Imagine a Forest: Designs and Inspirations for Enchanting Folk Art

I stumbled across the artist's work online, and immediately searched for anything of hers that I could find. I love this book! I live in Central Europe (not a native of this area of the world) and I'm interested in Eastern European and Russian folk designs, but I don't want to buy the mass-produced 'folklore' prints and designs sold to tourists. How to get that look, but without it being mass-produced and looking cheesy? (I mean, if you are a tourist, and you buy a cushion with mass-produced prints of 'traditional folk designs,' back home in the US or Bolivia or somewhere, it looks unique and is a conversation piece, but if you have that in your house where it's manufactured for tourists, it looks tacky). The solution - get inspired to draw my own designs and then embroider them on cushions myself. Each piece will be original and I can add the elements that please me. I shared the book with two friends whose eyes glowed with pleasure and inspiration. A wonderful book for creative people whether or not they are already comfortable with drawing or creating their own designs. And beautiful to look at for anyone who is interested in Russian or Eastern European or Central European folk-art designs.

Lovely illustrations and reference material to inspire.

This is a beautiful book, easy to follow, and inspiring. It helps you build illustrations, with outline, composition and colour which is great for starting out in this style. Its clear, and playful and i am addicted to trying out whats inside. Its better than i had expected and i really do recommend it if you love folksy styles.

This is one of my favourite book purchases for a long while. It gives you step by step examples of how to draw flowers, trees, people, animals and even houses in this beautiful folk style. The book looks and feels lovely, I really do love it, there's nothing difficult about it, all you need to get started is pencil and paper, then it also gives you tips and ideas for using paints. I buy craft books that require 101 different things to get started, this is a breath of fresh air.

The first surprise is that the flowers are raised so the cover is tactile. While it may make the book heavier, this detail would not have been possible. Inside there is lots of guidance as to how to build up from scratch your own designs. Probably it would need a little bit of confidence to achieve the end results shown in the book. Regardless of anything else the illustrations are lovely to look at and should give plenty of inspiration. My purpose on purchase was to see how the designs would work as graphic designs for printing - block and etching. The shapes are strong so I think I have a source of images for many years to come! I thought I had made a great discovery, only to discover near the back is a section on the use of the decorations in a range of ways - maybe others would be encourage to purchase the book if there was a suitable sentence in the Amazon blurb or on the back cover? Summing up: Well produced book, with plenty to inspire and develop as source material, and being good value for money -fault, it is hard back, which deter a few.

I have been making sewn items from scraps. I wanted to make a number of folk art depictions but had no idea how to portray them. This book is beautifully created, lovely artwork and colours. Narrative is inspiring yet simply put. It suited my requirement to a T.

This is a beautiful book, lots of things to draw, and she gives instructions on how to do them. The pictures are lovely. Great book for anyone interested in folk art.

I'm only just learning sketching and painting and I really love this style having lived in Eastern Europe for a spell. I'd say I'm totally talentless and clueless at drawing but the inspiration and step by step techniques mean even I can surprise myself with what I can draw. I love it, it's a joy.

Tiene unas ilustraciones hermosas, y colores súper llamativos. Me encantaron los colores y la textura del Papel. Dinara Mirtalipova tiene diseños muy bonitos.

Wunderschönes, liebevoll gestaltetes Buch das inspiriert. Hochwertiges Material, super Preis-Leistungsverhältnis!

A magnificent artist and a book full of inspiration. The drawings are original and captivating. I even bought an extra copy as a gift. Worth every single euro spent. Highly recommended!

Personalmente era il libro che cercavo sul genere folk art! Un libro soprattutto da guardare e in cui perdersi tra le meravigliose illustrazioni dell'autrice. Perfetto per chi cerca ispirazioni semplici ma d'effetto. Lo consiglio!

This book is delightful, and inspiring with cute images and ideas. Fabulous resource for artists or anyone.