Illustration for The Tale of the Dead Princess and the Seven Knights 1996

Vyacheslav Nazaruk made this illustration for 'The Tale of the Dead Princess and the Seven Knights' with incredible detail and a palette of rich reds, blues, and greens. I can almost feel the weight of the story pressing down on the figure of the princess in the centre. Imagine Nazaruk, bent over his drawing table, carefully layering each colour, each line, building up this whole world, one tiny stroke at a time. I wonder if he had the whole image in his head from the start, or did it slowly reveal itself as he worked? The border is fascinating, isn’t it? It reminds me of folk art, with those stylized birds and geometric patterns. The eye dances all around, pulled in by the colour and details. Illustrators and painters are always looking at each other, aren't they, borrowing and remixing ideas? They're building on what came before, adding to the conversation. And maybe that's what Nazaruk was doing here, too. It is an amazing piece of visual storytelling, which invites us to linger, to imagine, and dream.