Iz Ptica | ABOUT

about

"Who are you?"
"To define is to limit."
-Oscar Wilde

Hello! My name is Kaja Kajfež. I'm a freelance illustrator, and visual storyteller probably better known as iz.ptica in the realms of the internet.

My artistic passion led me to get a degree in the field by finishing 'Multimedia, Design and Application' study at University North in Varazdin, Croatia.

In 2017 I established my own little studio that mainly focuses on children's book illustration, lettering, surface pattern design, and design of visual content. As a freelance illustrator, I have had the opportunity to collaborate on various projects in a number of different fields with both small and independent as well as medium to large companies.

Besides my work, I love to take long walks in nature, explore different historical periods, scroll through old books, listen to online concerts, spend time with my dog, and relax with a huge cup of tea.

If you have a project in mind I'd be more than happy to hear from you so feel free to contact me.

selected clients

• Harper Collins • Hachette • Random House • Macmillan Children's Publishing Group • Oxford University Press • Barrington Stoke • DK • American Greetings • Kar-Ben Publishing • Pearson plc • Croatian Ministry of Education • Hallmark • Storey Publishing • Charlesbridge Publishing

follow me on instagram @iz.ptica

Better late than never ✨ Poster for a children's book festival I designed and illustrated for @cekate.hr in the beginning of this year 💛
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#childrensbookillustration #childrenbook_art #illustrationforkids #illustrationartist #illustrationart #illustration_art #illustration_best #childrenbookillustrator

A custom portrait I recently made for a client 🤍🌷

#illustrationart #custommade #customillustration #portraitart #portraitillustration #illustration_art #illustrationartists #illustration

An older piece that still holds a very special place in my heart and fits perfectly today's #peachtober24 prompt, fawn ✨💛

#peachtober24fawn #illustrationforkids #childrenbook_art #childrenbookillustrator #childrensbookillustration #kidlitillustration #kidlitartist #illustration_art #illustrationforchildren

Not letting the fomo kick in (as it does every October), but no prompt is more perfect to join—at least for a day—than today's PAW by #peachtober 🌞💛

Meet Athena and Apollo, siblings who joined the family two years ago! I love them to bits, and I would bet there are no kitties more spoiled than these two 🫣.

Apollo is a silly little guy who hates climbing and loves eating grass, and he uses every opportunity to make you laugh with his clumsiness. He has this weird fixation on sticks—no furry or feathery toy is more fun than a simple old stick. Athena, on the other hand, is the queen of the jungle who loves sitting on my shoulders while surveying her territory. Her stone-cold expression would make any intruder run away as fast as they can! Unlike Apollo, she hates eating grass, but you can tell that food is basically all she thinks about all day.

Hope you like the illustration, and feel free to introduce your furry friends in the comments 💛

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#peachtober24paw #childrensbookillustration #childrenbook_art #childrenbookillustrator #kidlitillustrator #illustration_art #illustrationforkids #illustrationart

Excited to share that I had a huge honor of being featured in the new issue of @characterdesignquarterly among other talented creators ✨ For this issue I created a character design tutorial where I share my thoughts and processes from start to a finished piece. How I brainstorm and make the loose sketches, how I sketch the character and choose a color palette, how I render and set up the scene for my character ... all that + some tips and trick can be found in the new issue of this amazing magazine! If you're interested go and grab youself a copy ✨ Thanks for your trust CDQ 💛

#characterart #characterillustration #illustrationartists #illustration_art #characterdesign #childrensbookillustrator

My take on The Secret Garden book cover just for practice in between projects 🌷🌲💛 I enjoyed the process so much that I'm thinking about illustrating other children's classics perhaps, what do you think? Hope you're all having a wonderful day 🌞💛

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#childrensbookillustration #coverart #bookillustration #childrensbook #childrenbook_art

Haven't done a #dtiys in quite a while so here's one by the talented @liavisirin 🍄❤️

