“If you can move something even a little bit, there is no composition”

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book illustration

80s

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Book illustration is a business of many efforts. If you work seriously, classical book illustration requires a lot of efforts. Anatolii Bazylevych was working exclusively in book illustration, and he did it almost all his life.

Abu Kassim’s Slippers

How Anatolii Bazylevych started to work in children’s illustration

My father graduated from the department of graphic art at the Kharkiv Art Institute and came to Kyiv with a job referral. At that time, referrals were issued by the Committee on Matters of the Press. Bazylevych came to Kyiv to work as a part-time graphic artist, with no permanent job and no salary. He did whatever was offered to him.

Anatolii Bazylevych used to say that he was very nervous before entering the Molod publishing house for the first time. He stood in front of the building, worrying a lot, and could not bring himself to go in. Finally, he asked himself: “Am I a coward?” and went in. That’s how he started working with Molod. His first work in children’s books illustration was Krylov’s Fables, which he illustrated for Molod in 1952.

Oleksii Bazylevych

Ukrainian graphic artist and painter

At that time, children’s books illustration was an opportunity to express oneself more freely.

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Illustration for “Abu Kassim's Slippers” by Ivan Franko

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The Veselka publishing house. Artists’ approaches to work

The story of Anatolii Bazylevych | 00:00

The process of working on a book

The story of Anatolii Bazylevych | 00:00

why the generation of artists of the sixties went into illustration of children's books

The story of Anatolii Bazylevych | 00:00

Why the generation of artists of the Sixties chose children’s books illustration

Here I will go a little bit ahead and ask the following: Why were exhibitions of book graphics so interesting in the Soviet time? I have very vivid memories. I first submitted my illustrations to such an exhibition in 1983. Imagine, there were exhibited such masters as Heorhii Yakutovych, Serhii Artiushenko, etc.—I can’t even remember them all now. I was one of the youngest participants at that exhibition. Exhibitions of book graphics gave artists the opportunity to paint on any topic. If artists painted on specific topics, they were confined to certain frameworks; they could not express themselves frankly and openly. Children’s books, however, provided a great scope for creativity. Artists could work on any topic. You can have the Cossacks, the Kyivan Rus, the fairy tales.

Moreover, there was practically no such thing as the underground art in Kyiv. In Moscow, everything was easier, and there were underground exhibitions since the 70s, with no objections from the authorities. When I went to see one such exhibition, there were long lines of people queuing. There were lots of foreigners. There was a demand. There were some intellectuals who supported such artists. In Kyiv, we had some individual cases, but the underground did not exist as a widespread phenomenon.

In addition, the generation of artists who worked before the Sixties was very small in number. Many of them did not return from the war, and some were repressed. So the generation that graduated from the art institutes in the 1950s was very talented. They began to work actively in children’s books illustration. I think illustration was in its prime at that time. I can even give you the time frame. In my personal opinion, the late fifties, sixties, seventies, and the early eighties were the rise of Ukrainian book graphics (although the printing was far from perfect). Later, it wasn’t as good. You can still find some good works now though.

There were some artists who worked exclusively in children’s books illustration. What was unique about my father? His work was distributed somehow evenly: illustrations for adult books and illustrations for children’s books. His illustrations for adult books are better known: Kotliarevskyi’s Aeneid, Sholokhov’s The Quiet Don, Kvitka-Osnovianenko’s Pan Khaliavskyi, and Hašek’s The Fateful Adventures of the Good Soldier Švejk. His illustrations for children’s books, however, seem to be in the shadows. Meanwhile, my father did not make any distinction between them: he took both seriously, and there were no fundamental differences in his approach to adult books and children’s books. As for the subject matter (topics), my father worked in two directions: folklore (folk and literary fairy tales) and historical fiction.

I remember some of my father’s friends. Say, Heorhii Malakov. He worked a lot in children’s books illustration and was extremely popular. He also worked as an easel painter. Malakov made illustrations for Boccaccio’s Decameron, but unfortunately they were not published—for some reason. These illustrations now exist only as easel drawings.

Heorhii Yakutovych also made a few interesting children’s books. And he was also engaged in easel graphics. Yakutovych is best known for his illustrations for the book Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors. He did a grand work for the Veselka publishing house: «Повість временних літ» (Primary Chronicle, or Tale of Bygone Years). In my opinion, this work is more adult in style because it is quite complicated, both in terms of composition and execution.

The Veselka publishing house. Artists’ approaches to work

Veselka published huge volumes of books. Just imagine: two hundred and fifty to three hundred titles were published annually, with print runs reaching one hundred thousand copies or more. All of the graphic artists worked at Veselka (almost ninety-nine percent of them): for some, it was just an episode, for others, it was a side hustle; and for some artists it became a vocation, a mission.

Some artists worked in illustration to earn money. They were quite skillful artists who made great illustrations. Nowadays artists can rarely reach their level. At that time, a lot of illustrations were made on historical and revolutionary or communist party topics. And that is why some artists took this niche: they made illustrations they were asked to, made them quickly, and earned good money at the time.

Anatolii Bazylevych’s children’s books

I believe that my father’s best work (and he liked it very much and appreciated it) is Franko’s Abu Kassim’s Slippers. This book is absolutely extraordinary. In terms of style, it is very similar to The Aeneid. He made illustrations for Abu Kassim’s Slippers at the same time he made those for The Aeneid. If you look at this book, there are compositions in it where nothing should be changed. For my father, illustrations for Abu Kassim’s Slippers were ideal in terms of composition. He used to say: “If you can move something even a little bit, there is no composition.” In other words, the composition should be absolutely precise. No one has illustrated Abu Kassim’s Slippers better. I came across one Lviv edition, but it was not at all at the same level. And my father did it perfectly.

