Female image 1976

This portrait of a woman in simple black lines was made by Hryhorii Havrylenko, and shows a mastery of mark making as a way to find form, not just describe it. I love the way the hatching of the lines creates a sense of volume and light. It feels like the artist is thinking through the drawing, the marks are not too precious, but economical. There’s a real physicality to the medium; you can almost feel the movement of the pencil across the page. Look at how the density of the lines around the eyes creates a shadow, drawing us into her gaze. The whole image is built from such simple means! Thinking about other artists, I see echoes of Käthe Kollwitz in Havrylenko’s work, both sharing a similar commitment to depicting the human figure with honesty and emotional depth. Like all great art, this drawing invites us to pause, to look closely, and to find our own meanings within its lines.