Six days of live drawing in the Guest of Honour Pavilion at the Frankfurt Book Fair

The drawETC. studio

The drawETC. studio was founded in 2002 by illustrator Vladimír Strejček, as the first illustration studio of its type in the Czech Republic. Based in the centre of Prague, over more than twenty years it has become a kind of hub, with a core team and nearly a hundred collaborating illustrators and animators, all united by their interest in commercial illustration. It is a home for both emerging and established artists; it secures work and negotiates terms for them, guides them through assignments and deadlines, and provides them with production support and facilities. The studio’s RAW (Raw Art Wrestling) competition opens doors for artists as yet unknown. Around 300 commissions pass through the studio each year, ranging from editorial and comic-book illustrations through character design to murals and complete visual identities.

In Frankfurt, drawETC. will manage the Live Drawing segment. It has been working with selected artists on preparation, technical run-throughs and the integration of the Wall Ink robotic printing system. It will support the artists at the Mural Art Wall throughout the fair. The artists come to draw; the drawETC. team takes care of everything else.

List of Authors:

THEN AND NOW — Mikuláš Podprocký

Live at the wall: Tuesday, 6. Oct, 12 pm –1 pm (press conference) and 6.30 pm – 8 pm (opening ceremony)

mural art, mixed technique: wall print (Wall Ink) and live drawing · 6 × 3 m · 2026 · Out of Canvas

‘I sit down with a sheet of paper and start sketching. What might work on a wall six by three metres?  I start drawing sea monsters. I don’t know why. Prehistoric ones. Of course – Zdeněk Burian. He’s never far from my thoughts. Those monsters were here too, in what is now our homeland. They used to chase other creatures, perhaps right where Prague is today.

‘Only later, over their skeletons, did the familiar coastline emerge. But I’ll still put the mammoth and Venus there. After all, they were ours too! After this, from the depths of prehistory, the cliffs of our history slowly rise. Knights and severed heads. Over and over again. I apologize for the simplification. But the square metres are disappearing fast. Nationhood at its apex. And a lighthouse, too, so that we are seen and people can find their way to us. So thank you, Václav. And thank you to many others.

‘I’ll probably draw a few aeroplanes. I always have to do that. Right – all done.’

Inspired by the palaeoart of Zdeněk Burian (1905–1981), whose reconstructions of prehistoric life shaped how several generations saw the distant past. Venus refers to the figurine from Dolní Věstonice, the world’s oldest ceramic depiction of a human figure.

Selected works: Winton Was Not Alone (Argo, 2024; winner of three Muriel awards, including for Best Illustration), Wilderness and Wilderness II: Exodus (Argo, 2013 and 2018 respectively), Tough Decisions (Argo and Memory of Nations, 2025). As an art director, he is behind the visual style of the computer game Kingdom Come: Deliverance, published in more than twenty languages.

DE-EVOLUTION — Stanislav Setinský

Live at the wall: Wednesday, 7 Oct, 11 am –12.30 pm and 2.30 pm – 4.00 pm

mural art, mixed technique: wall print (Wall Ink) and live drawing · 6 × 3 m · 2026 · Out of Canvas

‘Phew, it’s hot!’ Behind him lies the city, its chimneys smoking; his engine is still cooling. He leaves the car on the shore and goes for a dip. With every step he takes into the water, he transforms a little. His upright gait, the surface of his body, the shapes of his limbs – all of them morph. By the time he is at the point where he can no longer stand, he is again a creature that never left the sea.

Setinský sees the seashore as a place from which to look back at our origins. In so doing, he plays on the fact that the territory of today’s Czechia was once seabed. Though Czechia no longer has sea, the memory of it is still around. All it takes is a hot day and the chance to plunge into its depths. Returning to the sea gives relief from the heat, from the city, from millions of years of human achievement...

