Sketch of Tsar Dodon 1916

This is Nicholas Roerich's sketch of Tsar Dodon, at the Nicholas Roerich Museum. It’s all about the process, isn’t it? Just pure, raw mark-making with graphite on paper, Roerich is feeling his way through the form, letting the lines build up and find their own rhythm. Look at the way the lines dance around the figure, defining the contours and suggesting movement. It’s so immediate and direct, you can almost feel the artist’s hand at work. The texture of the paper becomes part of the drawing, giving it a kind of tactile quality. See how he’s scrubbed some of the lines, smudging them to create shadows? It’s like he’s sculpting the form with light and shadow, finding the figure within the material. That repeated arc that makes the figure’s left leg, the sureness of this mark is so satisfying to look at! Roerich reminds me of Marsden Hartley in his expressive simplicity, both showing that art is less about perfect representation and more about capturing a feeling or idea through the act of creation. It’s like a conversation between the artist, the materials, and the subject, a dance of exploration that invites us to join in and bring our own interpretations to the mix.