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

This black-and-white illustration for Yevhen Gutsal's stories, likely made with ink on paper, unfolds as a world of parallel lines and cross-hatching. Just imagine Havrylenko, pen in hand, building up this landscape stroke by stroke! I wonder, what was he thinking about as he laid down each mark? There’s something so deliberate, so insistent, in the way these lines converge and diverge. Look at how they create texture, like the rough surface of a field or the dense foliage of trees. I imagine the weight of the pen in his hand as the image slowly came together. This technique reminds me of printmaking, or even the sketches of Van Gogh. Artists are always in conversation, across time and space, picking up ideas and running with them. This image is a reminder that painting, drawing, it’s all embodied expression, a way of making sense of the world through touch and vision. It's not about fixing meaning, but opening up possibilities.