"I also used to draw once upon a time, sitting next to the kerosene lamp on the dinner table. A dead hero of fairy tale would come alive at the touch of the magic brush, as if it contained the water of life.
"Looking like women's buttons, the water colors lay in their white tin box, and prince Ivan galloped through the pine forest on a gray wolf. The pines were smaller than the wolf and Prince Ivan rode him like an Eskimo on a reindeer, his heels almost touch the moss. Smoke spiraled into the blue sky, and the neat Vs of birds could be seen among the stars."

Varlaam Shalamov, "A Child's Drawings" (trans. John Glad)

 

The drawing above and the one at the right are both illustrations for traditional Russian fairy tales, by Ivan Bilibin, a late 19th century artist whose interest in traditional peasant design is evident in the wonderful borders for these pictures.

 

The illustration at the right is an example of another traditional form of illustration - this one is of a folk tale about Vasilisa, a young girl who appears in many Russian skazki, sent by her stepmother into the woods, where she encounters the witch (who is not always evil), Baba Yaga.

This illustration is taken from a wooden box, painted and lacquered in the "Palekh" style.