Illustration for Mikhail Stelmakh's book 'In the Hedgehog's Windmill' 1956

Hryhorii Havrylenko made this illustration for Mikhail Stelmakh's book 'In the Hedgehog's Windmill' using a pen, and probably some ink. The whole image is rendered in the same tone; there's not a lot of variation. But that single tone holds everything together! The marks give the impression of a field, a little girl looking through some arching wheat, and a distant village. I can almost feel the texture of the paper, and the way the pen might have skipped across its surface. You can see the artist really thinking about the composition and the balance between light and shadow, all with such simple means. It's so direct! I can feel the artist moving their hand across the page. It reminds me of other drawings made for children's books around this time. There's a real conversation happening here about how to communicate with line, form, and emotion, and how to tell a story with just a few marks.