Arthur Rackham made this fairytale illustration with ink and watercolor, probably sometime in the early 20th century. Look at the cross-hatching and the delicate washes of color. He’s using his pen to create these wiry figures. You can almost feel Rackham's hand moving across the page, trying to bring this spooky forest alive. He makes marks that are both descriptive and expressive. Those trees aren't just trees, they're characters, twisted by some unseen force. It makes you wonder what kind of stories he was hearing or telling himself. Maybe he was inspired by the gothic imaginings of Henry Fuseli, but then gave them his own storybook twist. In a way, all artists are just borrowing and reimagining what came before, trying to make sense of the world in their own weird way, just like Rackham here.
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