Feret Avci: Illustrator – Turkey

I observe the way my cat plays with the mice in the garden. I witness their world and their struggle for survival. These are like a great treasure. When the time is right, new stories come out of these moments.

F. Avci

ferit avci was born on June 23, 1954 in Murgul, a mining town of Artvin. After graduating from university in 1976, he worked as a cartoonist. Within a few years, he became an established cartoonist with works published in various journals, newspapers, and books. He started to work for various media in the 1980s, including leading children’s magazines; this led him to illustrating children’s books. After his first illustrated book, New Wild Riddles (1991), he developed a passion for illustrating for children. So far, he has illustrated more than seventy children’s books. Currently, he is retired and resides in a village by Feithiye-Kaş, where he continues to create inspiring artworks.

Using watercolors as his main medium, Ferit Avci illustrates with stylishly bright colors and clearly defined outlines to stimulate visual perception. He is deft in adopting a simplified and humorous approach to the subject matters of relationships, children, family, and environment. His sense of humor in picture books, which partly originates from his experience as a cartoonist, is visible in his illustrated book Have you Seen the Red Elephant (1996). Appreciated by adults and children alike, critics agree that the appealing images are compatible with the children’s developmental psychology while subtly giving them “a sense of differentiation.” Moreover, Avci’s illustrations often tap into the issues of life and nature, and many of the books he has illustrated convey ecological concerns.

As a well-known illustrator and cartoonist in Turkey, Avci has won thirty-two awards in his career. His picture book Kirmizi Fil’I gördünüz mü? (Have you seen the red elephant?) has won the first place of Eflatun Güney Children’s Books Competition in 1996. Besides working as cartoonist and illustrator, Avci is also engaged in many art-related jobs such as chief editor in children’s magazines, art director in exhibitions, and supervisor at the Turkish Association of Cartoonists. His cross-art and cross-disciplinary experiences enrich his work in diverse ways.