Illustration for the collection of short stories by Yevhen Gutsal "In the stork village" 1969

This illustration for Yevhen Gutsal's stories, made by Hryhorii Havrylenko, uses only black ink on what I imagine is a white page. It’s like a crazy dance of lines and dots, all working together to build this landscape. It’s kind of like making something from nothing. Look at the way Havrylenko uses cross-hatching in the sky, almost like a woven texture, then those simple diagonal lines suggesting depth. The trees in the foreground are almost like a dense scribble, thick and dark. I like the contrast between the solid blacks and the open white spaces. The ink feels raw and immediate. The whole thing reminds me a bit of early expressionist woodcuts, those artists were really grappling with how to make something impactful with limited means. It’s not trying to be pretty, it's just trying to be real.