich Traugot, to be his main teacher.
He made his debut in the field of children's book illustration in 1956. The first books were illustrated together with his father and brother, the drawings were signed with a fervent, memorable monogram G.A.V. - Georgy, Alexander, Valery (these initials were present on children's books for a long time as a tribute to memory even after the tragic death of G. N. Traugot). In total, the artists participated in the illustration of more than 200 books. The book "686 funny transformations" was especially popular; fairy tales by G.Kh. Andersen in their design were reprinted 17 times, and their total circulation exceeded three million.
Also took part in the illustration following works: "Tales of Mother Goose", " Fairy tales"Charles Perrault, Bluebeard" by Charles Perrault, "Cuban Tales", "Tales of Cambodia", "Iliad" and "Odyssey" by Homer, "The Science of Loving" by Ovid, "The Golden Ass" by Apuleius.
On all-Russian competitions the Traugot brothers received more than 30 diplomas, of which 14 were of the first degree (including diplomas of the Press Committees of the USSR and the Russian Federation for illustrations to the fairy tales of G.Kh. Andersen).
Artists regularly participated in exhibitions of books and illustrations ( book graphics) in Russia, Germany, Italy, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Japan, France.
The works of the brothers A. and V. Traugoths are in the museums of Moscow (including the Tretyakov Gallery), St. Petersburg, Tver, Arkhangelsk, Petrozavodsk, Vologda, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, Ryazan, Kaliningrad; abroad: in Japan, Germany, the Czech Republic, etc., as well as in many private collections in Europe, USA, Israel, Russia.