Illustration for Nichita Stanescu's Epica Magna 1978

Sorin Dumitrescu made this illustration for Nichita Stanescu's Epica Magna using a pencil on graph paper; you can almost feel the artist leaning into the page, mapping out a personal cosmos. It’s all in graphite, a shimmering grey scale where every mark counts. Looking at the grid, you can imagine Dumitrescu starting with these foundational lines, building a structure, and then letting loose with organic shapes, floating like memories or dreams. You get a sense of excavation, as though he’s digging through layers of thought, pulling out forms that feel both ancient and utterly new. The juxtaposition of hard lines and free-flowing forms creates a beautiful tension, a dialogue between control and chaos. Think of the great draftsmen like Dürer, or even some of the visionary architects who dared to dream on paper. This illustration feels part of that lineage, an ongoing conversation about how we perceive, construct, and ultimately, imagine our world. Dumitrescu isn't just illustrating; he's building a world, one line at a time.