Inspired by the geological history of the Czech lands, which was repeatedly covered by sea. The names of the pavilion’s zones also acknowledge this fact.Selected works: Transport to Eternity (Baobab, 2017), This Is Jerusalem (Baobab, 2019), The Labyrinth of Unfinished Encounters (Baobab, 2020), Displaced Children (Post Bellum, 2021), It Stinks Like Hell in Here (winner of 2021 Muriel for Best Short Comics).

THE FROG — Karel Osoha

Live at the wall: Thursday, 8 Oct 11 am – 12.30 pm and 2:30 – 4 pm

mural art, mixed technique: wall print (Wall Ink) and live drawing · 6 × 3 m · 2026 · Out of Canvas

A short comic strip featuring two young boys exploring their surroundings, the nature of which is revealed to the viewer only towards the end.

‘This work draws on the tradition of Czech adventure comics, particularly for young boys, set in natural and/or urban surroundings. Comics such as Rapid Arrows and Gambusinos often had an educational or didactic purpose. But what has really stuck with me is the atmosphere of their illustrations, the humour and the invitation to imagine my own adventures.’

Rychlé šípy [Rapid Arrows] (from 1938, script by Jaroslav Foglar, illustrations by Jan Fischer) and Svorní gambusíni [Gambusinos] are classic Czech adventure comics for young readers. Both were serialized in magazines; both influenced generations of readers.

Selected works: Czechs 1948: How the Communist Party Seized Power (Mladá fronta, 2016; Muriel for Best Artwork), Return of the King of the Bohemian Forest (trilogy; Labyrint, 2018–2020), DustZone: The Chalk Figure (Paseka, 2022–2023; Muriel for Best Artwork), Within Reach (Labyrint, 2025).

R.U.R. — Kateřina Čupová

Live at the wall: Friday, 9 Oct, 11 am – 12.30 pm and 2.30 pm – 4.00 pm

mural art, mixed technique: wall print (Wall Ink) and live drawing · 6 × 3 m · 2026 · Out of Canvas

‘The inspiration for my drawing is the final scene of the play R.U.R., which I adapted into a comic. It depicts a lost world through a derelict factory on a remote island, where, and thanks to which, new life is flourishing. Alquist, the last man on the island, is sitting in front of the factory catching fish, with his dog’s assistance.

‘The sea is utterly calm, in sharp contrast to the factory and the overgrown jungle. It symbolizes isolation and loneliness, although it is a source of sustenance and hope for new life. The drawing is accompanied by the text of Alquist’s monologue from the play, in which he addresses dead friends who continued to dream and kept the factory running before its demise.’

Inspired by her own comics adaptation of Čapek’s play R.U.R. (Argo, 2020, Golden Ribbon for Best Comics), which has been published in eight countries. The first use of the word “robot” was in the play, published in 1920.

Selected works: R.U.R. (Argo, 2020; Golden Ribbon; published in eight languages, including by Rosarium Publishing in 2024 in an English translation by Julie Nováková, as well as in French, Spanish, Italian, Turkish, Korean, Arabic, Albanian), The Porridgeman (Argo, 2022; Muriel; published in French by Glénat and in Spanish by Malpaso).

A GIRL ON THE SHORE — Štěpánka Jislová

mural art, mixed technique: wall print (Wall Ink) and live drawing · 6 × 3 m · 2026 · Out of Canvas

Štěpánka Jislová draws things we don’t talk about — mental health, the body, the female experience. In her design for Mural Art in Frankfurt, she weaves together themes she has long explored, setting them against a coastal backdrop which may symbolize constant movement and experiential change. Her memoir Heartcore, about relationships, trauma and healing, won the Muriel Award for Best Comic Book and Best Script; it was published in English translation in 2025. The comics Bald, a story by Tereza Drahoňovská illustrated by Jislová, explores themes of hair loss and identity; it also won a Muriel Award. Štěpánka Jislová is co-founder of the Czech branch of Laydeez Do Comics. For the wall in Frankfurt, she will present A Girl on the Shore and the motif of boats — images of journey and detachment that will resonate with the pavilion’s coastal metaphor.

