BOB

Dobrosav Živković, better known as Bob, was born in Pirot on 7^th May, 1962. While still a kid, he was attracted to drawing and has remained so until this day. Soon enough, he replaced the slopes of Stara Planina Mountain with a New Belgrade skyscraper, where he still lives and draws, mostly when everybody else sleeps. He started publishing his illustrations while still a high schooler and his passion for drawing led him to the Faculty of Applied Arts in Belgrade. He published his first illustrations in the magazines Student, Vidici [Horizons] and Tik-Tak, and later in Veliko dvorište [Large Courtyard], Dnevni telegraf [Daily Telegraph], Evropljanin [The European] and Politikin Zabavnik [Politika’s Entertainer].

Initially, he became known as a sci-fi illustrator – his illustrations for the legendary edition Znak Sagite [The Sign of the Sagitta] and the sci-fi almanac Monolit [Monolith] are still easily recalled. He soon tried his pen in children’s illustrations as well as satirical illustrations, thus defining his three grand topics which often intertwine. However, for him, drawing of kallikantzaros and dragons still feels like hanging out with his dearest friends. He has illustrated over 200 publications, while counting his contributions to various newspapers and magazines would be a challenging task for anyone. For quite some time he also acted as an artistic director and chief illustrator at Sači & Sači studio in Belgrade. Even afterwards, he continued devising advertising campaigns for numerous agencies, state institutions, and non-governmental organizations. Those aimed at improving life conditions among children and youth are the ones that particularly stand out.

His cooperation with Kreativni centar is another story, one of the long-lasting ones, bringing joy to everyone. Bob’s illustration for the picture book Mačka [Cat] proudly marked Kreativni centar’s very beginnings. Since that first book until now, Bob has illustrated over a hundred publications for Kreativni centar, which were translated to over 40 languages! Famous editions Da pukneš od smeha [Laughing Your Head Off] and Bez dlake na jeziku [No Beating Around the Bush] gained huge popularity partly owing to Bob’s hilarious illustrations (let’s just name the best selling Nacionalni park Srbija [National Park Serbia] and Seks za početnike [Sex for Beginners]). Bob showed his softer side creating illustrations for numerous picture books, whereas his affection for epic fantasy was masterly demonstrated in publications Srpske narodne bajke [Serbian Folk Fairy Tales] and Srpske narodne pripovetke [Serbian Folk Short Stories] from the edition Pustolovine [Adventures].

For his work, Bob Živković has received the most relevant awards for illustration one can receive in Serbia: two Zlatno pero [Golden Feather] awards, five Neven [Calendula] awards, an award at the Zmaj Children’s Festival for exceptional creative contribution to popularization of children’s literature, a special recognition at the world publisher fair at Bologna, and three Lazar Komarčić awards for best works in the field of fantasy. However, he himself states that the greatest recognition of his work involves someone setting out to buy his book.

He’s not even thinking about growing up and getting serious.