17,500 Illustrations were submitted by 3,520 participants from 81 countries and regions in 2023 for 58th Bologna Children’s Book Fair Illustrator’s Exhibition (‘the BCBF exhibition’ from now on).
344 finalists were narrowed down and 79 artists from 31 countries were selected.
Itabashi Art Museum in the northern part of Japan has a strong relationship with Bologna and it always host the exhibition (I believe the first international exhibition after Bologna).
This is the 3rd time I visited the BCBF exhibition. It is so inspiring to see artworks from all over the world, what’s trending and what kind of illustrators are out there for children’s book.
Out of the 79, here is a list of illustrations I personally love and those who inspired to create an artwork/story myself.
List of personal favorite illustrations
1 Sari Airola
Country: Finland
https://www.sariairola.com/
I love how the main character’s body is scribbles.
3 Diego Bianki
Country: Argentina
https://www.instagram.com/bianki.diego
I love the bright and detailed illustrations.
5 Elina Braslina
Country: Latvia
https://www.elinabraslina.com/
The large scale illustrations have so much going on.
I especially like the scissors drawing below for its angle and dynamic lines.
It was interesting that the each artwork was the same large size and placed right together without the frames having any gap.
9 Reto Crameri
Country: Switzerland
https://retocrameri.com/
I love the cohesiveness of the illustrations through a limited color palette and the form of the children.
10 Inga Dragile
Country: Lithuania
https://www.instagram.com/ingadagile/
The big canvas with a tiny drawing caught my eyes and I wanted to walk closer to take a look.
No colors were used but it was eye catching with lots of drawings of people that were all unique. Collage adds reality and texture.
11 Bruno De Almeida
Country: Brazil
https://brunomzb.com/
BOLD! I love the flexible and free figures with some shadings.
17 Julie Escoriza
Country: France
http://www.julieescoriza.com/
Simple, strong lines and abstract.
I think any work that evokes reaction or emotion is successful but I especially love artworks that make me smile like these artworks.
18 Oscar Felicite
Country: France
https://galleries.bolognachildrensbookfair.com/objects/oscar-f-licit-france-b40c6e3
This first piece reminded me of Yoshitake Shinsuke drawing with details and explanation in a diagram form.
The artworks interested me with different style of drawings were mixed with unexpected story ending where the man became the fishing lure.
19 Yael Frankel
Country: Argentina
http://www.yaelfrankel.com/
I love the big white space and the character’s shape.
20 Irena Freitas
Country: Brazil
https://www.irenafreitas.com/
Cute and colourfl illustrations were eye catching (especially the Japanese one!)
I wanted to take on board the format used for strategic text spacing in my picture book in the future.
24 Carla Haslbauer
Country: Germany
https://www.carlahaslbauer.com/
Simple line drawings for tertiary details
29 Guilherme Karsten
Country: Brazil
https://guilhermekarsten.com/
I love the big whitespaces, bright colors, fun delivery with a great moral of the story.
33 Suyeon Lee
Country: South Korea
I really like their picture book about 2 kids in snow that I saw maybe 2 years ago.
The bold lines, whitespace and limited yet bright neon color usage grabbed my attention and distinct style. I admire any illustrators who’s work are so distinctive that you immediately know that it’s their work.
34 Yaqi Lin
Country: China
The shading caught my eyes. The above drawing in particular was such a dramatic close up, shading in gray and contrast in colors.
36 Thea Lu
Country: China
https://thealu.net/
How the picture book was constructed was unique with 2 stories that’s interconnected and can be opened up one by one. Heart warming and soft gentle illustrations.
41 Eleonora Marton
Country: Italy
https://eleonoramarton.com/
Eye catching from afar with its big bold lines and bright colors.
42 Ayaka Matsui
Country: Japan
https://matsuiayaka.com/
Her works are very quiet, evocative. The effect of how the inks smear is a beautiful representation of ghosts and the details of the space was impeccable.
46 Tito Moccia
Country: Switzerland
https://www.titomoccia.ch/
Black and white artwork is striking with lots of tiny dots and lines make distinctive patterns.
48 Fereshteh Najafi
Country: Iran
https://fereshtehnajafi.art/
I like this particular part of the drawing where an orangey-red outline was used to draw a lady.
49 Hideki Nishioka
Country: Japan
https://www.instagram.com/hidekinishioka1973/
The series created such a quiet and beautiful atmosphere with incredibly meticulous realistic details with black pen.
53 Miran Park
Country: South Korea
I distinctly remember from past BCBF exhibition. Simple, thin and black line drawing with bold single color. The use of where the color was added created another drawing which was clever and delightful when I realised that there are 2 types of artwork – the nature and the guitar.
59 Margaux Romano
Country: Italy
https://www.instagram.com/margauxromano
The series made me wince because of it was so clean, simple and eye catching. Oh, to be able to create artworks this good!
I love the block and matte colors.
68 Fernando Vilela de Moura
Country: Brazil
Mixture of bold ink and texture contrast was interesting.
70 Sven Volker
Country: Germany
https://svenvoelker.com/hello
Bold graphic design especially the first one of the beat and the contrasting size of a butterfly was beautiful.
Special exhibition
Masakatsu Shimoda
Country: Japan
https://www.instagram.com/shimodamasakatsu
The subject matter and how the story started grabbed the reader’s attention and utterly unique.
The main character isn’t necessary lovable (drunk pirate) and focused on a single event of the dead pirate sinking to the bottom of the ocean was somehow a little beautiful and memorable.
List of illustration that inspired me
7 Joaquin Camp
Country: Argentina
https://www.instagram.com/camp.joaquin
I love the bright and artwork with a lot of buildings or people.
This gave me an idea of “what if I got a big paper and draw one person I see everyday and filled the page?”
26 Parvin Heydarinzadeh
Country: Iran
https://www.instagram.com/parvinheydarizadeh
One drawing in particular with a big plane’s shadow over the wheat field grabbed my attention. I admired how clear it was with the use of hue change that the shadow was very distinctive.
Parvin’s drawings were about war but the plane shadow artwork made me wonder if I can create a travel series with a similar concept of plane shadow.
What I learned about the type of art that attracts me and I gravitate towards:
Simplicity
Strong lines
Unexpected color usage
Bold colors
Drawing with lots of small drawings (not necessarily details) but with big white space
I like South American (Brazilian and Argentinian in particular), Italian
BCBF always give me so much motivation, inspiration and awe to creators around the world. I love how I can enjoy different styles from all over the world.
Hey people!!!!!
Good mood and good luck to everyone!!!!!
Thank you!