F is for Fox

Augustina Foxiewicz - Grand Ole Bestiary

If you love foxes as much as I do and think you have what it takes to design a creature like no other for the next issue of Uppercase magazine, run, run, run to their site NOW. Janine is accepting submissions for a Gallery of Foxes, but the closing date is this Friday, 19th February.

Books please

Chataigne, by Anton Chekhov and Nathalie Parrain

éditions MeMo

I'm asking Santa for books this year. I have a long list waiting for him already and I seem to be adding to it on an almost daily basis. I thought I'd share a few of the titles I'd love to find under the tree.

Dear, Sweet Home by Uchida Ayano
from Junku

Illusive, Contemporary illustration part 3
from Gestalten


Du Valjer, handmade notebook made from recycled European and African university envelopes, Swedish metro tickets and supermarket carrier bags.
by Bastiano

Jean Fil à Fil, Roger Mello
éditions Memo

Camilla Engman - The Suitcase series volume 1
Uppercase Gallery

Les Chaises by Louise-Marie Cumont
Les Trois Ourses
found via Vintage for Kids

Boro: Rags and Tatters from the Far North of Japan
You can also look inside and buy it through here
found via the Silly BooDilly


Grandfather's Envelopes by Fujii Sakuko
from Sri
Found via the Silly BooDilly


At Lytte Til Laeken "Listening to the Skylark", a collaboration between Danish textile artist Anette Blaesbjerg Orom and poet Eske K. Mathiesen.
from Ashes & Milk

And, last but not least, I'm so excited because I've just pre-ordered what promises to be an amazing, authoritative book about children's design between 1920 and 1970.

by Carole Daprey, éditions l'as de pique

more of which later when it comes out in November.

Irina Troitskaya

My three children went back to school today, fitting then that I should begin by showing you some of Irina Troitskaya's wonderful illustrations from a school-themed Russian comic strip. You may already be familiar with Irina's work, especially if you read Uppercase magazine. I came across her portfolio quite by chance and instantly fell in love with her world of illustration, so different from anything I've ever seen before.

"Life's too short to be someone you don't want to".

Irina was born and raised in Izhevsk, a place she describes as "a city of dead ends, sad electronic music and Finno-Ugric cultural roots". Her love of drawing led her to study art at Udmurt State University for five years, but left her weary, feeling nothing but abhorrence for the way painting and drawing were regarded. After graduating she worked as a TV journalist, then in summer 2003 decided to try her chances in Moscow. She has established herself as a successful freelance illustrator working for press, advertising and book publishing, as well as being a tutor of a visual communications course. Irina is studying for a Master's degree in illustration at the University of Hertfordshire, England.

I've really enjoyed reading Irina's blog and seeing some of the things that inspire her, the environment she lives in and grew up in, all the things that she sees, lives, breathes and absorbs. The world that will influence her future creation.

I've loved seeing how dolls she played with as a child


have, over time, been transformed into these beautiful and strange Matreshkas.






How her fabulous sketchbooks






have developed into these patterns and illustrations,




and, how birds and animals from Russian litterature have been shaped into mysterious masks and striking Easter eggs.




Pictures speak louder than words.

Take the time to explore Irina's blog and portfolio, a whole new world awaits you.