#liavisirindtiys #dtiyschallenge #illustrationforkids #illustrationart #childrensbookillustration #childrenbook_art #illustration_art #childrensbookillustration

Practicing drawing different characters from a reference Pinterest board I've been building, so fun!
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#characterart #characterillustration #portraitillustration #illustrationartist #illu#illustrationforkids #childrenbook_art #childrensbookillustrator

Grandma 🤍
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#illustrationart #childrensbookillustration #childrenbook_art #kidlitillustrator #cozyillustration #childrensbookillustrator #kidlitartist #illustrationforkids #illustration_art

Redrew this piece from 5 years ago 🤭 Feels like spring and I can not get enough of yellow 💛 So fun to see how you and your skills can improve in a relatively short span of time! I do still like old version as well though btw ✨

Speaking of progress, having so much fun with the new book I'm illustrating which pushes me to draw and explore so many different characters. I finally feel like my work is progressing A LOT yaay! 💪 Can't wait to show it to you ☺️

For now, sending hugs 🤗 -K

#illustrationart #illustration_art #characterart #childrensbookillustration #characterillustration #portraitart #childrenbook_art #illustrationartist #digitalart #procreateart #illustration_best #childrensbookillustrator

Had so much fun with this one 🤭 Giving myself prompts when creating portfolio pieces - this one was : a group of adventurous kids find a map hidden in the attic that will lead them on a treasure hunt 🌲💛🌷✨
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#childrensbookillustration #childrenbook_art #kidlitillustrator #bestofillustration #illustration_art #childrenbookillustrator #kidlitart #illustration_best #illustrationforkids #illustrationforchildren #illustration

A quick b&w piece to start this week off with an excuse to draw fairies 🤭🧚‍♀️
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#blackandwhiteillustration #monoart #kidlitillustrator #childrensbookillustrator #childrenbook_art #childrensbookillustration #illustrationart #illustrationartist #illustration_art #kidlitillustration

Hello Spring 🌷💛
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#illustrationart #illustrationartist #coupleillustration #digitalillustration #illustration_art #portraitillustration #procreateart #childrensbookillustrator #childrenbookillustration #childrenbookillustration #kidlitillustration

Am I in a pink phase here lately or what is going on? 😅 My dream home has always had a dark exterior, but my subconscious is obviously telling me otherwise 🥲 At least drawing hundreds of leafs was meditative 💛 4681 strokes in total, yay!

#illustrationart #houseillustration #illustration_art #childrenbook_art #childrensbookillustrator #childrenbookillustration #kidlitillustrator #kidlitart #kidlitillustration #illustrationartists

N stands for Nature 🌲🌷 for my #alphabetaria project 💛

#illustrationart #illustration_art #childrenbook_art #childrensbookillustrator #kidlitillustrator #nature #naturelovers #illustration_best #bestofillustration #digitalart #digitalillustration

Happy International Women's Day 💪💛

Piece Inspired by the Morris Mermaids.
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#internationalwomensday #march8 #illustration_art
#illustrationart #illustrationartist #bestofillustration #illustration_best #childrenbook_art #childrensbookillustrator

Still in winter mood 🤍
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#illustrationart #illustration_art #illustrationartist #childrenbook_art #childrensbookillustrator #kidlitillustration #kidlitart

Mama for my #alphabetaria project 🤍 Thank you mama for being with me through thick and thin, nurturing my soul, providing me with comfort and loads of cuddles, for being so cool and open-minded and for all the banter, tenderness and wisdom. Seriously mama, you're the absolute best! 🤍🌷
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#childrenbook_art #childrensbookillustrator #childrenbookillustration #illustrationartist #illustration_art #illustration_best #bestofillustration #illustrationartists #kidlitillustrator #kidlitillustration

Another #dtiys that inspired me, this time by the talented @nina.clausonet 🌷🤍

#ninaclausonet30k #dtiyschallenge #drawthisinyourstyle #illustrationart #portraitart #portraitillustration #illustration_art #kidlitillustrator #illustrationartist #illustration_best #bestofillustration #childrensbookillustrator #illustration

L is for Love for illustration 💛 This year I'm focusing on restoring my love for illustration. To be honest guys, for a while, I thought I completely lost it. Burnout I've been navigating torn me on so many levels, especially professionally. This mental state begun to show its ugly face as the lack of enjoyment illustrating gave me. Consequently, the quality of my work suffered. I hated myself for that and I spent my days nostalgically yearning about the days when I was wholeheartedly enjoying it.

