Lev Tokmakov . Russian Childrens’ Illustrator
October 11, 2011
There’s an amazing blog by Will Schofield where the inspiration for this post on Soviet Illustrator
Lev Tokmakov has sprung from. These illustrations are taken from a 1973 book called
‘ Fairy Tales about Animals ‘. They have a beautiful watercolour feel to them as though they’re
paintings from ceramic surfaces.
There’s such expression in the faces of the animals and an underlying darkness that reminds me of
Aesop’s Fables.
Thanks to irtroit for the wolf image here. The four lower illustrations are taken from another book
called ‘ Katya in Toy City ‘ from 1973, and taken from the russian site Da-zdra-per-m.
More biography info about Lev available on this translated page here.
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fishinkblog.com 
Do you have any biographical information on Lev Tokmakov? birth date, place?
Hi there, sorry I just came across his work by chance. All I could find was this ” 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. He also worked on a large number of Russian folk tales, and other tales from Italy and China.” I’ve a feeling he may have passed away in 2010, I don’t know whether it’s accurate (date-wise) but I hope it’s helpful.