Italian folk fairy tales, in an adaptation by Italo Calvino, served as the inspiration for this project. Having read many fairy tales, I started to comment visually on the characters, one by one, without connecting the drawings to any specific text, but rather by adhering to a general fantastic style. In order to immerse myself in the topic, I also conducted some research: I studied fairy tale elements and their graphical representation in medieval European books, the page ornamentation, their relations with handwritten text, and how the text intertwines and transforms itself into elements to become the heads and tails of fantastic beasts. 

Such a project developed from both the creative word-picture interpretation of fairy tales and theoretical study. The result was an MA thesis on the fantastic elements in medieval art, which I defended at the Academy of Arts in Milan.  

A totally new fairy tale was written to accompany the drawings and publish a limited edition of this book. The miniatures are printed on etching paper with slight relief of ink, like woodcut to the touch, and artisan bookbinding reproduces relief prints as well. 

I filled 13 large sheets with fantastic characters. Many say the precision and the technique of these miniature pencil drawings remind them of etchings. Each picture was meticulously developed in detail and can be framed as a single artwork. 

Diana Bychkova

Publications and awards

2005 - Winner of the gold-silver medal Cesare Frigerio, “for a great imagination and the execution of drawings in the technique of chiaroscuro”. (Corsico, Italy) 

2006 - Publication in the historical journal of graphics and art Grafica d’Arte, edited by Paolo Bellini (Milan, Italy)

2009 - Winner of the personal exhibition at the competition “Polar Expo” (Bergamo, Italy)

2009 - Participation in the exhibition “Fabularia”. (Milan, Italy)

2010 - Diploma at the competition “Book Image” at the International Book Fair (Moscow, Russia)