illus. for The Princess and Curdie by MacDonald 1927

Dorothy Lathrop made this illustration for The Princess and Curdie with ink, and a whole lotta imagination. Just look at it, a frenzied scene of knights, monsters, and doves mid-battle! I can imagine Dorothy hunched over her drawing desk, obsessively working on the image, building up the composition bit by bit. She’s caught up in the story, letting her subconscious guide the image. It must have been a challenge to find the right balance between chaos and order, light and dark. The black ink creates a bold contrast against the white paper, giving the whole composition a dramatic and slightly unsettling quality, don't you think? The mass of tiny marks and fine lines give the artwork a sense of depth, like an etching. You see the influence of artists like Aubrey Beardsley, but Dorothy is finding her own way. Each artist is in a conversation with others that stretches across time. They borrow and remix ideas, pushing each other to see the world in new ways.