Felix Doolittle

Throw out your toaster oven: Fu's illustrated papers warm hearts faster

By CHRISTINE LIU

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Perhaps, in the thick of sending internets all day with unblinking rapidity, we've lost something significant found only within the realm of the handwritten, the hand-drawn. How else to explain the instinctual gravitation toward the cheeky, detailed, simple-but-witty drawings festooned on creamy paper goods from Felix Doolittle? From note cards and invitations to labels and bookplates (how, exactly, have you been living without bookplates?), the illustrated series oozes with colorful charm without a drop of saccharine.

Felix Fu, the artist behind the paintbrush, went to Boston University for business school yet never really had any formal art studies. "One thing led to another," Fu says over the phone, while on a brief visit to Hong Kong. "Ever since I was three I loved drawing for anything and everything. It's a pleasure [that] became a business." His Newton-based company, Felix Doolittle, was born six years ago.

Each miniature watercolor (rendered with British-esque restraint) makes it seem as if you just stumbled onto one frame of a lush fairytale. A boy riding a dinosaur. A pheasant named Phillip. A distinguished hog celebrating with wine as "black tie pig." Fu explains, "The imagery, the story behind it, the joy, the color, the spirit of each illustration is the soul of all my work."

Probably none of us would mind dipping into a momentary dream world of grinning octopi or bunnies named Patrick. "I feel there's less and less magic nowadays," Fu says, adding that's why he started drawing for others. "Somehow it connects to people's heart and feelings. It is magical to make people happy in the most innocent and pure way."

[45 Border St., West Newton. 617.969.8883. felixdoolittle.com]