Live at the wall: Saturday, 10 Oct, 11 am – 12.30 pm and 2.30 pm – 4 pm

The author has long explored themes of mental health and a woman’s experience of her body. Her autobiographical work Srdcovka (Paseka, 2023) was published in English in 2025 as Heartcore. The comic book Bez vlasů [Bald](2020) has a script by Tereza Drahoňovská and illustrations by Jislová.Selected works: Heartcore (Paseka, 2023; winner of the Muriel for Best Comic Book and Best Script; published in English by Graphic Mundi in a translation by Martha Kuhlman, 2025); Bald (Paseka, 2020; Muriel; published in English translation, 2020; illustrations for a story by Tereza Drahoňovská).

THE BEACH — Lucie Lomová

mural art, mixed technique: wall print (Wall Ink) and live drawing · 6 × 3 m · 2026

‘The sand felt lovely and warm under his feet; now, at the end of September, it wasn’t as hot as it had been in August, when he’d last been here. He looked around the beach. Word must have spread; surely there were a few more people here than last time. He didn’t see anyone he knew. The only familiar face was that of a little girl, who was once again trying and failing to build a castle out of dry sand. They do say that hope springs eternal.’

Live at the wall: Sunday, 11 Oct, 10.30 am – 12 pm and 1 – 2.30 pm

An excerpt from an imaginary story, written for Frankfurt for this painting. Lomová writes and illustrates comics for children and adults, for readerships at home and abroad.

Selected works: Divoši (Labyrint, 2011; in French Les Sauvages, publ. Actes sud, 2011; in German Die Wilden, publ. Bahoe Books, 2020; in English Savages, publ. Centrala, 2023; in Polish); Anna chce skočit[Anna Wants to Jump] (Meander, 2007; first published in French as Anna en cavale by Actes sud, 2006). Lomová’s recently published comics diary Každý den je nový [Every Day is New] (Labyrint, 2022) won two Muriel awards.

drawETC.’s team of illustrators at Mural Art Wall

The Mural Art will be created with support illustration and practical knowhow from drawETC illustrators Karel Cettl and Markéta Troy Ryplová, who have extensive experience of creating Mural Art, adapting designs to different scales, and working with digital and analogue techniques and various combinations of the two. Both illustrators have a distinctive, individual style, but after many years of working in commercial illustration, their great strength lies in a stylistic flexibility that allows them to support and complement a variety of styles. Karel and Troy will be with each artist during their live performance and develop the work between contributions.

KAREL CETTL

illustrator, scenographer, director

A graduate in Palaeontology and Geobiology from Charles University, he joined drawETC. in 2016 after taking part in the studio’s RAW competition. His work moves with ease between print, stage and canvas. He has illustrated for exhibitions at the National Museum and for ABC magazine, designed mural art for the Netflix series Arcane, and created storyboards for a music video by the band Muse. His drawings shaped the set design for the National Theatre’s production of the ballet fairy tale The Sun, the Moon and the Wind. His immersive installation The Grief of Misfit Cathedrals was exhibited at Kunsthalle Praha. He is currently working at the intersection of 2D and 3D and experimenting with photogrammetry and motion capture.

Free time: watching clouds, films, arguing about wine, beer with friends

TROY

illustrator

She lives and works in Prague. Having enjoyed drawing and painting since early childhood, she studied at the Secondary School for Graphic Arts in Jihlava, where she was drawn towards illustration and comics. Her professional focus is on digital art, although she likes to experiment with traditional techniques in her spare time. A true all-rounder, Troy is equally at home with storyboards, character design and finished visuals. Her portfolio includes work on the educational series Cyber Taboo for TV Nova, the mural art Vybíral Tribute to the RAF Pilots, the visual identity for the charity Fuck Cancer, and storyboards for Netflix and Apple TV+. In her own creative work, Troy is drawn to illustrated travel journals, things that are simultaneously morbid and delightful, and projects with war-related themes such as charity work in support of Ukraine.

Free time: cats, guns, Pokémon, PC games