Illustrations by the Ukrainian artist for Chekhov's "Lady with the Dog": the music of the line and the ephemerality of watercolors

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

This year, a book was published with new illustrations by a professional artist, painter and graphic artist Natalia Muravskaya … This time she illustrated the world classics - the story of Anton Pavlovich Chekhov "The Lady with the Dog". The elegant, elegant album-format book contains more than thirty wonderful illustrations that combine a unique, individual style and a recognizable manner of execution. The artist also developed the design and layout of the book.

The illustrations by Natalia Muravskaya were made, at first glance, in a very simple technique: on paper, drawing with a black liner (pen with pigment ink) with light watercolor fills. But such a classical technique requires careful preparation and masterly skill. The style of the image was deliberately chosen by the artist, it corresponds to the time of writing the story and delicately reveals the writer's intention.

The graphic series of illustrations was created with the help of a sharp line drawing and delicate color, which appears only in the emotional center of the composition, colors and enlivens it. The ephemerality of the watercolors combined with the fine ligature of the musical line creates a certain rhythm, carries an inexplicable charm, while such a "duet" forms clear images and a poetic environment.

The artist always draws from the heart, not paying attention to the current fashion and passing trends, continuing to develop the traditions of book art in her work. Elegant and refined graphics of lines, noble, slightly muted coloring of illustrations: everything, as if, follows Chekhov's perception of harmony and beauty.

The work on the illustrations for The Lady with the Dog took more than a year, and as the artist herself says, most of the time was spent studying the style of the Art Nouveau era, architecture, interiors, and costumes in order to be as accurate as possible in the images. There were so many sketches and sketches that I had to make a selection when creating a preliminary layout of the book.

Natalia Muravskaya's illustrations are aesthetically convincing and emotional, they easily penetrate into the field of a literary idea, further expanding the environment for its contemplation, while carefully preserving the original source of the verbal formula. Spirituality of pictorial images, subtle - intellectual manner of graphics, reverence for literature, are the wonderful qualities of the artist Natalia Muravskaya's work.

It will also be interesting to pay attention to the work of another wonderful Ukrainian artist. Vladislava Erko, which in turn turned to the Baroque era.