However, he was critical of many of his works. There were times when my father used to look at his early works and say: “Well, I was hasty here. I could have done it more carefully, more neatly.” The truth is, he didn’t spend as much time on children’s books as he did on large projects of adult books: for the latter, he made preliminary drawings, sketches, and variants. However, my father also worked very hard on children’s books,

but they were somehow outside his main job. The commissions for illustrations had tight deadlines, so some of them turned out to be livelier, and others were more careless.

My father was very fond of his works for the Ukrainian Folk Tales project. He enthusiastically worked on them for quite a long time. Those original works date from different years. My father also made preliminary drawings for Ukrainian Folk Tales. I was already a grown-up then, and for some of the drawings I posed for him.

Another interesting thing is that some other artists had a very strong influence on Anatolii Bazylevych in his depiction of animals. There was a wonderful animal painter, Valentyn Lytvynenko. He and my father were friends; they gave each other their works, and communicated a lot. My father was very fond of Lytvynenko’s books with illustrations of animals. I believe those books are still not outdated. So, from Lytvynenko’s books, my father learned how to transform, because he himself admitted that he was not as confident with animals as he was with people.

Generally, in his prime, Anatolii Bazylevych did not have any weak works. There were some works that were not very good. My father was a very honest person: if he didn’t like a piece of work, he would still finish it, add or change some details, and he did it well eventually. He had no such thing as slacking off. That is why he wasn’t able to earn a lot, as he was extremely demanding.

The process of working on a book

My father worked using the classical method. He was an attentive reader, and he took every book very seriously. So, Anatolii Bazylevych would receive a typewritten manuscript. He would take this manuscript in his hands. He would read it line by line, and if a certain plot aroused his interest, he would immediately note it down: he didn’t write anything down, he just took a piece of paper and made a sketch of the composition straightaway. It was a matter of principle for him. My father used to say: “You will forget this, and then you will never come back to it.” So, it all started with careful reading. And then he would make a very detailed layout. No, not even a layout at first, but small preliminary sketches on separate sheets of paper. My father wanted to see how they went in a row, what followed what, how the plot developed. And then he would make a full-size layout. He would glue the sketches together in a full-size format, with a binding, and he would count and calculate everything. And if it was a work of poetry, he would draw every single line. This was extremely important.

My father was not just an illustrator; he was a book artist, an architect, and he created the whole structure. You know, there were different books in Veselka. There were books with just individual illustrations. Sometimes the artist was simply commissioned to create stories; the artist read the text and made some page illustrations—that’s all. However, a children’s book is about creating a certain world, a structure. How do you create this world? How do you build this structure? With sketches.

And only when everything was decided, my father made a layout. The layout was approved, although the final decision could differ from the layout. Then, after the layout, there was another process: preliminary drawings. My father never made originals right away. First, he was searching, looking for a composition on the sheet. He drew very confidently, and he could draw anything. But he was a very responsible artist, especially with regard to certain aspects, such as hands. Artists know that hands are one of the most difficult elements of an image. So he sometimes asked us to hold something in our hands: this way, then that way. Sometimes he was looking for some kind of plastic, some folds of clothes. He was looking for types. Of course, creativity comes from the imagination—it’s children’s books. But he was also looking for types.

Let me tell you a story. My father had a dream: to make illustrations for Buratino (Pinocchio). He liked this book since childhood. Here, in our building, he found the types for all the characters. One couple used to live here (they are no longer alive). The man (husband) was bearded, he had a thick beard. And my father said: “I like your type. You will be Karabas-Barabas.” And the man’s wife had a long nose. So my father said: “And your wife is a good type for Buratino.” That man was a very gentle man, so he was not offended. And then my father found the types for Duremar and Papa Carlo. All here, in this building, among the artists. And my father made those sketches; they were a bit grotesque. He was looking for these characters. He started with the types. However, he was freer in such works as Švejk or Pan Khaliavskyi.

But let’s get back to the process. First, he would always make those drawings. Then, if they had to be color illustrations, my father would transfer them to better quality paper on which he could work with paints. As a rule, he would first make a drawing with black ink. My father used some Estonian ink which was of high quality at the time. It was insoluble, did not smudge, and you could later use watercolors over it. I kept several tubes of this Estonian ink. Unfortunately, the ink itself is no longer good. But I keep these tubes as museum pieces.

My father worked quite fast. But if he didn’t like something, he would throw it away and start over. There are some of his originals that are not bad, from my point of view. But he rejected them. In color, my father worked quite exquisitely, and there was no such thing as an impressionistic approach. As a rule, he used watercolors with whitewash; he was very fond of gouache. At that time, they were selling some Dutch gouache, and artists could buy good colors. My father didn’t make sketches for illustrations, except for book covers. He made color sketches for the covers, in different versions—he made about a dozen different versions of sketches for Ukrainian Folk Tales.

Oleksii Bazylevych

Ukrainian graphic artist and painter

I can say that my father was extremely responsible. Every time a new edition of a book came out, he would make a little bit of changes, add some elements.

Book illustration is a business of many efforts. If you work seriously, classical book illustration requires a lot of efforts. Anatolii Bazylevych was working exclusively in book illustration, and he did it almost all his life.

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This conversation was recorded in 2019 by Oleg Gryshchenko, Pavlo Gudimov, and Polina Baitsym as part of the Dytvydav project. Edited and translated into English by Nataliia Firsova.