Weeks turned into months, and months into a year and I'm now finally gathering myself. Along the way, I introduced changes to my daily routine. First off, I've been sleeping A LOT 😪 Also, tried to focus on other endeavors instead (like trying to learn how to tattoo, sewing, working with clay, reading, gaming, and board games) which helped immensely. Certainly a departure from workaholic tendencies I once proud myself for having.

Taking thing slow these days and focusing on projects that genuinely spark my creative joy! One such project is this self initiated one, #alphabetaria, I started (can you believe it!) in September 2018. Recently, revisiting it, it reminded me how happy and in love with art I was back then and that really inspired me to continue this long forgotten project. (No pressure to finish it asap though!) Hoping I will rediscover why I started this illustration in the first place - the sheer enjoyment of creation 💛

Thanks for your support and sending love, -K

#illustrationart #illustration_art #childrenbook_art #childrensbookillustrator #childrenbookillustration #illustrationartists #illustration

New botanical posters on my Etsy 🌷💛 Could never get enough of drawing flowers honestly ☺️
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#botanicalposter #botanicalart #botanicalillustration

Happy Valentine's my loves 🌷💛
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#illustrationart #illustration_art #illustrationartists #illustrationartists #digitalillustration #digitalart #procreateart #illustration

Reopened my Etsy and added few new designs besides these two 🌿 so feel free them check it out - link is in my bio 💛
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#posterdesign #posterart #illustrationartist #botanicalillustration #botanicalart #illustration_art #illustrationartists #illustrationart #botanicalposter

Haven’t done a #dtiys in ages so I was really inspired to do one today 💛 Immediately fell in love with this one by @marinastu_sketch 🌼 #dtiysmarinastu2 #dtiyschallenge #drawthisinyourstyle #charaterillustrations #illustrationartists #illustrationart #illustration_art #illustrations #digitalillustration

Mama ♥️
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#illustrationart #illustration #childrensbookillustrator #kidlitartist #childrenbookillustration #childrenbook_art #illustration_art #procreateart #childrenbook_art #digitalillustration #illustrationartists

Mushroom lady 🍄♥️
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#procreateart #portraitart #autumnvibes🍁 #illustration_art #portraitillustration

Anne Bonny & Mary Read from 'Troublemakers in Trousers' written by Sarah Albee @sarahjalbee and published by @charlesbridgepublishing 🦜💛
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#childrenbook_art
#illustration_art #childrensbookillustrator #kidlitillustrator #kidlitart #childrenbookillustration #bestofillustration #illustration_best #illustrationartists #illustration #procreateart

One of the things I love the most when working on a book is to design a pattern for it's endpapers🌷💛 This one is from Wald un Wiese, published by @magellanverlag 🤍
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#illustrationart #patterndesign #illustration_art #digitalillustration #kidlitillustrator #childrensbookillustrator #childrenbook_art #childrenbookillustration #kidlitillustration #kidlitartist #kidlitart #patternillustration #bookcover

Had some extra time today for a peronal piece (finally, feels really good) 🦢💛 Hope you're all having a lovely weekend 🌷
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#illustrationart #illustration_art #childrensbookillustrator #childrenbookillustration #bestofillustration #illustration_best #kidlitillustrator #kidlitillustration #illustrationartists #digitalillustration #digitalart #characterillustration #procreatear

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about

"Who are you?" "To define is to limit." -Oscar Wilde

follow me on instagram @iz.ptica

​

"Who are you?"
"To define is to limit."
-Oscar Wilde